Story about a carpet that comes to life

March 22, 2020 3:12 PM

I remember reading a short story about a kid who is playing on an ornate carpet, pretending that the red in the pattern is lava, the green is jungle, there are snakes or something... and what he's imagining becomes real, and maybe he's eaten by a snake. I thought it was by Ray Bradbury but I'm not coming up with anything. Does anyone know what story I'm thinking of?
posted by goatdog to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

Response by poster: Ha! I remembered the collection it was in and found it. "The Wish" by Roald Dahl, which I read in the collection Scare Care.
posted by goatdog at 3:22 PM on March 22, 2020

You might also like the Bradbury short story "The Veldt", about parents who lose their children to high-tech wallpaper that looks like an African savannah, and the early Stephen King short "Here There Be Tygers," about a boy whose fear of tigers comes to life one day at school.
posted by Rhaomi at 3:46 PM on March 22, 2020 [2 favorites]

Roald Dahl's "The Wish" short story?
posted by ellerhodes at 3:57 PM on March 22, 2020

I also thought of Weaveworld by Clive Barker
posted by rd45 at 1:22 AM on March 23, 2020 [1 favorite]