Prologue
Swirling and smiling, the music begins
The harlequin dances inside my soul
I watch as it screams ‘repent thy sins’
As I was the person for whom the bell tolls.
Its mockery infested me, its hatred, its grip
Opening its mouth, it began to speak
’we know you regret nothing, yet you let yourself slip
down to darkness, not once turning the cheek’
And with these damning words, the harlequin stared
He knew my sentence was wrote
He smiled, I didn’t, I wouldn’t have dared
And gripped me by the throat
Swirling and smiling, the music slows
The harlequin floats from my soul
As I watch it I scream ‘I’m not ready to go!’
But I am the person for whom the bell tolls.
The sheets upon my bed hung vast over my body, rolling over me like an ocean of warmth. It wasn’t much, but it served as a temporary veil to the troubles that hid outside the doorway. The candle beside me flickered, casting a shadow of the person next to me against the wall. Next to me, my mother looked as slender as she always had, with slightly curly hair that hung to her waist which always contrasted my own. I wasn’t jealous, I just feel like being able to run a comb through my hair would be useful, instead of remaining lodged and thoroughly useless. She looked down at me with large, jade eyes and smiled.
“Would you like a little fairy tale before bed?” She said in a soothing, calming tone that always came this late at night.
I nodded, almost too eagerly. Stories came few and far between, almost as if the people here were scared of using their mouths for something other than truth-telling. However, unlike them, she always seemed to love spinning tales of far off lands, so detailed and vast it was hard to tell she was just inventing them.
“Well, I call this one ‘The Wishes’.” She said in an airy, inviting tone.
I curled up into the single pillow on my bed and closed my eyes, letting one of my senses go to entice the others. My ears awaited the coming tale.
“Here’s a tale I was told long ago, by a young man with spidery legs. He said I wouldn’t remember much, but I sure as Vilii is vast I remember this. One long stretch ago, in this very land, there lived four families. Each of them had a slice of the land they lived on, which was cut into big, generous quarters. They all lived to help each-other, sharing their food, crops and sometimes even themselves, if they saw someone they really loved. They all lived in harmony, and it felt like nothing could go wrong. But, one fateful day, a giant, shining box fell from the sky and crashed into the lands with an almighty BOOM!” She shouted the boom, making me jump out of my covers, before she laughed at my reaction. I laughed along with her, and she continued.
“The box promised the people of the land four wishes, one for each of the families. Many of them were fearful of the box, but a brave man from the first family stepped up and said unto the box ‘may my family’s name live long under the sky and the stars’. He knelt onto the floor and placed his hands together, and when he opened them, a little flower was there. It was a deep black flower that looked as if it contained the night. He smelt the petals, which smelt of dreams, of family and of home. He thanked the box and planted the flower into the ground, and to his surprise, even more sprouted around it!” She paused and looked towards me, probably to check whether I was still awake and attentive. I couldn’t quite tell if she was excited or annoyed at my enthrallment at her tale, but she continued nevertheless.
“Now the second family thought a little more about the wish. They knew it to be true, and wanted to make sure it was put to better use than a silly little flower. The leader walked up to the box and spoke in a deep voice, proclaiming ‘O, box of grace, bestow upon us something all powerful, so that we may forever be indebted to you’. The box listened, and in his hands appeared a wand that glimmered in the sun. Somehow, the sun had become redder than it was before. The leader of the second family smiled and lifted the wand, watching it suddenly cultivate the grass that lay around him. He smiled and moved back to let the third family speak. The leader of the third was much more timid, and spoke with a softness that forced all that heard it into a calm demeanor. He spoke to the box, whispering gingerly ’O box of the heavens, may you- ZAP!”
I jumped up again, but this time I began to laugh along with my mother.
“The wand zapped the leader of the third! The leader of the second laughed, now he realized he had the power to do almost anything! He looked at the other people surrounding the box and gave an evil smirk. He raised his wand to the rest of the family of the third, as he had decided that one wand simply wasn’t enough! He wanted to have another wish… but, just before he tried to get the rest of the family, the fourth leader ran to the box and shouted ‘I wish everything was back to normal!’, and with that simple sentence, everything went back to normal, except, almost as if by magic, the little flower stayed. It swayed in the wind calmly, along with it’s ever growing brethren.”
I wasn’t sure what to make of the story, and sat for a moment contemplating the moral of it, if there was one to be contemplated. I decided I wasn’t sure and decided to ask her.
“Is that story real?” I asked, my tone accidentally making me sound just as puzzled as I was.
In response, she simply smiled. “Well, honey, I asked the man with legs as big as tree trunks the exact same thing, and you know what he said?”
I shook my head.
“He looked up to the clouds and whispered as quietly and forlornly as I’ve ever heard a man speak, ‘Sadly, my fair lady, it’s as real as the mountains are glass.’ and began to walk ahead of me, but not before tapping his nose slyly.”
I looked up at her and smiled. I wasn’t sure what to make of the story, but I somehow kind of liked it. It was strangely different from the rest of the stories she told, almost as if she was repeating something she heard long, long ago.
“Just remember, Little Darren, you didn’t hear that story from me!” She tapped her nose and moved back from my bed and to her own.
What would I do with a wish?
The question bounced between my ears, lulling me into a deep, question-filled sleep.
