AFL

A Football match is like a snowflake: No two are the same, but if you've seen one, you've seen them all.

Luke’s Confession

Everything about Christmas was great, but to save blog space let’s skip the part where we open up Christmas stockings and get various gifts including an orange. Also: the part where we spend half an hour driving to church, only to catch the last ten minutes of the mass and then driving home again (which wasn’t particularly a bad thing, although it may have been if we weren’t all in high Christmas sprits.)
I could mention the big meatless lunch, but then you may question me on whether or not I’m a vegetarian and I’ll have to tell you that it’s only my parents who share this dietary desire. Then you’ll ask me what we had instead of meat and I’ll spend a while telling you about our Yorkshire pudding, presumably you won’t know what a Yorkshire pudding is and I’ll have to describe it’s bread like texture and stumble along until I find a suitable description for its taste.
I should move right along from explaining my second Christmas to you. The one that began with a three hour drive to my grandmas (at the beginning of which we stopped in at Watsonia so my dad could get a coffee and argue with the friendly woman for five minutes about the price of it. (“It’s not five dollars!” he demanded several times “yes, it is” the woman repeated as kindly and patiently as possible.)
I may as well completely avoid the third Christmas, which was hosted at our house for some reason (it always used to be at my Grandmas.) I should probably leave out the bit where I stay up until 1am making a calendar. Because most people don’t even think 1am is late and most people won’t understand the point in putting so much effort into my 2009 calendar (much like no one understands why I bothered to spend two days making my family Christmas cards.)
If I leave out all that stuff, then I should be able to hold your attention long enough for you to read the next instalment in The End of Time:

Luke and Annie continued to cautiously approach the veranda. Luke was well aware that Annie was beyond late for school already, but he felt an unbound trust towards the old man – despite the fact he had shot Annie, mere seconds ago. Luke looked at Annie, to make sure she too was in favour of going into the old man’s house, and she smiled slightly.
“Come along you two” sweetly ordered the man with one electric purple eye “the cookies are fresh out of the oven. Hurry along, they won’t stay warm forever” and with that, Luke and Annie obediently followed the man into his shabby mansion.
They walked into the entrance hall - Luke hoped they wouldn’t have to climb the broken stairs up to the next level. The man’s house was dark because all the drapes were closed shut. There was dust covering all open surfaces. Spider webs hung in every place a spider could possibly manage to weave one (the webs were dusty too and appeared to have been unoccupied for quite some time.) The old man’s house looked as though no one had lived in it for years, the grandfather clock had stopped ticking and rats seemed to own the place.
Luke and Annie silently followed the old man to the kitchen, which was equally as neglected as the entrance hall. “Please. Take a seat” the old man said, gesturing towards a couple of overly dusty wooden chairs. Luke didn’t particularly want dust all over his pants, but he also didn’t want to appear rude by dusting the chair off. So they sat down without a word.
The old man slid open a small curtain above the sink – which was filled with unwashed dishes- a burst of light sprung through the window, forcing Luke to squint a little. The old man’s electric purple eye glistened in the sun.

“What happened before?” demanded Luke, his newfound trust for the man didn’t provide an explanation for his sisters sudden reawakening from the dead.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about son” the old man said, but Luke wasn’t a fool and could tell that he knew perfectly well what had happened.
“You shot my sister!” Luke yelled “or was I just imagining that!?” he added sarcastically. The old man sighed an ‘ok, fine, you got me’ sigh and sat down opposite Luke and Annie.
“Do you believe in magic?” the old man asked, leaning forward. Luke blurted out “no” and Annie, just as hastily, said “yes.” Luke shot his sister a warning look, but she didn’t back out of her opinion.
“I don’t know exactly what happened” the man confessed honestly, trying to calm Luke down “but I do know that it was all in your imagination”
“What!?” Luke raged “I didn’t imagine that! I saw you shoot my sister! I saw the blood!”
“Calm down Luke” the man suggested warily. There was a silence as Luke analysed what the man had just said.
“...how... how did you know my name?” Luke questioned, lowering his voice from the previous outburst.
“How do you feel about your powers?” the man asked, then in an attempt to completely sway the conversation from Luke’s ‘how did you know my name’ question, the man stood up and abruptly served out cookies and tea for the three of them.
“The only power I have, is being able to tell who will win reality TV shows just from watching the first episode” Luke admitted, starting to wonder if the man was building up to saying ‘you’re a wizard, Luke’ but he doubted that he would be the next Harry Potter.
“I see. I see” the old man was completely satisfied that Luke had no real powers.

They ate and drank in silence because Luke knew the man wouldn’t give a straight answer to any of the questions swarming his mind.
“You’re sister has been very quiet” the man pointed out “is she ok?” Luke looked at Annie, she was timidly chewing on a biscuit.
“She’s fine” Luke ensured the man “she’s not usually shy. Only around people she thinks are better than her... and people she wants to like her” Luke was proud of himself for figuring his sister out in such a way.
“Ah” the man agreed in understanding, as if he knew several people with the same personality trait “my late wife was much the same. Whenever I was with her she was always very shy” Luke had to suppress a laugh, for the man’s dead wife was likely to have been shy all the time.

Once they had finished their snack, Luke pressed the man for further answers “what’s your name?” he insisted. But, just as Luke had asked his question, Annie fell from her seat to the floor “Annie!” cried Luke, and bent down beside her for the second time that day... or possibly the first (Luke wasn’t sure were reality began and imagination ended anymore.)
“Don’t panic Luke” the old man said calmly “she’s only sleeping”
“You drugged her food!?” Luke yelled, accusing the man of the first possibility that had come into his head.
“Yes” the man said simply “because I need to talk to you” Luke gave into the man’s plan, left his sister on the floor, and sat back in his seat.
“Who are you? Did you shoot my sister? Am I going crazy? Why did you ask me if I believed in magic? Are you a wizard? Am I a wizard? How did you know my name?....” the man interrupted Luke with polite assertiveness.
“You must have many questions” stated the man obviously “and all shall be answered in due time. But first, you must answer my question. Do you believe in magic?”
“I already told you” objected Luke impatiently “I don’t believe in magic”
“Then why did you suspect me to be a wizard?” the man observed sceptically, then added “until you admit your belief in magic, I cannot divulge any of my secrets” he leant back in his chair, apparently willing to wait for Luke to ‘admit his belief.’
“I believe something’s seriously fucked up” began Luke “whether it’s in my head, or yours.... or magic is the reason... I’m willing to hear any explanation.... even if it is magic.” Luke announced, hoping it would be enough to get an answer out of the old man.
“There’s a difference between being ‘willing to hear’ about magic.... and believing what you hear” Luke groaned at the crazy, electric purple eyed mans comment. There would be no way of getting any answers unless Luke confessed his belief in magic, a confession he hadn’t even accepted himself yet.

Luke became increasingly edgy and impatient as the silent minutes crept by. He looked to Annie, she hadn’t even stirred since her sudden collapse to the floor.
“She’s not dead is she?” asked Luke, even though he trusted her to be asleep.
“No, she’s not dead” the old man sighed “But, she will wake up soon. So if you want any answers you’d better hurry up”
Luke thought silently for a while. He weighed up all the reasons why he should and shouldn’t believe in magic.
“Alright” Luke decided to give in “I do believe in magic. I didn’t until today, but I can’t think of any explanation that can explain how my sister didn’t really get shot... the only explanations I can think up... are magical.”
As Luke spoke his words he began to believe in them, but he convinced the old man more than he convinced himself.
“In that case” rejoiced the man “it’s high time I did some explaining.”

Merry Christmas!

Sister: I got dad a present today!! What did you get him?

Me: I’m going to get him a chocolate fondue fountain. What did you get?

Sister: ... a handkerchief

Christmas Eve:

Sister: How will Santa get down the chimney if we have this metal fence thing in front of the fireplace?

Me: he rides in a flying, reindeer pulled sleigh and delivers presents to every child in one night and you’re wondering how he’s going to push aside a light bit of metal?

Sister (laughs, because despite the fact that I was insulting her logic, she rather likes it when the attentions on her): yeah but, we could still make it as easy as possible for him and just move it.

I agreed, but we never ended up moving the thing because she couldn’t be bothered doing it herself.

I would write more but I don’t have any time. Oh, and just a pre-warning: you won’t be hearing from me until Monday.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas’ and are having fun holidays!

Blueray

My dad bought a Blueray player the other week- our house isn’t complete without the latest piece of technology- and I passionately hate the thing. When people ask “why don’t you like the Blueray?” I always say “because there’s no need for one when we’ve already got a DVD player” but the real answer goes a bit more like this:

