tuesday lullabies

week one // the giving tree

week one // the giving tree

Her name was Alice Heights.

Alice was odd. She was not physically disproportioned or ugly; in fact, she could have been quite beautiful. Her lanky arms and legs were always inviting people in for a hug, and her grey eyes were wide with anticipation for something to happen. She held her hair back and dressed unusually, wearing cowboy boots and long skirts and vests.

Alice would carry a guitar to school, but never took the instrument out of its case. After school, Alice went to shelters and played music for the people who worked there, the people or animals that lived there. She brought to school baked treats that she would pass out in the hall every day, which the people in the halls would greedily grab from the container she carried with her. Alice helped when people were injured, and cried along with them when they were hurt. She had no friends, but was friendly with everybody. Nobody loved Alice, but Alice loved everyone.

Each morning, she swept her auburn locks into a tight ponytail on the top of her head and carefully brushed her teeth, making sure her breath smelled of nothing but mint and her skin of lilac and vanilla. She did not wear any make-up for fear of losing herself.

Each day, she would carefully pack up the sweets she had made the night before - cupcakes, cookie dough, or cookies - and hold them in her lap as she rode the bus to school. Alice tutored the middle school kids in their studies, and helped with the high schoolers as they asked for her during her lunch periods.

Her delicacies were taken from her as the school day went on, much to Alice's delight. She raised her hand to answer every question the teacher asked, and when called, she would comment on how nice the teacher looked that day, or did they ever wonder if fairy tales could come true? She was a daydreamer, and known as such by the teachers and students; soon enough, they had learned not to call on the far-away Alice Heights.

After school, Alice would grab her guitar from homeroom and journey out to a club: Diversity on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Equality on Monday, the Recycling Squad/Green Team on Wednesday and cheered for the volleyball team on Friday.

When Alice was ready to leave school, she headed for an animal shelter, an elderly home, the hospital, or any other caregiving place she could think of. When she arrived, she would take her guitar out of it's case and play any song requested - she had memorised everything from Barbra Streisand to Britney Spears - and had the audience sing along with her. She sang uplifting, joyful songs, and brilliant, sad songs. She enraptured the audience of any age, mesmerising them with her sweet smile and encompassing them with her light, happy aura.

Finally, Alice would head home and bake her treats for the next day. She would fill a mug with mint tea and curl up with a book and a blanket by her fireplace for an hour or so, until it was time for a late dinner. Alice would heat something up and quickly eat it, rushing to finish as much homework as possible before ten - when her parents would come home, bickering or silent.

Alice would stay up all night. She thought about people; what did they think of her? Had they liked her food of the day? As the clock ticked on and the hours passed, her thoughts would run deeper and deeper, enveloping her in an amorphous haze that left darker thoughts in her mind. Did anybody love her the way she loved everybody? How many people judged her each day for her personality, the way she dressed? She turned on her favorite band and plugged her earbuds in and listened to their lyrics. She related to them, and shook her bed with her muffled sobs. She lost herself inside of herself, and it wasn't until three hours past midnight until she could let herself fall into a deeper sort of darkness, a temporary death, a sleep.

Alice was tired of pretending to be okay, which only made her try harder to convince the world that she was.

Each day was the same. Each day, Alice walked into school alone. Each day, she left alone, but with a bright smile on her face.

Her grey eyes no longer could keep up the sparkle that she used to be able to maintain during the day. She started to conceal her face with powder stuffs, trying her absolute hardest to keep up the persona that she had built up for herself. Dark circles and splotches does not an Alice make, no sir.

Soon, not even the make-up could cover up the paleness of her skin, the deadness in her eyes. She showed up to school with her goods half-baked. This dwindled to bringing food twice a week, once a week, not at all. She no longer wore the pastel shirts and sunny sundresses, opting them out for a darker side of her wardrobe, which was merely blue.

Nobody once asked Alice if she was okay, nobody once asked her what had changed.

The only question she got from them was, "Where have all of your cupcakes gone?"

Alice put down her books at night and laid in her bed, not bothering to keep up with her studies. She wondered what had happened to the cheery girl she had been only a few weeks ago.

Maybe I haven't changed, she thought. Perhaps it's only the way that I look, now. My thoughts are the same.

The teachers never wondered why she hadn't bothered to speak a word in class anymore; all that was gone from them was that little hand frantically waving in the back of the room. Those that would meet Alice recently would never believe that she was the same person as the Alice from months ago.

Alice finally realised that she was no longer needed. The treats she brought to school were forgotten, and she had too low of grades to go on to college in the future. She was lonely and no longer had any friends.

That's why when the speeding car raced down the street before the crosswalk, she didn't bother to step out of the way.

⚛ feel free to point out any mistakes or such - i didn't have much time to edit. what did you think of alice? i put a bit of a different spin on the giving tree. i hope you don't mind. -mar ⚛