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Sleeping Beauty, modern times |
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“C’mon, silly!” Aurora called to me.
“Aurora, wait!” I wailed. I rushed after her. She paused, allowing me to catch up. Even though she was thin and scrawny-looking, Aurora was a lot more athletic than me, and a whole ton faster, so I was often left trailing after her helplessly. We’d been friends forever, and it was hard for everyone around us to believe, since we got into more arguments than anyone else in our village. But we were close enough for me to know that she’d always win. Plus, she was kind of mean to me sometimes.
That wasn’t the only reason people were surprised that we were friends. We were also opposites. I was a bit of a crybaby, and she can’t remember ever crying. Her mother even jokes that she was born arguing with the doctor as most babies are born crying. I’m not always so sure that she’s joking.
“You’re so fast, Aurora,” I whined. “It’s so hard for me to keep up.”
Aurora laughed. “I may be fast, but even if I were a snail, you’d be unable to keep up with me, Jonathon.”
I didn’t speak. I was really nervous. She was almost sixteen, after all. I’d heard our mothers talking about it with Melissa, the kindest, most understanding adult in the village. They said that, on Aurora’s sixteenth birthday, she’d cut her finger and fall asleep forever, until something called “Clear Drop” woke her up. The worst part about the spell was that no one in the village knew what “Clear Drop” was. It could be mineral water, or rainwater, or even some unknown plant. The legend said that, when the “Clear Drop” touched her face, she’d wake up.
“Jonathon!” I snapped out of my thoughts abruptly.
“H-huh? What is it?” I asked. Aurora rolled her eyes at me, signaling that that hadn’t been the first time she’d tried to get his attention.
“I said, do you want to visit the forest today?”
“Today?” I yelped. Today was her birthday. The spell would go into action at four o’clock this afternoon. She eyed me curiously.
“Is that a problem?” she asked in a tone that proved that, if I said it was a problem, she’d throw me all the way across the village. I shook my head—
And we went into the forest. I raced after her as she ran about. Her golden hair fluttered around her when she ran, and I noticed for the first time in my life just how beautiful she was.
“Jonathon, come over here!” Aurora called. “Look—roses! Aren’t they pretty?” I noticed for the first time how lovely her voice was. It was three fifty-nine.
“Aurora!” I shouted. She turned to me and held her hand out to the roses.
“What’s the matter, Jonathon?” she asked. “Look, aren’t they so cute?”
And she picked one of the roses. Four o’clock.
Aurora let out a cry and dropped the rose. It immediately wilted on the dirt ground. She fell to the ground and was silent. Her silence was even more frightening than when she’d cried out. I ran over, faster than I’ve ever run, and fell to the ground beside her. How awful, to cut her finger on a rose! On a beautiful flower that never before would have done her any harm, no more harm than a small drop of blood! But thanks to her curse, every drop of blood at one single moment cost her life. Why her? Why Aurora?
Jonathon put his hands to his face and found tears spilling from his eyes. He couldn’t stop them—he wept and he wept, crying for Aurora, his childhood friend. The girl he loved. He cried and cried and cried, helplessly trying to wake her up, when a single tear fell from his eye onto Aurora’s lips. Jonathon didn’t notice, he just kept crying—and felt a fist whack him semi-gently on his forehead. He opened his eyes. Aurora was laughing at him. Jonathon’s tear-filled eyes widened.
“Aurora…?” Jonathon whispered.
“You are such a crybaby.”
Jonathon laughed and he cried and he laughed. When he looked at her face again, he found Aurora crying as well. Aurora crying, for the first time. She looked beautiful even like that. She put her hand on his cheek and wiped a tear onto her finger. She held it in front of his face.
“Clear Drop.” Aurora smiled.
 FN Pixie · Mon Sep 01, 2008 @ 09:40pm · 2 Comments |
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