In a time not so long ago, people watched videos. Then, one day, The Man was walking home from the video store and he said to himself “this video is too heavy and thick for my liking, it would be a lot more convenient to make it flat... and while we’re at it, let’s make it circular instead of rectangular... I’ve always rather fancied circles” and so the DVD was invented. After a while people stopped renting videos and began renting DVDs instead, they threw out their chunky video players and rejoiced over the clearer vision that came with DVDs (they were also rather fond of the circular shape.)
Soon videos were virtually extinct, video stores started keeping them on the far, dingy back wall of the store or on the bottom row of the DVD stands. Videos were weeping in despair at the rejection. Offcourse the argument The Man gave when confronted in the Court of Justice for Video Rights was “we must progress. It is human nature to improve what we’ve got, especially when improving is easily achieved and does not harm anyone.” The poor videos had no rebuttal for The Man’s defence, and instead of taking their revenge on the human race they went for a more harmless approach- rotting away miserably on the back walls of video stores.
DVDs were dearly loved. There were no ads to fast forward at the beginning of the film, the picture was clearer and special effects were a greatly enjoyed novelty. DVDs were especially commended for not having to be rewound once you reached the end. The Man was ecstatic, he had never dreamed of DVDs being such a success, all he wanted was something less bulky to carry home from the video store. He was so ecstatic, that he died of over-enthusiasm (yes, you can die of over-enthusiasm.) The Man’s son was greatly grieved (let’s call his son The Man) so he devised a plan to invent an even better way of watching films at home.
The Man invented the Blueray. The Man improved DVDs in the same way his father had improved videos. The Man put handles on the DVD cover- to further improve the task of carrying home a film from the video store- and minimised the size of the cover. It weighed less- and was easier- to carry home a Blueray, than to carry home a DVD. The Man had done his dad proud.
Bluerays were a hit (despite the fact that they cost more than DVDs and that there was less information on the cover- due to a decrease in cover size.) At first Bluerays received a small area of shelving at the front of all video stores, but after a short while they overtook the majority of the store and became the dominating form of home film watching. Videos were completely exterminated, they no longer had any place in our world. DVDs were moved to the back walls and bottom shelves, they couldn’t beat the crispy clearness of the Blueray disks.
People sold their DVD players and willingly replaced them with Blueray players. DVDs didn’t even get a Court of Justice.
The Man was ecstatic, he done his father proud. He was so ecstatic, that he did of over-enthusiasm. Doctors started to wonder if death by over-enthusiasm was genetic, but they let it pass. Unfortunately The Man didn’t have a son... but he did have a nephew (let’s call him The Man.)
The Man couldn’t care less about his uncle’s passing. But he did care about the money he would make from designing a better way to watch movies. The Man demolished all video stores (and while he was at it, he got rid of CD stores as well.) The poor DVDs were sold off to manufacturing companies to be recycled into goods.
At this time in history the internet was widely used, almost everyone had access to a computer. The Man opened a new video store, it was to be the only video store in the world, and it existed merely in cyberspace. “My uncles father complained of having to carry bulky things home from the video store!? Well now no one will ever have to go to the video store ever again! Muhahahahaha” off course The Man wasn’t a bad guy, but he did enjoy an evil laugh ever now and again to celebrate his accomplishments.
People of the world loved The Mans idea. They loved it so much that they demolished all stores. Not just video and technology related stores but clothes shops, restaurants, bookstores, chocolate cafes, doorknob stores and every other kind of shop that excited. It became possible to download and order EVERYTHING off the internet.
The Man was so greatly admired and idolised by the people that he became The King. Earlier I said that The King was not evil.... things change. The king became so wrapped up in power and success that he went insane. In his sleep he would hear the voice of his uncle’s father saying “we must progress” (which was rather odd because he never met his uncle’s father.)
So The King progressed. It wasn’t enough that the whole world survived through the internet, The King wanted to be even greater so he invented a 3D home film viewing experience. At first it was lame and people became fed up with the dodgy 3D glasses and their unrealisticness (which at this point in time was a real word.) So The King invented 3D film like no one could have ever anticipated. It was so life like that the people became confused between reality and film viewing. They couldn’t tell when they were asleep and when they were awake. When 4D film watching came into play, people couldn’t tell when they’d cut themselves cooking or when they were merely watching a film that involved butcher knives. The King had progressed too far.
Technology had taken over.

Weekly Helpful Hint: When someone asks you why you don’t like Bluerays say: “because there’s no need for one when we’ve already got a DVD player” and avoid telling them a 991 word story about technology domination.

The Calendar

Ash gestured for Lilette to follow him away from the kitchen and into the bedroom. Epicorm wiped the tears from his checks and cheerfully waved goodbye to Lilette, she waved back feeling unexplainably pleasant - perhaps it was because other people tended not to show a great deal of interest in her.
“Bye Lilette!” called Epicorm, like she were a great distance away “do you want to play Snakes and Ladders with me when you come back?” he added with eager hopefulness.
“Sure” she promised, despite not knowing what Snakes and Ladders was.
“And then will you have lunch with us?” he asked as if he’d just thought of the idea.
“Epic” interjected Ash “stop bugging her, she has a lot on her mind right now” Epicorm’s smile faded away, and he looked like he might cry again.
“Oh, but I would love to have lunch with him!” Lilette said honestly, trying to stop Epicorm from another fit of tears.
“Really!?” Epicorm cheered, clapping his hands together. Lilette giggled, she liked how easily she could make him happy.
“Alright” Ash concluded with a smile, placing a hand on Lilette’s shoulder. He directed her through the door and into the bedroom.

Lilette was rather unconvinced that whatever it was Ash wanted to show her – a calendar or something of the sort- was going to affect Lilette in a greater way than finding out her family were being held hostage. It then occurred to Lilette that her family were at the mercy of a gang of rats, and she was at Ash’s house doing nothing to help then.
“We keep the calendar in Dad’s trunk” Ash told Lilette, as he closed the door behind him, and knelt down besides the box labelled The Wise Dreamer. “I know I’ve kept you in the dark until now, and I know you must be worried sick about your family. But you really do need to see the calendar, Dad says you don’t, but I think it’s your right.... look, I’m really sorry about everything that’s going on, and I promise to do whatever I can to get those filthy Rats out of your home. But first, you need to see the calendar” Ash pulled a golden, pine-cone-shaped key from his pocket and unlocked the big brown box before him.
He rummaged around the unorganised clutter of things, Lilette tried not to be snoopy and restrained from leaning forward and looking into the box. “It’s in here somewhere” Ash reassured her.
After a brief while of rummaging, he pulled out an average sized calendar. To Lilette surprise the calendar was not made of leaves, and the writing on it wasn’t engravings.
“The writing” Lilette wondered “how does it stay on the page?”
“It’s called ink. The people of the Overworld use it instead of carving letters into the paper”
“Paper?”
Ash briefly taught Lilette about ink and paper, and told her about the giants who live in the Overworld, whom Lilette had never heard of before.
“I know I’ve just given you a whole new world of things to think about” Ash apologised “but none of that matters right now. Here, take a look” he handed her the paper made calendar. Lilette gazed in fascination at the front page- which said nothing but ‘The Calendar’- and tried running her fingers over the ‘ink’ but to her amazement it stayed on the page. What strange magic these creatures of the Overworld used. The style of writing was very neat, the letters never changed in shape or size. Both Es looked completely identical to each other, as did the As. How did they write with such accuracy? As intrigued by their writing as Lilette was, she much preferred the wavy, elegant font of her own kind.
She looked up at Ash, to make sure it was ok to open it and he nodded. Her heart started to flutter, she wasn’t sure if opening the calendar was really something she wanted to do.
“Why don’t you sit down” Ash suggested, which only increased Lilette’s fears. People are usually asked to sit down, before they’re told bad news, to reduce the chance of them injuring themselves from shock. She wished he had said ‘don’t worry, everything will be fine, just open the calendar’ but he hadn’t, he had asked her to sit down. He would be reading her nervous emotions at this very moment, and yet he wasn’t calming her down by telling her that everything was alright. Everything wasn’t alright, Lilette concluded. She sat down next to Ash, who had gone to sit on his bed.

Lilette grasped the calendar with two hands. She could have sat on Ash’s bed for several years in preparation for opening the calendar. Ash placed a comforting hand on Lilette’s shoulder, she took in a deep breath of courage and lifted over the front page.

It was just a calendar.

The word ‘January’ was imprinted on the top of the page, as would be expected on one of Lilette’s usual leaf calendars, and every day of the month had its own little box (which wasn’t at all unusual either.) Some of the boxes were written in, saying innocently normal things like ‘Epicorm’s Birthday’ and ‘Raspberry Picking Day.’ The calendar was no more special than the one Lilette owned at her own home, despite the strange material it was made of and the ‘ink.’

Lilette looked at Ash- who had taken his hand away when she opened the calendar. He opened his mouth to speak, but Lilette spoke first “It’s just a calendar.”
“No, Lilette, it’s not just a calendar” he sounded worried that the truth may hurt Lilette “see here” he flicked a few pages over “on November 29th?” he pointed it out to Lilette, all it said was: ‘Gibberllin and Poppy wedding.’
Lilette found nothing strange about Ash’s brothers wedding day being noted on the calendar. With only three weeks left until that day would come, Lilette thought it annoyingly normal for it to be on the calendar.
“So?” Lilette asked, trying to understand what Ash what getting at.
“So, Gibs and Poppy have been dating since April. They’re very happy together, but Gibs has no intention of asking her to marry him”
“Then why are they getting married in three weeks?”
“They’re not. It’s just what the calendar says. Or rather, what the calendar foretells”
“The calendar predicts the future!?” Lilette rejoiced, glad to finally understand what was going on “so Gibberllin and Poppy are getting married in three weeks?”
“I don’t know. Gibs hasn’t spoken about it. From time to time the calendar mis-predicts our future. If they are getting married, neither of them know about it yet... Gibs hasn’t checked the calendar in a while” the novelty of knowing about a couple’s wedding before they did made Lilette giggle a little.

“Even though the calendar sometimes makes mistakes, and sometimes we (as readers of the calendar) can consciously alter its predictions.... the calendar is almost always accurate” Ash was beginning to talk seriously now, and Lilette remembered that it had been for a negative reason that he was showing her the calendar.
“Why are you showing me this?” Lilette wondered worriedly, looking deeply into Ash’s eyes as if she might be able to find the answer if she looked hard enough. He sighed sorrowfully, this was obviously the moment he had been guiding Lilette to, but also the moment he had been dreading.
“December 13th” he said simply.

Lilette turned to December. Written in the box of the 13th, in unnaturally perfect writing, were the words ‘Death of Mielou.’

Joseph and the Conception of Jesus

Joseph was busy repairing a wooden chair. It took fine precision and caution to reattach the broken leg, but Joseph knew exactly what to do and had accomplished many tasks similar to this one. The sun beat down heavily on Joseph and his hands were beginning to sweat, making the delicate task before him even harder to complete.
After many hours of labouring away, Joseph looked up to find a figure walking towards him in the distance. He dropped the piece of wood he was holding, dusted off his hands and gazed out into the dark, waiting curiously to find out who was coming towards him.
He soon recognised that it was Mary, his soon-to-be-wife. Who else would come looking for him after night fall? “Joseph?” she called, and he answered back to reassure her that it was indeed him she was approaching in the dark, and not some strange man she didn’t know of. When Mary reached him they hugged briefly, he was delighted to see her beautiful face after a hard days work and wanted nothing more than to hold her.

