Thank you for the inspiration!!
So, here it is, a creature who lives in something we abandoned and a child finds the creature.
I forgot about the mythical creature part but, oh well.
And, I'm not happy with the title. If you have an idea for one, let me know in the comments.
First and Last, Always and Never
The sky
was dark and the cold air was biting her legs.
The only warm things were her tears that trickled fresh from her
eyes. It was past dinner and she hoped
her parents would come looking for her.
They knew all her hiding places.
But something inside, maybe a child’s intuition, told her they were too
busy fussing over her sister. Her older
sister Meggy was tall and slim and almost became a model when she was in junior
high. Loina didn’t really understand
about all that then. She was only
eight. Too busy with braiding her doll’s
hair and throwing all her dolls around in her room, squealing with delight when they hit the
ceiling.
It was
all her sister’s fault for being so perfect.
Loina was chubby around the middle, her hair was a strange brownish
blonde, and her feet were too small to hold her big body up. As she padded up to the forgotten tower she
liked to go to cry her eyes dry, she cursed herself. Meggy was in high school now. She was sixteen. Loina was only ten still. But she knew a few words. Meggy used them a lot. Her parents never got mad when she used
them. They only got mad at poor Loina.
Now in
the corner of the lowest level of the tower, her favorite spot, Loina
sobbed. Why? Why didn’t her parents care about her? Why didn’t they even look at her once? They didn’t even seem to notice when she
basically shouted into their faces that she hated them and was running
away. She wouldn’t really run away though. She always sulked back before it got too
dark. The monsters of the night really
scared her sometimes. Meggy called her a
baby once and Loina ran to Mama. But
Mama didn’t scold Meggy. Mama told Loina
to grow up. She said,
“You’re
a big girl now. So don’t go crying about
monsters, do you hear?”
She
heard. But she didn’t want to listen.
Loina
lifted her head from her soggy sleeve of hot tears. She sniffled and stopped. What should she do now? Go home?
No, not yet. She’ll stay as long
as she can. Maybe Mama and Daddy will
come after all. Maybe they still cared
about her? Even just a little bit?
She
never went up to the top of the tower.
She was afraid of the monsters.
“But,” she thought. “If the
monsters do get me, it won’t matter.
Mama and Daddy don’t care about me and Meggy will be happy I’m
gone. I have no friends either
anyway.” So, she climbed the stone
stairs.
Each
step brought back the adventurousness in her.
Sometimes stone crumbled underneath her feet but she didn’t stop. Once she went right through a cobweb but she
merely brushed it off herself before continuing on. Half way up she began to puff up the
stairs. Her heavy body became her
obstacle. She knew she needed to get
thinner but… Mama and Daddy didn’t care what she ate. She didn’t care either.
At the
top of the stairs she whispered, “I made it!”
The lightning of victory shot through her and she almost squealed out
loud. But something moved in the corner
and she clamped her mouth shut and held the sound back with her two spongy
hands.
She
stared out into the corner, into the top tower that looked out over the town
she lived and further off, at the city.
In the corner, right by the window, was a curious light green blob. Since the tower was slightly darkening, the
green blob seemed to glow in the dark.
Or, was it actually glowing?
“H,hello?”
Loina called out to the blob. Though she
didn’t know if it could speak she knew it was always polite to start with a
greeting. She’d learned that at
school. Not her Mama. They never paid attention to their youngest
child.
“H,hello,”
the blob replied and turned around. It
had eyes like a snail that stuck out from the top of its head. But its hands were like a person’s hands and
it had a mouth like one, too. But it
didn’t have a nose and no feet either.
Loina silently wondered if it could smell very well.
“My… I…
um, my name is Loina. What’s yours?”
Loina took a hesitant step forward.
The
green blob came forward, too. It
outstretched its blobby hand.
“Kemmy. I live here.”
Loina
smiled and took the hand without hesitation.
It was a friendly gesture that she trusted.
“How
long have you lived here?” Loina sat down on the hard rocky floor. Kemmy came to sit next to her, stretching out
his body like a slug so he could bend his middle.
“A long
time. Humans have long forgotten this
place. Abandoned it. So I took over. They don’t notice. I don’t mind,” he looked her up and
down. “I think I can trust you not to
tell anyone about my secret place?”
Loina
nodded with earnest. This was her very
first friend she wasn’t going to let him down.
“Good,”
he nodded. Did he have a neck?
“Where
are you from?” Loina began her bolt of questions like any ten-year old.
“Somewhere,”
he said matter-of-factly.
“That’s
not a place.”
“Sure it
is! It’s the name of the place. Somewhere.”
“What’s
it like?”
“It’s
okay. But we’re just born out of nowhere
and when we get to Somewhere we all feel lost and left out. We have no friends or family. Some of us try to make friends with
others. But we’re so different it’s
really hard. Then, like me, some of us
leave to find a new place to call home.
