Once Upon Another Reality (Fantasy) (Fairies) (Witches)

Fantasy Realm (Fantasy) (Fairies) (Witches)

There is a thin line between reality and fantasy. Sophie traded that line carefully, because she knew that if she wouldn't , the world as she knew would change.

Every morning she woke with the thought of sleeping forever. It was a chore to just get up from the bed and get ready to face the day. She wondered how would it feel if one day she just didn't wake up, what if she just let the sleep get the better of her.

Will that free her of the monotony of her daily routine of getting up, getting ready and driving through the traffic to a job she doesn't even like. Eating the same meals , talking to the same people, having the same arguments over and over again. She wondered if everyone felt this way, lonely but in the company of others.

Partners who don't have time for you, and when they do, all they want to do is talk about themselves. Parents who are getting old and live far away. Siblings who have drifted apart and friends who change faster than seasons do.

"No don't go, don't leave. " Sophie whispered in the dark. Suddenly, she was wide awake. Was she dreaming? It was a cool summer evening but she was sweating profusely, like she had just run a marathon and not woken up from a nightmare. It was a nightmare right? She pinched herself just to make sure she was still not dreaming. She looked at the empty bed beside her, her partner must be working late tonight as well. She checked the time - 3:00 am.

Sophie took a cool sip of water and tried concentrating on taking deep breaths. "It was just a nightmare. It means nothing." She kept repeating to herself. Her mind couldn't help but drift back to her childhood during times like tonight.

One night when Sophie was 10 years old or so, she dreamt of living in a world that was not so dissimilar to reality. Except that it was greener and there were all sorts of creature that lived there - fairies, centaurs, gnomes, ghouls, mermaids, unicorns and werewolves.

She remembers the exact details of the dream even two decades later. She remembers how there were yellow balls of mystical lights that sometimes glowed on top of hills and trees but whenever she tried to get closer they would disappear.

She remembers a gnome called Banxi called them balls of fortune. Banxi was Sophie's friend and he said that if she was ever lucky to catch ball of fortune in her palms,  she could wish for anything and it would come true. Balls of fortune only appear to people who are pure of heart and who truly need them.

Sophie vividly remembers the sweet and peppermint fragrance of trees when she would take evening strolls in the woods. She remembers how the giant old blue gum tree would slightly bow to acknowledge her presence and then go back to stand in all its magnificence . She remembers the butterflies singing as they went from flower to flower collecting pollens and drinking nectar. 

Everything seemed so real, she lived there for years. However, one morning she was rudely woken up by her mother and told to get ready for school. She took time adjusting. Her mom hustled around the house, making breakfast, packing lunch while getting her sister and Sophie ready for school. She was impatient and did not want to hear about Sophie's experience. She brushed it aside calling it a dream and asked her to stop whiling away her time and hurry up.

Sophie felt like she was jerked away from one reality and had been planted into another. She could not believe for months that what she experienced was just a mere dream. Her parents were worried that she was loosing her mind and she had to go to therapy. In therapy, Sophie was told that she had created a fantasy world to get away from reality. That she is doing it to cope with the stress of daily life.

Since then, Sophie has been treading carefully between the thin line of reality and fantasy. Tonight was just another hiccup, she told herself. She is in this world and this world is real. What she dreams
of are just fantasies of a 10 year old girl's mind. She kept repeating to herself.