“I have some wonderful news” Mary sang delightfully, once their embrace was over. Joseph looked at her eagerly, what a perfect wife she would make, and she brought with her good news!
“I’m pregnant!” she gasped happily, her face brighter than ever before. Joseph’s eyes widened in shock, he felt around in the dark for one of the chairs he had repaired earlier and sat himself down. The chair collapsed beneath him and he fell abruptly to the ground. He let out an angry howl and threw a piece of the chair out of his way. Mary offered him her hand, but he refused it and stood up by himself.
“Curse these wooden chairs!” Joseph yelled, furiously kicking the pile of timber. “It took me hours to fix that chair!” He tried to avoid looking at Mary, and he tried to avoid the upcoming conversation. He loved Mary dearly and didn’t want to imagine her sleeping with someone other than himself. They stood in silence, Joseph breathed heavily trying to control his rage. Once Joseph had restored himself to a slightly calmer state (one which would not see him harming Mary) he lifted his head and looked into her confused eyes.
“Joseph-”
“What’s his name?” Joseph asked, not really caring what her answer would be.
“Joseph... It’s not like that... you see-”
“I could have the whole town stone you to death! I should cancel our marriage now, I don’t need to hear your excuses... The last time I checked you were a virgin, Mary... Why would you do this too me?... I thought you loved me.” Joseph’s anger turned into sadness, his eyes filled with tears and he forced himself to look away from Mary.
“Joseph. I do love you” Mary sobbed. Joseph tried with all his might not to look up at her, but her voice was so full of sorrow that he gave into himself. Despite how badly she had betrayed him, Joseph couldn’t bare to turn his back on Mary when she sounded so upset.
“I love you too” he whispered with as little passion as possible, he wanted to make her happy and withhold his dignity, but he knew that to achieve both was near impossible.

“Please listen to me, Joseph” Mary begged, when Joseph gave no response she went on “An angel came down from heaven. It told me that I am to carry the son of God” she then added with pride “I am to call him Jesus” Joseph was appalled. Not only had his future wife slept with another man, she now stood before him blaming her present situation on God. God: the creator of all living things. She would surely be sent to hell for such a lie, how could she dare bring God into her excuses? Joseph felt his dignity blow away from him, how could he maintain his self respect when Mary so openly lied before him?
“An angel came down from heaven.... and said that you would give birth to the son of God?” Joseph recapped sarcastically, Mary nodded with timid innocence “you honestly think that I would fall for that?” Joseph temper was rising again.
“I know it sounds impossible, but-”
“Mary. How can you claim to be pregnant and a virgin? You can’t be a virgin! Why does every one call you the Virgin Mary!?”
“Actually, Joseph. They don’t call me that yet. People call me the Virgin Mary later on, when our story becomes a legend and people celebrate the birth of Jesus by receiving presents from a man who dresses in red and white and travels from house to house by reindeer” Mary reminded Joseph.
“Oh, right. Offcourse. How stupid of me” Joseph apologised “But, still. How can you be pregnant and at the same time, be a virgin?”
“The angel said that it is by the magic of God that I will be a pregnant virgin” Mary informed Joseph.

“I don’t believe any of this!” Joseph yelled rather suddenly, making Mary jump. Joseph picked up his long wooden stick- which he always carried with him, even though it was evident he could walk without it- and turned away from Mary. Despite his efforts to make a dignified exit, he stood on a splinter of wood, which went straight through his thin shoes and pierced his skin.
“Jesus Christ!” He cried, combining the pain of the splinter with the anger he felt towards his lying fiancé and her unborn baby. Joseph was certain of only one thing, the baby wasn’t his, and this pained him more than the splinter still lodged in his foot.

Thus concludes the story of why we use Jesus’ name in vein sometimes.

The Race

I was looking through my old primary school workbooks, and I stumbled across this poem I wrote. Seeing as I haven’t posted anything in what - three days? I thought I’d share it with you. I could have edited it and made it rhyme better, but I decided to leave it just the way it was when I was little.
It’s called The Race:

The leopard runs faster than the fox
The rabbit pauses and on the wood he knocks
To wake up the sleeping skunk who lays there
Trust kind rabbit, no one else would ever care

Leopard sprints, he’ll win this race for sure
But fox is so clever he takes the hidden floor
Swiftly and invisibly he moves secretly
Left then right then up the old brown tree

Rabbit carries the skunk they try hard to win
She knows how important this race is for him
He wakes up and dashes off without a care
He only wants the reward, he would never share

Rabbit stops and she begins to cry
Mean skunk, she doesn’t get why
He left her so very quickly after all that she’d done
If he hadn’t then together they both could have won

Leopard doesn’t tier and he won’t till the end
The prize will fulfil him his heart it will mend
He has his own little story like all living things do
But he’ll tell no one, not even once the race is through

He could never run fast enough to out speed his past
The pretty leopard lady is a memory gone in a blast
The witty fox is getting close he’s almost in the lead
He’s clever and fearless, he doesn’t rely on speed

The fox he wants the prize to share with his family
They are going through some rough times you see
He doesn’t even think the others lives may be in tatters
When you go through hard times no one else ever matters

Rabbit only joined the race for a bit of fun
She deserves to win more than anyone
But this is no fairy tale race, she hasn’t much chance
Why can’t the world be filled with peace and romance?

There was never much hope for skunk
Off to sleep he goes in another tree trunk
He used to be happy, have friends and a heart
Until he became selfish, then it all fell apart

Rabbit makes haste she’ll try her best
She see’s skunk, having a bit of a rest
Skunk wakes up and she says hello
He gets cross and tells her to go

She apologises so genuinely to him
Skunk isn’t the smartest he’s rather dim
He shoos her away and she starts to cry
He looks up at her sorrily and asks her why

She tells him her dreams of peace
Skunk sobs like a sudden release
Of all his emotions bottled up inside
Friends they will be, skunk does decide

Together Rabbit and Skunk run to the finish
But the prize is not reachable, a far away wish
They have won a better prize than the animal that comes first will
They have won each others friendship, but to the finish they run still

So fox and leopard are both way ahead
They both won’t the prize, as I have said
Fox can see leopard and leopard will never know
Fox can see leopards heart even when it doesn’t show

Fox is so smart and can see all sorts of things
He would have won this race if he had wings
But he stays down low and hides himself
Like the rotting cookie behind your shelf

Leopard runs free in the open, fox can see his pain
But fox see’s all, the prize is still left for him to gain
So neck to neck they run to the finish… leopard comes first
Leopard casually takes the prize, as fox almost dies of thirst

Leopard is his same old self, the prize didn’t help him much
Skunk and rabbit have won a prize you can’t actually touch
Fox will head back home to his loving family, he didn’t win the prize
But he realised he’s better off than leopard, which was a nice surprise

Back to the Humans

If you’ve been reading The End of Time then you would know that occasionally it cuts from the world of fairies and we delve into the lives of Luke and his family. Luke and Annie missed the train, so they are now walking across a field of daisies so Annie can make it school. Annie loves fairies like many little girls do, but Luke finds it nonsensical for her to talk about a world of make believe all the time.

Luke trudged across the daisy field, determinedly not responding his sister’s calls or looking back at her.
“Luke! Luke, wait!” there was a moment of silence, Luke heard her steps turn into a run “I can’t catch up!” Annie called and began to cry again, her steps stopped, she had apparently given up. Luke stopped walking and turned around. As much as she annoyed him, Luke cared for his sister.
“I’ll slow down, if you promise not to talk about fairies.... or magic... or any other nonsense that won’t do either of us any good” he remained standing still until Annie had caught up.
“Thank you” she said softly and took his hand in hers, Luke smiled to himself.

For lack of magical things to talk about, Annie resorted to telling Luke all about school, her evil maths teacher and her friends. Luke was delighted that Annie was capable of talking about things other than fairies, and hung on her every word with fascinated interest. He was amazed that she lived a life aside from her dreamt up world of magic.
The time passed quickly, Annie did most of the talking, which usually would have aggravated Luke but he found himself content just listening to her, asking a question or two every so often.

They soon reached the end of the daisy field, Annie let go of Luke’s hand to scratch her noise, and Luke shoved his hands back into his pockets, he was glad to be free of the burden holding her hand had become. Luke was familiar with Chestnut Road - the street at the end of the daisy field - he had been here several times.
It was dark and depressing and the large uneven cobble stones stuck up in places, making the ground unpleasant to walk on. At the end of the short gloomy street was Annie’s school, an old dingy brown building, barely big enough to comfortably school a hundred children, and yet it schooled two hundred.
Annie, however, loved school. Luke never understood her for this, he had dropped out as soon as legally possible. He imagined she would want to stay at school until the end of year twelve, but he knew she would have to drop out early, like him, to earn money.
“How late will I be?” Annie asked worried, as they staggered over the cobble stones towards the dull brown building.
“Very” Luke said plainly, deciding the simple truth was best. They didn’t hasten their pace though, and continued walking at a steady speed, being careful not to trip on the bumpy ground.

After a few paces they passed a rather, out of place, looking house. All the other houses and shops on the street were clearly visible from the road, and Luke could see into all of their windows. But this one was not like the others.
He couldn’t even see beyond the tall, black metal gates, that were covered in weeds and other unattractive and prickly looking plants. Luke stopped at the gates, trying to see up the driveway to the house. Although he couldn’t see it, he felt unusually tense, and he realised that he was afraid of the house.

He was afraid, because it was unknown.

For a second he drifted off, and began imaging haunted mansions like the ones you see at the end of happy, sunny streets in films.... streets were all the houses have freshly mown green lawns and white picket fences.
But he quickly wiped the thought from his mind, no good would come of filling his thoughts with stories. It was at this point that Luke noticed Annie’s unexplained sudden absence, he looked left and right down the street. And then, just before he was about to call her name, he saw her walking up the driveway of the secretively creepy house.
The gate was ajar, leaving just enough room for Luke to squeeze through without having to move the gate. He feared it would make a loud squeaking noise if he pushed it, as the rusting hinges suggested.
He ran up the drive way and grabbed Annie from behind, by the shoulder. She whizzed around, just a little too fast, and Luke let out a girlish squeal. He had half expected to see his sister transformed into some kind of monster, but she was more herself than ever before.
She began to giggle at the sound of her brother’s squeal. Luke heard the sudden sound of a wooden fly wire door slamming open, he whizzed around to look at the house, which was several metres away from them. Standing on the veranda was an old man. Luke gasped, less girl like this time, and took a step backwards.