A lot of us come to Earth. It’s
so peaceful in lots of places and there’s lots of abandoned places we can make
our homes. Sometimes some people come in
but they never find us. I was surprised
when you finally decided to climb the stairs.”“Why do you glow?”
“Everyone from Somewhere glows. It’s… kind of our thing. Like your thing is to sing.”
Loina
shook her head. “No.”
“No,
really, you’re really good. Why don’t
you sing for your parents?”
“They
don’t listen to me,” she stuck out her bottom lip and sighed.
“Have
you tried to get them to listen?” Kemmy turned his eyes so they looked right at
her but his body didn’t turn.
“Yeah…”
“No, you
haven’t really tried. You need to really
try. You need to tell them how you
really feel. Not how they want you to
feel.”
“You
know a lot.”
“Yeah,
I’ve been living here for forty years.”
Loina
looked at him up and down. He didn’t
look at all old to her. Kemmy laughed at
her expression. It sounded like a
chuckle and a giggle at the same time.
“My days
are longer compared to your days, Loina.
For you, I’ve only been here for forty days. Each day is a year for
me. Goes by really slowly.”
After a
pause he added. “But my memory only
lasts for two years. Then the next year,
it starts all over again. I know this
because I’ve been keeping a diary. I
disguise myself as a kid and go buy notebooks at supermarkets and stuff. The cashiers don’t even look at you when you
buy things. Really convenient. Today is my last day for another two years of
memory. As we speak, I’m writing the
diary with my tail,” he looked behind him.
Loina didn’t
notice at first but behind Kemmy stretched a really long tail with tentacles at
the end. It was grasping a pen and
jotting down words in a notebook.
“Wow! You can do that?” Loina watched wide-eyed.
“All of
us from Somewhere can. It’s so we can
write down if we wanted to while that thing is happening.”
“Oh,”
Loina nodded. Then she heard a familiar
sound.
“Loina! Where are you? Loina!”
It was
Mama.
“Loina-girl! It’s past dinner! Where are you?”
It was
Daddy.
Loina
stood up to balance herself on her small feet.
“I think I need to go. Like you
said, I’ll tell them. Like you said,
maybe I’ll sing, too.”
Kemmy
nodded and smiled.
“Will I
see you again?” Loina bent down to hug her new friend.
“Of
course. I’ll always be here,” Kemmy
hugged her tight. His blobby body felt
soft and spongy. He was also chubby
around the middle. For once, Loina
didn’t mind her chubby stuff and her spongy stuff. For once, she didn’t really care.
“I’ll
see you tomorrow. Will you remember me?”
Loina asked as she made her way to the stairs.
“I’ll
remember you,” Kemmy waved with his blobby green hand.
“Promise?”
she said and started down the stairs.
She turned around to see him still sitting there waving at her.
“Promise…”
his voice was soft.
“Loina!”
came Mama’s voice. Without a second
glance back, Loina hurried down the stairs, her heavy footsteps echoing through
the tower.
Mama
hugged her close and Loina told her heart out.
They made a deal. From now on,
they would watch their little girl grow up.
Meggy was big enough already to handle herself most parts. Loina was happy now and couldn’t wait to tell
Kemmy about it tomorrow.
* *
*
The next
day was Saturday. Loina woke up early to
go see Kemmy. She left a note on the
table saying she would go outside for a little bit.
His
secret was safe with her.
But when
she reached the tower, breathing heavily and clutching her middle, Kemmy wasn’t
there. All she could find were forty days’
worth of diaries and a few dried up pens.
A tear
stung her eye and she pushed it back.
Did he leave?
“Kemmy!”
she called. “Kemmy!” But only her gasping voice echoed through the
tower. Light trickled in from the open
window and shone on the diaries. Loina
picked the top one up and flipped to the page Kemmy must’ve left off.
“Dear,
Loina,” she read out loud, surprised to find the last page was a letter.
“I’m
glad we finally met. I liked talking to
you. I told you I only remembered two
years at a time. What I didn’t tell you
was that yesterday (your day) was my last day.
We only live forty years (our time).
I was hoping you would someday come up so we could talk all day. I’m glad you decided to come when you
did. I’m glad I could meet you before I
left. Oh, and you can keep my diaries. I wrote in them just for you. About all kinds of stuff. I can read minds. I didn’t tell you. I thought you’d be afraid. So, well, this is the end. Goodbye, Loina. Thank you for being my last and only frie”
It ended
right there but Loina knew what it was supposed to be. “You were my first friend, Kemmy,” she sobbed
and tucked the notebooks under her arms.
Then, carefully, she went back down the stairs and out of the abandoned
tower. She only turned back once. Hoping Kemmy wasn’t really gone. But the tower just stood there, half broken,
half crumbly. Grass shoots sprung out
around it here and there. Rusted metal
bars stuck out from pieces of stone like thorns.
Loina
turned around and trekked back home. She
had a home concert tonight and she needed to get ready and pretty.
“Somewhere
over the rainbow,” she sung softly as she made for her house.
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