Vanished Wings

                   Once upon a time there was a little peasant boy named Jace who lived in the village of Serene. Jace was about 7 years old, very poor but also very special; more special than any other boy or girl in his entire village. You see Jace had two 6ft tall wings. His wings were whiter than snow and a little longer than arm’s length wide. They sparkled like stars that twinkled in the sky enough which was enough to make all of the other villagers jealous because they did not have wings. In fact, the villagers were so jealous that they would constantly ostracize Jace. He was teased constantly and was always being stared at.

                    Jace’s mother called her son’s wings a blessing but Jace thought of it as a curse. He hated being made fun of by his classmates for being different. He wanted to be normal like everybody else. Eventually, he grew so sad and upset that one day he walked out of town alone and bare foot until he came upon a boulder that was close to a river bank outside the village. He stood on top of the boulder then cried out to the sky, “I wish I was normal! I wish I didn’t have these stupid wings! I want to be like my friends! I want to be normal!” Then suddenly, a man witch slowly climbed out of the water. His skin was a dark green; greener than molded bread. He wore a black gown with a matching pointy hat. His fingers were long, pointy and boney. His nose was as ugly as the rest of his face.

                “Do you really mean that?” the witch asked Jace, whose face had frozen at the sight of the witch. “Because if you do then I can make those cursed wings DISAPPEAR!”

Jace knew it was wrong to talk to strangers but his excitement peeked at the idea of being normal. He figured that if this witch could take his wings away then everyone would like him. Jace nodded his head while looking the witch in his beady green/black eyes. “Yes. I do mean it. And I want you to take my wings away. I don’t want them anymore.”

The witch smiled then casted a spell on Jace and his wings disappeared forever.

                                                                                        ***

                   Jace felt like he had been in a car accident after he finally awoken later that night after what seemed like a deepest sleep he had in his life. He leaned up but he wasn’t in his usual corner of the basement with his mom in the village. Instead he was on the outskirts of town and had been asleep on top of a huge rock. Jace jumped down from the giant boulder but he staggered when he landed. He no longer had the wings on his back to cushion his fall. Jace looked over his shoulder and when he saw that his wings were really and truly gone he became excited. Yes, yes, he thought, I’m finally normal! Then he ran back home. No one in the village had seen him when he arrived in town because he no longer had wings that sparkled like the stars to acknowledge his presence.

                When his mother saw that her son’s wings had vanished, she wept and wept all night. When Jace went to school the next day nobody paid any attention to him. Before everyone would tease him but now no one paid any attention to him at all. At recess, Jace walked up to a group of guys getting ready to play tag and asked if he could join them. One kid said no and that they already had their players.

                Another kid said , “why would we let you play now when we didn’t want you playing before?”

“But I’m normal just like you guys now,” Jace argued.  He was starting to become sad because of his lack of acceptance. Jace sprung around in a circle just in case the guys didn’t notice. “See…I have no wings..just like you…see?”

The kids grew quiet and one kid looked down at his feet. Then one kid spoke up. It was in a quiet voice. “I like your wings.”

Jace eyes widened slowly and his lips parted. “What? But you guys made fun of me. You called me weird and a freak.”

                Another kid spoke up. He was fat and short and had a sucker in his mouth. “Yea, but I never thought you’d get rid of them. They were kinda nice. I wish I had wings.” The other kids nodded in agreement.

Jace was still confused. “But then how come you guys would never let me play games like tag with you?”

                The kids laughed. Then one little boy said, “because your wings would always poke me in the eye or bump into something or somebody. And if we let you play tag you would always win because you could fly. It was cheating.”

                Jace figured that made sense but he still had one question. “Well how come I can’t play now?”

                “Because you’re stupid. You gave up something that shoulda made you happy, Stupid.”

Then the group of kids laughed and ran off into their game of tag and Jace was left their standing in the middle of the playground thinking about the choice he made.

                After school was over Jace ran back to the spot where he had met the witch and called out for him but he never showed. Jace became so sad that he sat on top of the boulder again crying his heart out. Jace wished he had never given up something that made him so special. Now he was nothing. He felt that without wings he was no longer his true self and he regretted caring about what people thought of him.

                Then it started to snow and an angel appeared by his side. This angel had wings ten feet long and ten feet across. The angel was a woman who wore a white and gold gown. She smiled at Jace and he immediately thought  yes, yes she’s about to give me my wings back! Yes!

But the angel just smiled at him and said, “Jace, honey, how come you did not want your wings?”

                “It made me different and I thought it was wrong to be different. I wanted to be like everybody else but now I’m even more unhappy. Can I have my wings back?”

                The angel continued to smile at him but she shook her head. “Your wings never left you dear. They are on you right now; I can see them. That witch made them disappear. He made it so no one could see them, but they’re still there. They’ll always be there. He wanted to make you feel sad but you don’t have to feel sad anymore.”

Jace stared at her blankly thinking about why his life was so complicated. Then the angel handed him a poem called Wings. “This poem will clear up why you don’t need to see the wings on your back to know that you are special.”

Jace read the poem and it made him feel better. He never cried over not seeing his wings again. In fact, he went to school the next day and showed it to his classmates and they learned too they all had invisible wings and nothing and no one can ever take them away.

 

Wings

Just because you can’t see your wings

Doesn’t mean you can’t fly

No one can break your wings

Unless you give them the knife

Don’t let your enemies confuse you

They live to lie

Their joy is your failure

And their advantage is your doubt