The old man yelled something inaudible and pulled out a long gun. Without further notice, and before Luke could do or say anything, the old man shot Annie several times in the chest and belly, she fell heavily to the floor. Circles of blood began to show through her navy blazer, Luke fell to his knees beside her.
He had no idea what to do.
First he touched one of the wounds...but thought better of it. Touched her cheek... found no point to it. Tried to take off her blazer... but didn’t want to move her too much. Then finally he took off his own jacket and put it over her bloody body, wondering if putting pressure on bullet wounds was the way to go.
He frantically did the best he could, wishing very much that he could save her. But blood was flowing from her torso at an uncontrollable rate. He felt a sick combination of horror and nausea, as he watched more and more blood flow from his sister.
Luke looked angrily up at the veranda. The old man was now crotched over, standing only with the support of a cane “are you alright laddy?” the man called to Luke, as if nothing had happened.
Luke looked hastily back to Annie, she was no longer on the ground, but standing upright next to him. Luke stood up to feel her chest and belly, but there was nothing there.
“Get off!” she yelled “what are you doing?” she kicked his shin and Luke instinctively bent down to hold the pain.
He remembered his jacket, and how he had used it to put pressure on Annie’s wounds, but he found himself wearing the beige, corduroy jacket once again. He threw it off himself in one swift movement, examining it with terror- lying completely bloodless on the ground.
“Why don’t you children come in for a cup of tea, eh?” the old man asked sweetly... a little too sweetly, thought Luke “I have cookies” the man added, heading back into his house.
“Stop messing with me!” Luke yelled at the man “what’s going on!? What are you playing at!?” the old man looked over to Luke and said, as if he knew exactly what was going on
“I don’t know what you’re on about lad” and then added, with inarguable seriousness “come in and have a cookie, boy.”

Annie and Luke headed slowly towards the house, Luke was shaking intensely and wasn’t sure why his curiosity was overpowering his logic and sense at this point.
As they got closer to the veranda, Luke noticed the frizzy white haired man had one brown eye and one electric purple eye. Luke stared with fierce fascination.

The Dog

Several months ago, in the house diagonal to ours, our neighbours bought home a new puppy. Whenever the family went out at night, the dog would bark.... for hours on end. People in our neighbourhood told them about the noise their dog made when they left it alone, but they claimed there was nothing they could do about it.
And so, we lived our lives with the occasional sleepless night, praying that the dog would one day shut the fuck up.
The morning after a particularly noisy night- thanks to the dog- we woke to find that their house had been knocked down. Our neighbours and their dog had mysteriously disappeared out of our lives. I don’t know how we failed to hear the demolition process... but it certainly was less noisy than the barking dog.
I only tell you this story because the barking dog is back. It’s back, despite the fact that the house has been nothing more than a patch of grass for months now. Perhaps it’s a ghost dog, or belongs to another one of our neighbours. The later is more likely, but the idea of a ghost dog is more exciting. Not that something that exciting would ever happen around here.
Also, I watched Keeping Mum the other day because a friend of mine told me that she watched it on Halloween. She watched it in place of a horror movie, because she had seen it before and found it scary. I had heard that it was a comedy, so the other day I rented it to clear up whether or not it would make a good Halloween horror movie. Unless there’s just something wrong with my sense of humour, it was indeed a comedy. The big sticker on the front of the DVD cover that says COMEDY, also suggests that there’s a slight possibility of it being designed to make you laugh and not to horrify you.
Now, if you haven’t seen Keeping Mum then you won’t know what happens to their neighbour’s dog, who keeps them up with its barking, and making a connection between the film and my life will have made no sense at all.

I should warn you that I’m seeing High School Musical 3 this afternoon.... just in case I don’t survive and you never hear from me again.

Epicorm and Gibberllin

When we last left Lilette, Ash had just informed her that her entire family is being held hostage in their home by Rats, under the order of the Rat King. Ash then told her that there was something he needed to show her, thus taking Lilette to his toadstool home.

“Come” said Ash, placing his hand on Lilette’s back, politely allowing her to enter before him.
“Thanks” she murmured at a near whisper, her insides buzzing with the feeling of his touch. They entered a semi circular shaped room, empty of people. The room was rather small, all the items of furniture and belongings took up the majority of what little space there was, making Lilette feel somewhat claustrophobic. Next to each of the four wooden framed cotton beds (lined up on the wall farthest from the door) was a large wooden box, the wooden boxes were separately labelled Gibs, Ash, Epic and The Wise Dreamer.

Lilette fixed her gaze upon Ash’s box, wondering what he kept inside.
“All of our belongings are kept in those boxes. My brothers, my dad’s and mine” Ash informed her, leaving Lilette feeling slightly embarrassed that she’d been staring at them. Besides the beds and boxes, the only other object in the room was a blue wardrobe, built especially to fit the curve of the semi circular room. A dim red light hung from the centre of the rooms ceiling, light enough to see clearly but dark enough to sleep if you wished.

“Where are your brothers?” asked Lilette curiously “and your dad?” Ash gestured to the wooden door in the middle of the wooden wall that the wooden framed beds were lined up on. To get to the door they walked in between Epic and Ash’s beds. Ash opened the door and Lilette followed him into the kitchen.

The room was the same size and shape as the bedroom. It was, however, a lot brighter than the other room, there were square holes cut evenly into the toadstool walls. Doing the job of windows and letting in sunlight. Lilette observed the room as being a kitchen/ dining room, fitted with all things needed to cook and eat. Sitting at the large dining table – which took up the majority of the space – were three Fairies. The boy closest to Lilette was very skinny, more bony than anyone Lilette had ever stumbled across. His body appeared to be too long for him, leaving him with a clumsy and lanky persona. He was content to absently look through a piece of transparent red paper, his face full of childish amusement.

The boy next to him wasn’t quite as skinny, he was more similar in shape and size to Ash (normal weight and a little taller than average.) Lilette wondered if he was older or younger than Ash, she would have guessed the same age, but she didn’t suspect them to be twins. He sat with an overacted display of maturity, trying to look proper as he wrote neatly onto a leaf. Lilette thought he just looked snobby.

On the far end of the table was an old man. Older, Lilette thought, than what Ash’s dad was going to be. He had white, wildly frizzy hair, his face seemed aged with knowledge. Lilette had never sensed wisdom by purely looking at someone’s face before. The old man sat with his eyes closed, but Lilette guessed he was doing something other than resting.

“Dad?” said Ash, closing the wooden door behind him, but only his two brothers looked up at him “Dad!?” he said loudly and with more irritation than before. The old man didn’t stir.
“Dad” said the snobbish brother, his eyes didn’t leave the leaf he was writing on.
The old man opened his eyes slowly at the sound of the snobbish brothers voice, Ash sighed in a ‘why does it never work when I do it’ way.

Lilette noticed that one of the old man’s eyes was brown, and the other was electric purple, she had to bite her bottom lip to stop from gasping.

“This is my dad, Jacob...” Ash began to introduce his family, but was interrupted by his father.
“Please. Call me.... The Wise Dreamer” Jacob said slowly, with intended dramatised mysticism. Ash rolled his eyes. The old man stood up, with the help of his cane, and headed to the door “now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some unfinished business to attend to.” And with that, Jacob left.
Ash bid his father farewell and continued the introductions
“This is my brother Epicorm” Ash pointed at the lanky boy, who looked away from the transparent red paper and said
“Look through this! Look through this! It’s so exciting! It’s called CELLOPHANE!!! It makes the whole world red!” Lilette giggled at his enthusiasm and accepted the offer of looking through his ‘cellophane.’
“Yeah” Lilette said “it does make everything red” she tried to sound excited, but her attempts were pitiful. She handed the paper back, thanking him for letting her see.
“It’s called cellophane!” Epicorm informed her for a second time.
“Yes, I know” Replied Lilette, starting to wonder if there was something wrong with him “and it makes the world red” Epicorm nodded passionately, amidst a seizure of his own hysterical laughter.

“Ok, Epic” Ash warned, but Epicorm kept laughing “Epic! Enough!” Ash yelled firmly. Epicorm burst into a fit of tears, which Ash ignored. “Sorry about that” Ash said to Lilette “he may be twenty-one on the outside, but inside he’s still three” he said with more irritation than concern. “And, last of all, we have my brother Gibberllin” Gibberllin looked up from his writing, stood up, and shook Lilette’s hand.
“It’s lovely to finely meet you Lilette” he said with smooth, literate accuracy. Lilette wouldn’t have been surprised if he spent his spare time practising how to greet people properly.
“But... how do you know my name?” Lilette asked bewildered.
“You haven’t told her?” Gibberllin asked Ash, disgusted with worry.
“No, not yet, Gibs. That’s why she’s here. I thought it would be easier to show her, rather than tell her” when Ash spoke back to Gibs he adopted a ‘don’t think you’re always the right one, you’re no smarter than me’ tone.

“Come” Ash said, returning his attention to Lilette “and I’ll show you the calendar.”

