06 November 2009

A Child's Belief

This is a short story that came to me in a dream (always good to write down dreams!). Hope it sounds right!

Posted 6 November 2009 upon this website by K.S. Wood - please ask permission before reprinting!

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His mother didn't believe him when he told her the lady he saw was magical. She said magic didn't exist, but he knew better. He could see her as more then just an ordinary woman.

He saw her first when at the hospital with his mother. She stood there, dressed as a nurse, as her mother dealt with paperwork. Her eyes glistened as she nodded at him. There was such a magical aura about her. He wanted his mother to see her, but when he got her attention, the lady was gone.

A few days later she came to the door as a delivery person bringing flowers, condolences for his father's sudden passing. She smiled at him with a radiant smile as she put the rather large bouquet on the coffee table. Her eyes glistened again as she leaned down to tweak his nose.

“Hello, Johnny,” she said softly.

“How did you know my name?” he asked in awe.

She smiled and let out a magical laugh. “A little bird told me.” With that she waved good bye and climbed back into her truck and drove away.

A few more days later, he stood in the cemetery, staring at his father's casket, listening to the sobs of his mother as person after person passed, murmuring their words of solace. The wind whistled and lifted his cap off of his head. He turned to retrieve it as a beautiful white bird chirped on a branch above his head. It looked at him with glistening eyes, twittered again and then flew away.

He told his mother about the bird while they were in the limousine. She hushed him for speaking such nonsense and reminded him again that magic just did not exist. He wriggled in his seat for a brief moment and then caught his grandmother's look. It reassured him.

Grandmother spoke. “You know, Marcia, the child may be on to something. Years ago, when his father was a child, he too saw a beautiful white bird the day his father died. A beautiful woman with lavender eyes visited a few days later with a gift that brought me hope. If that is who the child sees, you will know.”

The limo was quiet the rest of the way home.

Johnny was sent out to play when the day's activities were done. He looked high and low but could not find the snowy bird. Disappointed, he trudged into the townhouse, where his mother met him. Her face was serious and slightly tense as she addressed him.

“John David, magic doesn't exist. Your grandmother was telling you a story to make you feel better. So forget about it.”

He didn't argue with her. He instead went up to his room after supper and fell into his bed, exhausted and heartbroken. He quickly fell fast asleep, unaware of the white bird that watched over him from outside the window.

A week went by and Johnny gave up hope of ever seeing the lady with the glistening eyes or the snow white bird again. He sat in the porch in one of the chairs his dad had lovingly made, dejected and missing his dad even more. A tear trickled down his cheek. He was unaware of the bird that stared at him from the tree.

There was a sudden flutter of wings and the bird came to rest upon the beam above his head. It twittered a beautiful melody that lifted Johnny's spirits as he looked up.

He jumped to his feet ecstatically. He was about to call to his mother when he realized she stood on the threshold, holding the screen door open. Tears glistened in her eyes, which were fixed upon the bird as it finished its melody.

The bird flew down and landed on the floor with a op. As it did so, it changed into the magical woman with the glistening eyes. She was dressed in a beautiful flowing gown this time, reminiscent of an era long past. Her auburn hair hung down her back in waves. She smiled at Johnny, her lavender eyes twinkling with radiance. She then turned and bowed gracefully to his mother.

Her voice was lyrical when she finally spoke. “Mrs. Warren, I am Eathelin. I have come to bring you peace.” She leaned forward and whispered something into Marcia's ear as she pressed a small stone into her hand. When she finished, she smiled again and disappeared, flying away as the snow white bird.

A single, solitary feather floated down to where her feet were. Johnny picked it up and looked up in wonder at his mother. Her face was peaceful and radiant.

They never saw the magical lady again, but the stone was kept in a place of prominence in their house from that day forward. It was a small, rose colored stone with just a simple word cut into it's smooth surface; hope. The feather Johnny kept tucked in his box of treasures, and he looked at it for years to come, whenever he felt it was all a dream.

Johnny's mother never scolded him again about believing in magic.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Loved your story, Kelly. Keep them coming. Hugs, Gma Jean