SPA in St-Julie

Bella woke up suddenly. The big pale moon shone on her face through the open curtains. It was almost dawn - the sky began to grey.

Bella stood up and closed the curtains. The room darkened. She lay down on the bed thinking about the dream that woke her up. She saw her sister Lyn and herself as little girls. They quarrelled about Lyn's diary. Bella accidentally found Lyn's notebook in her secret hiding place - in the wall under the windowsill - and read it.

'You're not supposed to know, you're not supposed to know howled little Lyn in a sharp shrilled voice.

'No, I'm not,' Bella whispered. She didn't notice how she became a grown-up, and Lyn stayed a child.

In fact, that was not a dream, but a distant forgotten memory. Bella remembered how she unintentionally came upon that diary. And she regretted reading it. She found no interesting revelations about Lyn but much more about herself. Not that Lyn wrote something about her. Bella was amazed how little Lyn mentioned her on the pages. The huge Bella's discovery was how much she and her sister were alike - same thoughts, same dreams, same aspirations. But for a few small things, like the name of the boy Lyn liked in her class, that could be her own diary. Bella was amazed at that similarity but disappointed. She clearly understood she was not unique. Her secret most intimate thoughts, so pleasant and scary, were just like her sister's thoughts. And probably her friends thought and wished the same. And many other girls who she didn't even know were probably very like her.

That discovery deeply affected Bella. She suddenly became closer to the others while before she was deeply separated from the rest by her unique inner shameful, scary, and beautiful world. Her fascinating dreams were shared by Lyn, and maybe by many others. Yes, she was like others, and they were like her. She learned to make assumptions, and most of the time they were correct. It seemed she could read people like open books. Her shyness caused by her perceiving herself as 'strange' completely disappeared. She became a very reflexive, calm, and understanding little girl. At the same time, her bizarre inner world dimed, and she became sane and normal.

So unlike Lyn, who always flounced between extreme shyness and arrogance, high IQ test results and inaptitude to run a dishwasher. Lyn was a mess and thought of herself as an unrecognized genius, Bella was all order and wisdom and knew she was average - just like everybody else.

t was not the dream that woke up Bella so suddenly, but thought "What if the diary is still there?" During the investigation, the police came through Lyn's laptop and all papers but they didn't find her diary. And Bella knew that Lyn had always journaled. But she was so grieved and distressed that she completely forgot about the secret hiding place - under the old wooden windowsill.

Now she lay in her bed staring at the darkness and could not sleep.

"What if it is still there?"