For Andrew

A friend of mine asked me to write a blog, purely about our drama class. And so, without further ado, I present (for you, Andrew) ‘Year 9 Are Animals’:

A teacher called Alan, ah, I mean... Mr Howman (How – Man) is the new teacher (and is played by me.) After hitching all the way from Byron Bay, he finds himself confronted with a class of year 9s who want nothing but to muck about and give him grief.
His first day of school isn’t very pleasant, and to top it all off he doesn’t make a very good first impression with the teachers. Les Willis - an experienced teacher at the school – thinks Alan is a student, because he isn’t wearing a tie, and also isn’t too fond of the idea that Alan is from Byron Bay. Alan missed the pre-term staff meeting the day before, which sets him off to a bad start with the school principle.
The only person on Alan’s side in the beginning is his old friend, Marie Forbes, who has let Alan stay with her while he’s in Melbourne. What Alan doesn’t know, is that she has a crush on him.
Alan organises an excursion for his class, all about Ancient Egypt. Kelly, one of Alan’s students, tries to get away without paying for the excursion. But Alan sees money fall out of her pocket, and gets rather annoyed that she tried to talk her way out of paying. Kelly also has a crush on Alan, and runs away when he gets upset at her.
When they get back to school, all the teachers are appalled that Alan didn’t take greater care with his students. They tell him that to be a good teacher you have to give them what they expect, as in: sit them down, shut them up and tell them what to do.
Alan takes on the expected approach to teaching, he doesn’t let his students mess around and tries his hardest to accomplish order in his class room. Although he succeeds in controlling his students, he goes too far and crosses the line between strict teacher and control freak teacher who doesn’t even listen to his students.
Due to Arthurs ‘problem’ he runs out in the middle of Alan’s lesson to go to the toilet. Alan forgets that Arthur has issues and regretfully overreacts. Tyson stops Alan from chasing after Arthur, reminding him of Arthur’s problem (Arthur is played by Andrew.)
Alan then decides that he should quit his job. He didn’t like being a mean teacher, and could see that it went too far. But Kelly, Amy, Tyson and Arthur stick up for Alan and declare that he’s a good teacher.

Alan: well, then. For the rest of the lesson you can do anything you want!
Students: Anything?

Alan: yes, anything.

Students: Anything?

Alan: YES ANYHTHING!!!

The moral of the story, I think, is: don’t change who you are. But everyone else has different opinions of what the moral is.

Our actual performance went pretty well. We didn’t really mess up any lines or entrances and exits... except when the boy who plays Les exited off the wrong side, and had to run across the stage to get to the side he was supposed to be on. Also, my clip board wasn’t behind the couch. Who stole my clipboard?

There you are, Andrew, I know you said to mention everyone’s names but I’m not sure they’d all appreciate it.

While I’m talking about Andrew and drama, I think I’ll mention that I beat him in a sprinting race on Thursday! Although, according to him, it’s not much of an accomplishment because he’s gay.... but I don’t see how being gay would make you a slower runner than others. HA, I BEAT YOU!

Weekley Helpful Hint: Little sisters can kill weasles with tea towels

The Rat King's Evil Plan

And now for the next segment of The End of Time:

The sun made Lilette’s eyes squint, and she woke up begrudgingly. Her eyes took a while to adjust to the burning brightness, but eventually her vision was clear enough to take note that she was in the middle of a tree ridden forest. Then, like a pin prick, she remembered the previous night. How Mielou and Ash had had a disagreement over the Pixies, and how Lilette and Mielou were now in a random forest, God knows how far away from each other.
“Mie!?” she called, stumbling about. She walked around for a short while, calling Mielou’s name, she hadn’t looked for long enough to start getting worried when Mielou returned her calls.
“We’re over here!” Mielou called back.

Lilette followed the call around a tree, Ash and Mielou looked up at her. Neither of them where happy.... at all. What had their fight come to? They both looked deeply grieved and in despair. Ash had his arm around Mielou, she had fresh tears on her face.
“What’s going on?” Lilette asked, something wasn’t right. They seemed too upset for it to still be about their fight last night.
Ash took his arm from around Mielou, kissed her cheek, whispered something to her and walked over to Lilette.
“We need to talk” he said seriously and prompted Lilette to walk with him. Lilette’s breathing got heavier, she was beyond worried now.
“Is everything ok?” she asked, trying to stay positive and calm, as they walked along. Mielou was now out of site. They stopped walking and Ash turned to face her.
“No. Everything’s not fine” he was noticeably hesitant to tell Lilette.
“What? What is it? What’s wrong?” Lilette spluttered, letting go of her positive/ calm approach.

Ash sighed deeply and frowned with worry.
“There’s no easy way to tell you this” he began “you’re family are being held hostage.... The Rat Soldiers have taken over Peppermint Tree” he left the sentence hanging, and waited anxiously for Lilette’s response.
Her mouth dropped open slightly. What kind of a sick joke was this?
“You’re joking right?” she said, trying with all her might to believe that it was indeed a joke.
“No. This is no Joke, Lilette” he warned seriously “the Rat King has had a sudden need, or rather: a sudden want, for a family of Elf servants. Don’t worry, you’re family are still at Peppermint Tree. The Rats are waiting until they’ve captured your entire family, because the Rat King won’t allow an incomplete family of servants.... that isn’t his style. Once they have all the members of your family, they’ll recruit them to Rat Cavern, were they plan to make servants of your family. The Rat King is known for being brutally harsh to his servants.... empathy is also not his style” Ash had given her far too much to think about, she hadn’t even accepted that he wasn’t joking yet. She tried to get her head around the situation. She could barely remember what Ash had just said, something about Rats, Kings, servants and her family being held hostage? A million questions whizzed through her mind, she quickly plucked one out to ask.

“Who in my family hasn’t he captured yet?” she said, despite the fact that a question more along the lines of: ‘what can we do to help?’ would have been more fitting.
“Well, you, offcourse” he said, shrugging his shoulders slightly. As Lilette frowned in deep thought, trying to process what he was saying, Ash continued “and that’s not all” he said, the worried look back on his face “but I don’t think I can just tell you”
“Can’t tell me!? Can’t tell me what!?” Lilette said raising her voice in anger. Ash remained calm.
“You wouldn’t believe me” he said certainly.
“Wouldn’t believe you!?” Lilette yelled “I believed that a bunch of rats have my family held hostage! If I believe that, don’t you think I’ll believe anything!?”
“That’s not what I meant.” Ash said evenly, motioning with his hand for Lilette to settle down “It’s something that needs to be seen to be believed..... by anyone”
“Oh” she blushed.

Ash held out his hand for Lilette to take. She hesitated, not wanting to seem too eager. When she took his hand in hers a current flew up her body. She wondered if it was a supernatural power of Ash’s, but didn’t think on it for too long, she wanted to fight her love sickness, and rescue her family.

He flittered his wings and they gained air, Lilette loved the feeling of knowing that the direction they were heading was completely intentional. Despite their dire situation, Lilette felt a mild surge of jealousy, as she wished that she too could have wings and determine the path of her flight.

It didn’t take long – not nearly as long as it would have taken Lilette by herself – until they were flying over a field of toadstools, which Lilette recognised as Mielou’s home town. All the toadstools looked identical to one another from above: large, red and spotted white. Still holding Lilette’s hand, Ash flew the two of them gently down to the field.

From the ground the toadstools weren’t as pretty, all that could be seen of them was their thick brown stems - large enough to house a family - and if Lilette were to look up she would see the wrinkly brown bottom of the toadstool – not nearly as attractive as the hand painted rooves.

Every pale brown stem possessed a door, the doors were often hard to find seeing as they blended in so nicely with the stem, so as Lilette looked around she saw several Fairies feeling impatiently around the stems of their houses hoping to succeed in finding the door, so that they could go inside and have a nice cup of tea by the fireplace.

“This way” Ash instructed, letting go of Lilette’s hand and pointing to a toadstool several doors away. He walked briskly, forcing Lilette to run every few steps in order to keep up.
They reached Ash’s house, Lilette took in a deep breath, full of nervousness and guilty excitement about what Ash was going to show her.

Daydreamer

Well, the technology strike’s over. I recommend taking a break from technology, even just for a day, it’s rather liberating. Saying that, I must add, don’t go on a strike from my blog (or from watching Heroes.)

If you’ve ever been on a technology strike, you’ll know that the best ‘legal’ replacement for TV and other technology related entertainment is reading books. It’s not that I didn’t read books before, but I read a lot more last week than I usually do.

Last summer I read Atonement, and even though I was holidaying on an island off Singapore (where there was plenty to do) I didn’t want to do anything but read. My point is, it’s a good book, and so - during my technology strike - I went and borrowed some of Ian McEwan’s other books (Ian McEwan being the author of Atonement.) The reason I’m telling you this isn’t quite as pointless as it may seem..... although there isn’t a great deal of point to what I’m about to talk about.

‘The Daydreamer’ is a short novel written by Ian McEwan. It’s about a ten year old boy (Peter) who often daydreams, the book mostly consists of his actual daydreams. As clever and funny as the book is, it’s also impossible to ignore how strange it is. In one chapter Peter ‘unzips’ his cat down the middle of its belly, the cats soul then rises out of the unzipped animal. To make things weirder, Peter ‘unzips’ himself to release his own soul. The cat’s soul then goes into Peter’s body, and Peter’s soul goes into the cat’s body. Leaving Peter to live life as a cat, temporarily.

Now. Last week I left you with a riddle. The answer to that riddle is in fact NOTHING. Because nothing is greater than God, nothing is more evil than the devil, the poor have nothing, the rich need nothing and we would die if we ate nothing.

There are problems with the answer to the riddle. Like: poor people don’t have ‘nothing’ because then they would lack everything including their lives. And, I’m sure that there are plenty of rich people who need things, even if it is just a wine glass holder for the jacuzzi in their bedroom.

But we ought not to look too deeply into the, apparently unquestionable, answer to the riddle. It’s probably best if we blindly trust the unknown source that gave the answer. We should forget that when we walk with our eyes close, we tend to bump into things. Things such as the walls of conformity, built by the faceless people who believe the riddle’s answer is correct merely because everyone else does.

Or maybe we should just move on and talk about last week’s episode of All Saints briefly. If you’ve been a regular reader of my blog since its creation, then you’ll know that Mark Priestly committed suicide a few months ago and although I tend to make my blog a place of light subject matter, I do need to mention him. Last week they played the last episode he’ll ever appear in. To rule out his character (Dan) from the show, they wrote the script so that he “moved to his family’s farm indefinitely.”

