Fragile Mind

Dreamer

Once upon a time, in a similar land to ours, a girl had a dream. It was so large that she was startled awake as soon as it finished. She ran to her parents to tell them what she had seen, but they told her that it was nothing, that she should go back to sleep.

The girl was crestfallen. The dream had seemed so very real, so much better than anything she had ever imagined. She went to her room and did as her parents said, shutting off the light as she went.

The next morning, she got ready for school as usual but something was different. She just couldn't shake the feeling of loss. She told her mother who simply smiled and ruffled her hair. She told her father who chuckled at his daughter's imagination.

At school, she went to her best friend who appeared to listen to what the girl had to say, but when the girl finished all she was offered was silence.

She felt sick. Nobody listened to her! She tried throwing herself into her schoolwork and that worked... for a while. It worked until she noticed how little people cared how well she was doing in school.

Now she felt invisible, like nothing she could do would matter. She remembered the dream and the warmth of it kept her going, though she wanted nothing more than to grow numb so she wouldn't need to feel as she did.

One day, as she walked home from school, she stopped at the park. She marveled at the towering oaks as they bowed their respects to the sun. At that moment a strong gust of wind laughed past her throwing up a storm of leaves. The girl felt dazzled by this singular moment and for the first time in a while, her heart soared. The sun beamed down at her and she could feel the warmth of that dream again. 'So very close' she thought, 'If I can just find that place in my dreams, perhaps I can feel that happy again.' She reluctantly left the park as the sun began to set.

Her parents scolded her as soon as she arrived home and despite how hard the girl tried to explain, they simply wouldn't listen. She was locked in her room for the rest of the school year and was meant to come home the very second school ended. The girl began to feel trapped. 

A week into the punishment, she tried escaping out her bedroom window, but her mother caught her as she made her way to the street.

A month into the punishment, she managed to escape out the same window at night while her parents slept. She walked down the dimly lit street in a daze until she came to a hill. Fireflies tickled her nose as she settled onto the soft grass. She looked out over the town and then up at the stars. She realized, with a smile, that she could hardly tell the sky from the ground at night. Again she felt a tingling in her mind that this was part of her dream.

Her mother was waiting under the porch as the girl came home. The girl, still exhilarated, explained to her mother what she had experienced, but it was no use. That very night, her father nailed her window shut.

Two weeks later, the girl began to feel trapped again, the afterimage of that beautiful scene evaporated each night until she could hardly remember anything but the feeling. She held onto it as long as she could but it wasn't long until she couldn't remember that either. She pleaded with her parents to let her out for an hour, fifteen minutes, fifteen seconds! Anything! They just wouldn't concede.

One night, after everyone went to sleep, the girl felt something strange stirring in the air, almost a rustling. She smelled fresh honeysuckle and felt the prickle of a rainstorm on her skin. She smiled for the first time in a month as her shackles seemed to lift. She opened her eyes to her same boring room, and she felt a crushing disappointment and confusion take her over. She threw her covers off despite the icy chill of the room. She pressed against the walls of her room and wished for her dream. Again, the teasing wind whipped at her face beaconing her towards her mirror.

The girl ran over to her mirror and without thinking, rammed herself through the glass.

Anyone might have said that she was crazy if they didn't see the girl appear on the other side of the glass beaming at the new world before her and freer than anyone had ever been as she ran into the forest. She never looked back. Not even once.