VESPERS, FEATHERS, UNICORNS, AND HORSES
Written by Marini Barika Facey
Feathers!
Radiant!
Golden!
Flapping wildly like the wings of a humming bird,
but at a speed never heard of, nor ever recorded, nor seen by man,
this sprite-like creature flies into Sophie's room!
Her whole room lights up like fireworks! She isn't afraid,
because she already reasoned to herself that she is asleep!
"I'll call you Blitz, because you are so bright, loud, and disruptive!"
Get out! Get out! Get out of here at once!
I was just trying to shoo you away, not invite you in! Out!"
She pulls off her pillowcase and chases it around the room!
Sophie stands on her bed and jumps up and down!
Blitz moves so fast she can't catch it!
Sophie feels strange and becomes quiet...
She watches, as colors she has never seen before fall off of this sprite.
Sophie begins to mumble to herself.
"Feathers? No! No! These can't be feathers, for they are much lighter and too small.
They can't be caught, because they are too soft and disappear!
They are almost like rays of light, but they look just like feathers!"
She climbs down and gets out of her bed and sits on the floor in the corner.
Blitz slowly descends and even though Sophie thinks it is a dream,
she becomes frightened again!
"Blitz!" Sophie tries to say in a convincing, authoritative voice,
but knows she isn't fooling anyone, especially not herself!
"Stay away! Go away! Fly away!" Sophie's voice cracks as she squeezes her eyes shut!
Then the queerest thing happens...
She slowly peeks to see what will happen next!
Then Sophie quickly opens her eyes,
because Blitz isn't even flying towards her!
He is trying to slide under her bedroom door!
It is as if it ignores her altogether,
and this makes her feel the way she felt before it came, alone!
Sophie ponders why it called her name,
because now it doesn't even have the decency to acknowledge her!
Even more than that, she wonders how it knows her name at all...
TO BE CONTINUED...