So Dan has moved indefinitely to the country, and Mark Priestley became indefinitely absent. The phrase ‘Indefinitely absence’ was a feeble attempt of mine to soften the truth (that he is now dead.) But it actually just rubs in the fact that when you die you’re gone forever, so it didn’t work very well. Much like when my dad said “how’s the..... liquid oozing from your nose.... problem, going?” to my sister, when she had a cold. This was – apparently- an attempt to prevent disturbing images arising in our minds, whilst we ate dinner. However, saying ‘how’s the cold going?’ would have been a lot less visually descriptive.

I mentioned Mark Priestley again because now that he no longer appears on TV, he needs people like me to keep his memory alive on things like internet blogs.

I shall post the next segment of ‘The End of Time’ tomorrow.... possibly.

Weekly Helpful Hint: Read ‘The Daydreamer’ by Ian McEwan. It will take you little over an hour.

Technology Strike

As you may have gathered from the title of this post, I’m taking a break from using technology. It’s only for a week and starts as soon as I finish watching All Saints tonight (because I’m dying to see if Erica survives and if it’s Mark Priestley’s last episode, I don’t think I could wait another week to find out.)

It’s not a complete strike, I’ll allow myself to do some technology related things. Like, for example: validating my train ticket. I don’t think the ticket inspectors will except “actually, I’m on a technology strike and couldn’t use the ticket validating machine” as an excuse.

I’m also not going to go out of my way to avoid the day to day technology that’s uncontrollably necessary in my life. Like, for example: I won’t cover my ears in an attempt to avoid hearing the school bell that plays several times a day.

But I will stop watching TV, listening to my Ipod and going on my computer, which includes (unfortunately and regretfully) this blog.

It may pain you to live without my posts (although you all seemed to cope alright when I had exams) but remember, I’ll be back in a week.

You may ask why I’m doing this. But if you did, I wouldn’t be sure what to reply.

I’ll leave you all with a riddle which - although I solved it rather quickly - will hopefully keep you occupied for a week until I return:

What is greater than God

More evil than the devil

The poor have it

The rich need it

And if you eat it, you'll die?

Kordail

Well, my exams are over now. You can expect to see more than one blog a week again. Firstly, it appears my word game has shrivelled up, gone into hibernation or taken a trip to Paris because no one’s added a word in ages.
Maybe it’s because it’s no longer on the main page of my blog, and now you need to click September and then Word Game to play it. Or possibly because people have been busy with exams. It could also be because you’re all over the word game.... but I prefer the first two options.

Weekly Helpful Hint: if you like Emma Watson, then watch the movie Ballet Shoes.

I’m really tired now- I had drama all day yesterday- so this is going to be a pathetically miniature post, pretty much just letting you all know I’m alive, because I don’t have the energy to write much more than that. In fact it’s so small, I’ve decided to just combine it with the next segment of my story ‘The End of Time.’



Lilette was obviously overreacting. Creatures – no matter how green or wrinkly they may be – who dance and drink punch, generally aren’t sinister. And so, after a few seconds of being petrified, Lilette concluded that nothing was going to happen and that she had merely overreacted.

The jazzy music resumed playing, it was only then that Lilette realised it must have stopped when she knocked the punch table. The red and yellow lanterns were beginning to flicker gently in the breeze, creating a romantic feel to the not so romantic situation.

The unsightly dancing couple continued to stare at Lilette, there intentions and thoughts were unclear and they appeared to be emotionless. The shorter of the two seemed to whisper something to the other, before returning to the wooden dance floor to continue dancing. Lilette swallowed hard, as she tried to convince herself that the lingering creature was harmless.

“Hello. I’m Kordail” he spoke in a deep musical voice, that made Lilette want to cry with joy. Now that she had heard him speak, it was clear he was a male. Although his voice emitted the most wonderful sound Lilette had ever heard, his appearance still disturbed her greatly and she felt uneasy in his presence.

“I’m sorry if we scared you” he apologised, his musical tone sounded honestly in the need of Lilette’s forgiveness “I understand... I would be scared of me too.” He added, full of shame and self belittlement “but. Perhaps. If you can find the will power to see me for who I really am, then we could be friends?” he proposed eagerly.

Lilette now had two choices. She could either run off into the woods, and never see the boy again. Or she could make a new friend.

“I’m Lilette” she said, still not making eye contact “I’m sorry I overreacted, you’re not that scary” she lied, trying to make amends for her earlier instinctive reactions.
“I’m not that scary? But you cannot bring yourself to look at me” Kordail said, more to himself than to Lilette, his anger and sorrow were aimed only to himself, there was nothing to suggest that he blamed Lilette for the way she felt. She couldn’t bear listening to him deject himself in such ways.

And so she looked at him. Properly this time. She looked right into his eyes, something she had failed to do up until now. At first they were blue, and as normal looking as any other eyes Lilette had ever seen. She was somewhat amazed that this wrinkly green creature could have such normal eyes. And so she stared at them. While fulfilling her intriguement she hoped that this would take away some of Kordail’s self hate.

As she continued to gaze mindlessly into his eyes, all the negative thoughts and fears in her system inexplicably vanished and she felt a warm sensation radiate through her entire body.

She looked deeper into his eyes and began to see all the events in her life that had ever made her happy, she saw herself laughing with Mielou, licking a lolly as a child, spinning around in circles, talking to Ash, watching the sun set and making pancakes with her mum all at the same time.

She watched as everything positive in her life played before her very eyes, in someone else’s eyes. She could think of nothing else except for complete joy, she forgot where she was. There was a wall between her and all negative thoughts, nothing could penetrate this wall, she didn’t even think about it.

It could have been years, seconds or a lifetime when Lilette blinked and broke the blissful life playback. “Wow” she exhaled, finding herself low on air, like she’d been holding her breath.

“What was that?” she questioned fascinated.
“You’ve heard of Fairies having powers, have you not? This is the power of Pixies” Kordail uttered proudly, in his deep musical tone that Lilette couldn’t get over.
“You’re a... Pixie?” Lilette had never heard of such things before.
“I am indeed. My name is Kordail, and I would like to be your friend” he put the proposal of friendship out into the open for the second time that evening.

Lilette was suddenly aware of time again, and began to remember the events that occurred seconds before she saw her whole life flash before her. She remembered wanting to run away last time he had asked to be friends, now she was honoured that such a wonderful creature would want to be friends with her.
“I’m Lilette” she informed him.... again.
“Yes, I think I recall you telling me that” he teased “I only told you my name again, because I thought you might be able to see me differently now. I thought I might be a new person through your eyes and felt we needed a fresh start” he said as if there should be no doubt that he was correct.

Lilette couldn’t argue with what he had said, it was completely true. But she felt bad that it took her so long to be able to see him for who he was, and not for what he looked like.
“I only told you my name again, because I used to be blind and now I can see.” She said, hoping not to sound to cliché, but at the same time undo the effects of her first impressions reactions.
“Does this mean we can be friends?” he sang hopefully.
Just as Lilette was about to say something along the lines of ‘yes, offcourse this means we can be friends’ she was unexpectedly grabbed by the wrist and pulled away from Kordail.

“We have to get out of here!” yelled Mielou tugging Lilette by the wrist “What hideous creatures! I can’t believe you brought us here, Ash!” she pulled Lilette along, Ash ran beside them. Lilette wanted to put up a fight but found herself incapable of defying Mielou, she wanted very much to talk to Kordail some more, but she allowed Mielou to pull her further and further away from the party. They were soon ages away.

“Mielou!?” cried Lilette, releasing herself from Mielou’s grasp. They stopped running and faced each other. “I didn’t want to leave!” she yelled, but made no attempt at going back. She concluded now that it was Mielou’s supernatural persuasive powers that had prevented Lilette from trying to break away before.
“Did you see those creatures Lilette!?” Mielou shouted back, a look of fear still enveloped her face.
“They’re completely harmless, Mie. Do you really think I would put you in danger?” Ash said with a calm annoyance.
“He’s right, Mie. They’re really nice. I don’t think they’d ever hurt us.” Lilette agreed, trying to reassure and comfort Mielou.
“Did any of you see them!? Mielou bellowed, tears now streaming down her cheeks “or are you all blind!?”
“You’re the blind one” Ash murmured through his teeth, and flew off into the night.

Mielou collapsed to the grassy ground, and sobbed loudly into her hands. Lilette sat down and put an arm around her friend, but Mielou pushed her away.
“Leave me alone” Mielou hissed bitterly. Lilette stood up and slowly backed away, she had no idea where they were, and it was still the middle of the night. So she walked over to a not so distant tree, and sat down. Hopefully all would be well by morning.

What Has The World Come To?

Moving Heroes to 10.30pm!?
Like 9.30pm wasn’t late enough!

Weekly Helpful Hint: watch Heroes this Thursday. Maybe the ratings will go back up and they’ll reschedule it to a more sane hour to watch TV.

Halloween

Well, I thought I’d take a break from my exam studying, and write a blog.

“Trick or Treat, give us a sweat, or we’ll repossess your house and roll you down the street” – sings my cousin.

As you probably know it was Halloween on Friday. I love Halloween, it’s a heap of fun. And although we don’t live in America I tend to go Trick or Treating. So, this year me, my sister and my cousins dressed up and went knocking on strangers doors asking for candy.

If you’ve ever seen a peacock behind an x-ray machine then you’ll be able to imagine what my mum’s costume looked like.... but apparently my court jester outfit was the scariest of all.

I don’t know what supernatural things you believe happen on Halloween, but when it buckets down with rain - the split second you walk out the door – then you start to believe that there is some higher being who has a personal grudge against you. Much like my maths teacher (I refer to her in regards to the ‘personal grudge’ comment not the ‘higher being’ comment.)

Soaking wet, we headed off to my cousins teachers house (who told his students to come Trick or Treating at his place.) On the way we encountered a lonely elderly woman (who wouldn’t stop talking) a woman (who almost released her hounds on us) a young man (who slammed the door in our face) and numerous tooting cars.

There are three sorts of people:
1. The people who hate Halloween, find it too American, and pull out the shot gun.
2. The people who think it’s great you’re Trick or Treating, have decorations everywhere, and have lots of candy prepared for you.
3. The people who didn’t expect Trick or Treaters and are rather apologetic for not having anything.

