The Dove

In The Beginning

It all started when Tianna Taylor turned six years old. She had had a wonderful birthday party, all her friends were there and her siblings, parents, and grandparents. Even her aunt Naomi, who lived thousands of miles away, was there that day. She got a lot of presents she had wanted, spent time with people she loved. All in all, it was a really good day for little Tianna.

Years later, though, shed could not remember any of that. Not her presents, not her friends. She had trouble remembering aunt Naomi. It was all swiped away by the start of something extraordinary. A visitor like no other she had ever had. A Dove.

"Ti! Time to go to bed!", her mother shouted from downstairs. The last of her friends had left hours ago, her grandparents just a few minutes ago. Naomi would stay overnight, but she was in the bath. She'd stay in the guest room and they'd be able to play tomorrow. Tianna walked to the end of the stairs.

"Okay mom!", she yelled. "Good night!"

"I'll come to tuck you in after just a little bit!", her mother yelled. Tianna turned around and walked to her room. She opened her door and turned to face the mirror. Her long blonde curls made her look younger than she was, her blue eyes that were really pale looked almost colorless in the dim evening light. Her window was open and the warm summer air filled her room with scents of wood, grass, and the sea. Tianna turned to the window and then she saw her the first time. A pure, almost shining white dove looked at her from her windowsill. She tilted her head and placed a shiny piece of clamshell on top of a pile of smooth rocks and glass shards. The dove looked at her, then looked like she bowed and stepped back a bit and looked at the pile she had just made. Tianna looked at her with her eyes wide open and took a step forwards carefully. The dove did not escape. Tianna walked to her window, right next to the dove. The pile of things was artfully arranged and it looked almost like an art piece from a gallery. The dove looked at her, nodded her head slightly, and made a curious trilling sound that made Tianna's heart flutter and filled her with unexplainable joy. She laughed lightly at the dove and curtsied. "Thank you for this wonderful gift!", she said to the dove. The dove took a step backward and looked down and cawed the windowsill like it was nervous. Then she raised her gaze to meet Tianna's and made a little 'coo' sound, jumped off the windowsill, and flew away. Tianna emptied a small drawer from her own jewelry box and carefully placed the things inside it, trying to preserve the formation. She smiled after the dove and looked out the window right until her mom came to tuck her in.

Afterward, the dove visited Tianna at least twice a year, every year. On her birthdays and one other time during the year, in the spring. Tianna decided that the other time was the dove's birthday and prepared seeds and nuts for her each time. More and more the Tianna and the dove spent time on those special days. But nobody else ever saw the dove. She told about it to her parents and her friends but was not sure if they believed her. They started to call her "The Dovegirl" after she insisted years upon years that the dove was real. The dove continued to visit her all the way up to when she graduated from high school. After that, Tianna moved to another city hundreds of miles away to attend college. She was sad that the dove would be out of her life now, but that is life. She felt really ridiculous about it, but she left her new address in a small note beside her old window in her old room.