Am I Dreaming?

January Contest Winner: Twisted by Evelyn Reid

It was six-thirty in the morning, and what a fine, crisp morning it was! The dew sparkled on blades of grass so green they could have been emeralds. The sunlight shone through the leaves of a weathered Japanese Maple and dappled the yard with dancing spots of gold as a zephyr nudged the branches ever so slightly. Lily stood in the centre of the yard, taking in the perfection of life at that moment. A bright red cardinal swooped low in front of her as it flew to its mate in the maple. Two little chicks popped their heads out of the nest and opened their beaks, awaiting breakfast. Lily made her way over to the swing hanging from the tree and sat down, surveying the yard from her new position.

She sat for a while, staring out at the yard. An hour passed, then two, and Lily continued to sit on the swing. The dapples of sunlight had shifted; the breeze had died down, no longer blowing through the leaves. The cardinal had taken off once more in search of food for its offspring. That’s when she appeared. There was a little girl about Lily’s age. She would come and go from the yard throughout that week and never at the same time, always just standing there in her pearly white dress, never talking. Her dress was flowing, though there was no wind in the yard at that moment. Today, however, was different. She walked towards Lily. Lily watched as the girl moved closer and closer, intrigued as to why she had decided to move from her usual position in the centre of the yard.

“You moved,” Lily said.

“Yes,” the girl responded.

“And you talked,” Lily said, looking at the girl standing before her.

“Indeed,” she replied.

“Why are you talking to me now?” Lily asked her.

“I got tired of waiting for you to start the conversation,” the girl answered with a shrug.

“What’s your name?” Lily inquired.

“My name is Penelope, ” the girl told her.

At the mention of the girl’s name, Lily felt as though she recognized it from somewhere. She thought she knew Penelope, though this was the first time she had spoken to her.

Clouds had moved to cover the sun. A light mist began to fall, tickling Lily’s face and making it difficult to see very far past the edge of the yard. Penelope appeared not to notice the sudden change in weather.

“I wasn’t expecting mist today. It was so sunny earlier,” Lily told Penelope.

“It was sunny, but this isn’t mist,” Penelope said.

“Well, it’s a little light for rain, don’t you think?” Lily asked.

“Yes, but it’s not mist,” she responded again.

“What would you call it, then?” Lily questioned, unsure as to what Penelope could consider this weather if not mist.

“Not mist,” Penelope replied.

This response made Lily frustrated. She had asked a question, but Penelope had dodged it. Lily didn’t care what Penelope considered it. However, the simple fact that she had not given a real answer made her almost angry with Penelope.

“Why won’t you just give me an answer?” she questioned Penelope.

“Because I don’t think you would like to know the answer right now,” she responded with a slight frown.

Penelope turned and began walking towards the centre of the yard again. Lily stood up to follow her. She had barely moved two steps when Penelope was gone once more. Lily stood, staring at where she had been not ten seconds before.

The colours of the yard usually became enhanced whenever it rained, or misted, in this case. Lily turned to look at the colours, but everything was becoming duller in colour rather than deeper. Confused, Lily bent down to touch the grass. Where she poked the ground, the colour returned, and when she looked at her finger, a layer of grey substance covered the tip that had touched the grass. She looked up at the sky. The light grey clouds flickered a darker shade of grey. Looking back at the yard, everything else faltered as well. The tree faltered between having leaves that were grey to a tree without leaves at all. The swing would go from being hung from the tree to being on the ground.

Eventually, the flickering ceased, but the yard was stuck looking as it had after the flickering happened. The sky was dark grey, the tree leafless with a darker trunk, the swing lay on the ground. The mist was no longer mist but had become ash. Ash was falling. The grey clouds were not clouds, but smoke. Turning, Lily saw her house, which she had not paid much attention to previously that day, and saw the flame rising into the smoke that covered the sky and blotted out the sun. Lily got scared, not understanding what was going on.

Suddenly, Lily remembered what had occurred. A fire had started in the kitchen in the middle of the night. Her sister, Penelope, had grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the house. The two of them had stood for about five minutes together under the tree, waiting for their parents to come out and join them, but no one came out of the house. Penelope had run back inside to find them and left Lily alone under the tree. The gas stove in the kitchen exploded, sending fire out far enough to set the tree aflame. The fire burned the rope holding the swing to the tree and dropping it onto Lily, knocking her unconscious. The week where Penelope had been appearing had been half an hour in reality.

Life was no longer a perfect moment. That moment had flown on, leaving Lily left in its wake with ruin surrounding her. She had no cardinal to watch as it swooped by. Lily had no dew to watch sparkle on the grass. But what she did have was an opportunity. Lily had an opportunity that Penelope did not. She could move on through the world in search of another moment of calmness and bliss, and so she did.