We came across all three (except, no one pulled out a shot gun, thank goodness.) Next year, if you’re thinking of going Trick or Treating, go to your local supermarket, video store and Subway. They give away awesome things. And don’t go into houses that say ‘beware of the dog’ because generally there is a dog you should beware of. You may like to try waving at a passing train, we did, and the train driver – who I suspect was a person #2 – gave as a nice, little musical toot.

Nice, little musical toots given by trains always make you feel special.

Well, that was my Halloween. How was yours? ....... *note to self: when I ask general questions like that on my blog, people have tended not to respond*

The other day – bear with me as I’m about to get random- I stumbled across a song called ‘Bella Luna’ and bought the entire album so I could hear this song. It wasn’t until after I’d bought the album that I discovered you can just listen to it for free here:
http://www.jango.com/music/Jason+Mraz?l=0

There was no point to that little story. It’s just because I’m listening to the album right now, and it gets better every time I hear it. If you do follow the link, listen out for the part where Jason Mraz goes “like a ring around the finger of a girl” merely because it sounds.... cool.

Weekly Helpful Hint: When your parents say “let’s go to the new shopping centre and have a look around for an hour!” what they really mean is “We need new glasses, so we’re going to OPSM to spend THREE WHOLE HOURS trying millions of glasses on, in a very indecisive, dull manner.”

I best be getting back to my exam studying now.... that was a lie, I’m actually about to have dinner.... not that you needed to know that.

Swamp Bank Dance

Weekly Helpful Hint: Don’t eat lunch in a sound proof stairwell. You won’t hear the end-of-lunch-bell and will be late for your next class.

Ok, here’s the next segment of The End Time. Enjoy:


They wandered deeper and deeper into the woods. Brushing past plants, ducking under an endless amount of branches and jumping pebbles over streams. Lilette followed Mielou with cautious curiosity as she was led through territory unknown to a destination ... unknown.

“Where are we going?” she asked with frustration, for the seventh time since they’d embarked on this escapade.
“It’s a surprise”
“What sort of surprise?”
“If I told you, then it wouldn’t be a surprise, now, would it?”
“Will I like the surprise?” Lilette asked, now more wary than excited about the unknown destination. Mielou merely smiled to herself and continued across the Fairy built bridge, laid with firefly lights to brighten the way in the dark. Lilette had trouble seeing the bridge even with the lights, but holding onto the rope, she managed to climb across and join her friend on the other side.

“We’re almost there” Mielou said in a low voice, Lilette was becoming anxious, she didn’t find stumbling around in the dark, searching for a not yet specified location enjoyable.
On the other side of the bridge were more trees, and more trees meant more branches would be thwacked into Lilette’s face. Mielou hadn’t been a considerate leader in this expedition and had been failing to hold the branches for Lilette as she led her through forest after forest.

But, to Lilette’s relief, she only had to walk through a few more metres of tress, be thwacked by only a few more branches and then they were in a meadow. A deserted, unlit, slightly eerie meadow. Lilette imagined it would look rather lovely in the day, the grass felt healthy under her feet, she pictured the meadow as a luscious green field filled with merry creatures during daylight. She tried hard to picture this, but the creepy meadow seemed to be filled with dark secrets and she felt as though someone- or something- would creep up from behind her at any moment.

“Don’t be scared” Mielou reassured her, but she made no attempt at a physical comfort. Lilette could just make Mielou out, in the haziness of the night, looking around for something.
“What are you looking for?” Lilette asked anxiously, she didn’t like the idea of this surprise any more.
“Ash said to follow the red pebbled path off The Forbidden Meadow” Mielou replied, still looking around. Lilette found two things wrong with what Mielou had just said, firstly, the meadow they were on was not only dark and creepy, but it was also forbidden, and secondly, they were following direction given to Mielou by someone Lilette had never heard of.
“Who’s Ash?” Lilette asked, as if she should have been told of this person ages ago. Mielou put her face in her hands, remembering that she hadn’t told Lilette about Ash.
“Oh! I’m sorry Lette. Ash is the boy who lives in the Mushroom next to mine.”
“The one you went dancing with on the Mountain Peak?” Lilette asked, just to be sure.
“Yeah... the one you love” Mielou added teasingly, but with a touch of honest scorn.
“I do not love him!” Lilette said firmly, but remembered that Mielou would have read her emotions last week at the Spring Feast, and known exactly how she felt. Mielou didn’t answer Lilette’s obvious lie, her attention was focused on the red pebbled path, which she had just spotted and was heading towards.

Lilette followed without question, anywhere would be better than Forbidden Meadow. The red pebbles shone in the moonlight, making it easy for them to make their way down the moderately steep hill. The sound of delightful jazzy music gradually became more and more distinct as they continued walking, Lilette considered asking what the noise was, but the odds of getting an answer were too slim to bother. As they got closer to the music, Lilette could make out glowing lanterns and people dancing.

“Is that where we’re going!?” asked Lilette excited, all fears lifted.
“I think so” Mielou answered uncertainly “this is the place he said to come” she added, looking around for him, or anyone familiar. And then Lilette saw him, for the second time in her life, jogging towards them. Only this time she knew his name, this changed everything, by knowing his name she felt oddly closer to him like they were already friends.

“Mie?” called the same sweet voice she had heard last week at the Spring Feast. He gave up on the jogging and flew over to them, Lilette wished he hadn’t flown, it added a whole new level of grace to his perfection.

She looked down, knowing that if she looked at him, she would radiate messages of love and the awkwardness of this situation would only heighten. But she couldn’t last for very long and gave into her desires.

She was amazed at how much more she loved him, his eyes seemed even more magical and he was altogether more charming than before. Although she was sure he hadn’t actually changed since last week, he seemed completely different.

He smiled the amused smile Lilette loved, and for the first time in her life Lilette wondered how Fairies ability to read emotions actually worked. Was the word “love” imprinted on her forehead?

“Hi” he said, faking casualness and Lilette felt as if she was spinning around in a whirlwind.
“Hi” she managed to reply, when she realised the greeting was directed towards her. She couldn’t stop looking at him, and he didn’t look away.

“Sorry we’re a little late Ash” Mielou said, finishing Ash’s attempts at trying to be nice to Lilette.
“That’s alright” he said like there was nothing in the world that was more ok. As soon as he locked eyes with Mielou, they were in their whole own world. Lilette felt out of place and neglected, but apparently not even her strong negative emotions could get through Ash and Mielou’s impenetrable love bubble, because they continued to kiss (for what felt like forever) and seemed to completely forget about Lilette.

Lilette made an unnoticed suggestive cough, which made it clear that their bubble was also sound proof.

They finally broke apart from each other- they probably would have suffocated if they went for much longer- and suddenly snapped back into the real world. The bubble was popped and Lilette suddenly existed again.

“Sorry, Lilette” Ash said, with a deep concern and a strong desire for forgiveness.
“That’s alright” Lilette lied. Lying about your emotions to Fairies is never a good idea, now Ash and Mielou knew exactly how she felt plus they knew she was a liar. However, Ash continued as if they believed Lilette.
“I invited you, Lilette, because I thought you’d have fun dancing and meeting new people” it was clear that he still believed this would be the case. It was also clear that he wanted Lilette to meet someone that would take her mind off him. She was grateful they didn’t hate her, but wanted to help her instead.

Ash and Mielou held hands and flew towards the music and dancing. Lilette didn’t have to walk far before she was amongst the dancers. The red and yellow lanterns glowed, shinning just enough light to be able to see.

She wondered where she was and then noticed the murky water, they were dancing on the Swamp Bank. Of all the places to throw a dance, Lilette couldn’t think of a worse one. But somehow the lanterns and the wooden dance floor transformed the hideous Swamp Bank, into a lovely dancing arena.

Just as the music started to get her swaying and she began to enjoy herself, Lilette was shocked to discover that the dancers were not Fairies, nor were they Elves. Lilette had never seen creatures, like the one’s dancing before her.

Their height and size was much like that of Elves, but they were horrifyingly ugly. Their skin was wrinkly, like a dried up raison, and they were a sickly green all over. They looked as though they might be sticky to touch, but there was no way Lilette was going to find out.

A couple whirled passed Lilette and, instinctively, she took a step back. Bumping the punch table and knocking the cupcakes to the floor.

The dancing couple stopped and looked at Lilette. She tried to take another step backwards, but there was no were to go, her heart started pounding and she wanted to scream.

Would these creatures touch her? Hurt her? Kill her? ... eat her? Whatever they were going to do, Lilette had a gut feeling that this was the end of her. That her future would soon become nonexistent.

A New Perspective

Weekly Helpful Hint (that are never posted at exact weekly intervals): “If you are allergic to a thing, it is best not to put that thing in your mouth, particularly if the thing is cats” – Lemony Snicket.

And now for the next section of The End of Time. The next part is segment 1 of chapter 2. If you haven’t read the first chapter then do so.


Luke awoke to the sound of a passing train, the wooden walls shook and dust fell from the ceiling. He rubbed his eyes and, disorientated, looked at his alarm clock. 2:30. It was the middle of the night. Luke was usually immune to the sound of the train, he always slept right through the rattling.

As he was about to settle back to sleep, a slight chill ruffled through his sandy blonde hair, leaving goosebumps up his arm. He looked over to the wall opposite his bed, the window was wide open.

With a I-can’t-believe-I-was-stupid-enough-to-leave-my-window-open grunt, he got out of bed, walked the metre to the other side of his room, and slid the window down.

As he hopped back into bed another train went by, the walls shook and a pen rolled off his bedside table. But it wasn’t as loud as before. He was still half asleep and soon drifted back into the wonderful world of dreams.

At the break of dawn, Luke got dressed and headed down stairs to the shop. “Morning, Luke” greeted his mother without looking up, she stopped rolling the bread dough and wiped her forehead with the back of her floury hand. She looked exhausted.

“Morning” replied Luke, reaching out to grab a gingerbread man from behind the counter. Luke’s mum gently slapped his hand, suggesting that the gingerbread man wasn’t for him.
“Not today” she said in an apologetic, sorrowful tone. Luke would have to go without breakfast, but he understood their situation and didn’t complain.

“You’re going to miss your train, if you don’t hurry” she said hastily, looking up from her rolling for the first time. Luke knew that, even if he ran, he wouldn’t make it to the station in time. This didn’t worry him, he was in no hurry to get to the paper factory.

“I know you don’t care if you’re late for work” she continued hastily, still panicked that he would miss the train “but you’re going to have to take Annie to school today” Luke’s eyes widened, his sister would be late for school if they didn’t catch the uncatchable train.
“We’ll never make it, mum!” he spluttered, but was half already way out the bakery. The golden bell tingled above the door as it whipped shut behind him.
Annie was sitting outside the shop on the gutter, drawing invisible lines on the pavement with a stick. “Annie!” Luke called, running up to her “we have to hurry, or we’ll miss the train!” she jumped up, and with silent understanding, joined him in an impossible attempt to make it to the station in time.

Luke sped down the street as fast as his legs would let him, his lungs had no rights in this situation. Occasionally he glanced behind him to check that Annie was still close behind, amazingly she always was, how could a five year old run almost as fast as an eighteen year old? He pondered this in the back of his mind, his thoughts guided by the need to catch the train.

Ten minutes later they reached the station. It was deserted. Luke looked up to the sign, the next train was in fifty-four minutes. He swore loudly, oblivious to the mental well being of his sister and inconsiderate of her delicate innocence (which was probably just shattered.)

After the two of them had panted for a great deal of time, Luke began pacing impatiently up and down the platform, with his hands at the back of his head.
“Luke?” said his sister timidly, Luke noticed that she sounded scared, scared of her own brother. He didn’t mean to frighten her. He walked over to Annie and squeezed her around the shoulder, kissing the top of her head.

“Now” he said, trying to sound like the happy, friendly brother he should be “I suppose we’re going to have to walk” and with that, they left the platform, crossed the road and began their journey across the daisy covered meadow.

Annie skipped merrily along singing some song that Luke had never heard before. Walking contently behind her, with his hands in the pockets of his pants, Luke smiled. Annie plucked a daisy from the ground, pulled off the white petals and let them float gently to the ground.

She stopped skipping and stood still for a second, Luke continued walking towards her, she turned around and ran back to Luke shouting “Look what I found! Look what I found!” once they were close together again, they stopped walking.

Annie held up a white flowery ball, it looked much like a dandelion clock (the one’s Annie would often chant “what’s the time Mr Wolf” and then blow) but it didn’t have a stem and wasn’t as thick. Luke rolled his eyes, he had seen a million of these things before.
“It’s a fairy!” Annie informed him “you make a wish and then blow on it” Luke hated it when she spoke about fairies like they were real, he wished she wouldn’t make up such stupid tales.
“There’s no such thing as fairies, Annie” he said plainly. She looked up at him as if he were lying.
“There are so! Now make a wish, I promise it will come true” she said defiantly. Luke took the little white ball from her.
“I wish that my annoying little sister would get over fairies and shut up with her stupid stories” he said conclusively. He dropped the plant to the floor and continued walking.

After a few seconds Annie called after him “It won’t come true! You’re meant to say it in your head!” her voice was choked with tears, but Luke kept walking.

Mark Priestley

Don’t worry fellow blog readers, I haven’t disappeared off the face of the earth or fallen down a well, I haven’t been writing blogs lately due to a lack of spare time.
Right now I have an abundance of spare time... I had a spare first period, which I spent on homework and then I found out that my second period was cancelled. This means that I could have slept in until 9.30. Never mind, I wouldn’t have had the chance to write this blog otherwise.
I suppose I could have written one last night, but watching Heroes is as solid on my agenda as brushing my teeth... although you can’t record your teeth and watch them the next day.

Firstly I would like to dedicate a bit of my blog to Mark Priestley. Who committed suicide about a month ago. He starred in the TV show All Saints, and was one of my favourite actors. I hope that, no matter what happens after you die, that he has been freed from his depression.

And now I would like to move on to a more happier note.... The other day, in English class, I mentioned to a friend that I had a blog. To no one’s surprise but mine, she asked “Is it all colourful with lots of pictures and stuff?”
I had never thought of putting pictures on my blog, and so I’ve decided to share one or two with you.... and now I’m starting to sound like Dr. Seuss.

The first one barely passes as a ‘picture’ but I got it from the images section of Google so it’s good enough...anyway, when you look at the colourful words in the ‘picture’ below don’t read the words but say the colour that the words are. Everyone thinks it’s really hard, except for me, perhaps everyone I know is colour blind, but that’s not likely.

The next picture made me laugh, there’s a possibility you will laugh also:

Alrighty, that’s it for the pictures. Now, the annoying thing about my story (which you can read below)....... last weekend I went to see Wicked, and several of the subplots are very similar to several of the not-yet-written-but-in-my-head subplots of my incomplete story. I’m not going to stop writing the story, and I’m not going to change the story line. I just hope no one thinks I got the ideas from Wicked, because I swear I didn’t. I thought of them long before seeing Wicked, in fact I thought of them in year 9.

Weekly Helpful Hint: as fun as playing eye-spy over the phone may sound.... It really doesn’t work well.

The Forbidden Boy

Here is the third instalment of The End Of Time. But first, I would like to introduce a new feature of my blog. It’s called: ‘The Weekly Helpful Hint.’

Weekly Helpful Hint: If you’re planning on tripping up stairs as you run to mass singing, make sure you’re with a friend who can laugh with you, as opposed to a bunch of strangers who look at you oddly and make the whole situation awkward and unnecessarily embarrassing.

I probably won’t be posting the next section of my story in a while because the three parts I’ve already shared with you where written last weekend. What I mean is, after the following segment, my page is blank.


“Do you see him? Is he still looking this way?” Mielou asked desperately. But Cassidy had continued talking and everyone was looking at her.
“.... I would also like to thank all my wonderful children for making this feast possible-” Lilette felt her cheeks heat up as she sunk into her chair, trying not to be seen “-furthermore, I would like Lilette to stay behind and clean up”
Lilette bolted up right in shock and every eye in the room turned to her.
“But that’s not-” she began to argue.
“-Don’t make a spectacle of yourself, Lilette.” She said, embarrassed that her daughter would speak back at her in front of all the guests. She adjusted her body language and vocal quality to address the entire hall again “Thank you all for a wonderful evening and I look forward to a great night of dancing!”
Lilette looked around the room at all the staring eyes, which gradually flicked away from her.

“Don’t worry, Lette” comforted Mielou, placing a hand on her shoulder “It won’t take you very long to clean all this-” Mielou looked out to the tables, full of used plates, and bit her lower lip in concern “-hmmm, that could take some time” she admitted “but look on the bright side.... um, err”
“There is no bright side” Lilette groaned rolling her eyes and Mielou had to agree.
Lilette sat in anguish, watching the hall empty, as Elves and Fairies filed out through the door.
“I’ll stay back and help you” requested Mielou. She would, no doubt, be reading Lilette’s sorrowful mood in pity.
“Would you really? You’re the best!” smiled Lilette, Mielou giggled and they began to clear away the plates as the last quests and hosts exited.

“Mielou?” said an unfamiliar, sweet voice.
Lilette looked up from the dishes to see the googly eyed boy, standing nervously in front of them. She hadn’t noticed how flawlessly charming he was from far away, but now she could see his chocolate brown hair and magical hazel eyes very clearly. She felt weakened merely by his presence.
She tried with all her might to rid herself of these uncalled for feelings, but she failed miserably. The boy smiled in amusement and Mielou shot her a nasty look, as the two of them instinctively read her emotions.
“Sorry” said Lilette ashamed and tried to occupy her thoughts by picking up dishes.
“I was just wondering... um” began the boy, looking down at the napkin he was fiddling with.
“Yes?” prompted Mielou with excited anticipation. The boy took a deep breath, as if he were about to jump off something high, and blurted out:
“If you would like to come and dance with me on the mountain peak” he spoke so fast it sounded more like a statement than a proposal.
“I’d love to!” chirped Mielou.
The boy placed the now mutated napkin on the table and held out his hand with newborn confidence. Mielou took his hand in hers, bursting with excitement. They caught each other’s gaze and held it with gentle intensity. Then, as if Lilette didn’t even exist, they flew off through the door hand in hand, still staring placidly into each other’s eyes.

“That’s fine! Don’t worry about me! Go right ahead!” Lilette called out to them with sour irony, but they were long gone and wouldn’t have heard her.
“How gross. Soppy lovers. How inconvenient for them” she bitterly thought aloud, but was once again envious of her best friend and uncontrollably collapsed to the ground bursting into a sob of heavy tears.

She cried until there were no tears left in her body. Wiping her cheeks, she stood up, appalled with herself for reacting in such a way.
He was so beautiful
She thought involuntarily
He’s the most wonderful boy I’ve ever seen
Why couldn’t she stop thinking these thoughts? She knew it wasn’t right to love the boy Mielou had fancied ‘for like ever.’ She tried to stop the thoughts, but they were intrusively unyielding.
This must be what love is like
How dare she think the word love.
“I DON’T LOVE HIM” she screamed, her voice echoed off the walls. But as hard as she tried she couldn’t convince herself. What was she to do?
Maybe I’ll run away, to some distance land, somewhere where I’ll never have to see him again
But the thought of never again seeing his amused smile or his enchanting eyes, burnt a pain deep inside of her. The pain didn’t go away. She now needed to see him again, she needed the pain of his absence to be healed. She was torturing herself, he was torturing her,
I hate him
She thought with as much repulsion as she could manage.

“I hate him” she hissed aloud, but the image of his face overpowered her and she gave into herself.
“Ok, fine! I love him! I love him! I do. He’s the meaning of existence and I need him, I want him. I love him” she gasped and cupped her hands to her mouth.
No swear word, English or Elfish, could compare to the array of sinister words she had just uttered. Suicidal thoughts filled her mind but disappeared as quickly as they had come. How could she do this to her best friend?

She pressed her eyebrows with her fingers, attempting to squeeze the thoughts out of her mind. Then she stopped. Took a very deep, shaky breath and endeavoured to picking up plates.