The Deception of Magic

Honey Trees and Water Ponds

She was awake. Her pillow was wet with saliva as if it could have smelt the bread, wine and cheese in her dream. The dream didn’t seemed as disturbing as the last, and it felt like she was progressing through whatever it was that her mind was trying to tell her. Dawn was creeping through her windows, creating a soft light. The light caught her face as if she was hiding from it, and she quickly pulled up the covers. It was too early to be awake and she tried to force her body to go back to sleep. It fought valiantly and her eyes stayed awake. Darkness encircled her eyes and they were particularly dark today, although it was a combination of lack of sleep, and laziness at taking off yesterday’s make-up. Her fluffy white doona hid her for another hour, until she couldn’t stay there any longer. She didn’t have to work that day which was lucky. She felt cranky, and envisioned throwing things and stabbing people in the eyes with plastic forks. Stabbing thoughts aside, as she got out of bed, her eyes wandered towards the book that sat on top of her dresser. It was opened, seemingly warm and inviting. She couldn’t stop herself walking towards the dresser. The movement in her legs was automatic and unstoppable. The book was opened at a different page to what shehad gotten up to, and further along in the book than she had remembered reading. The title of the chapter was five words long and didn’t make much sense.

Chapter 5 - Honey trees and water ponds.

Honey trees? Do they even exist? She thought to herself as she picked the book off the dresser, knocking her jewellery collection that was strewn across the dresser. An earring fell to the floor and rolled under her bed, but Ciara didn’t hear it fall. She threw the book onto the bed and walked out of the bedroom. She required coffee to read at this hour of the morning. She drank a whole cup quickly in the kitchen and poured herself another. Drearily walking back into the bedroom she placed the cup of coffee on the bedside table and flopped back into bed. The Deception of Magic jumped with the quilt cover and nestled back into the bed, without a page turned. Ciara looked around her bedroom at the odd assortment of things she had collected throughout the years. Many were presents from faraway lands given to her by relatives who were well travelled. Trinkets from Africa and Asia sat on her dresser and hung from the curtain rods. She hoped to travel one day when she had saved up enough money after finishing her degree. She sighed, knowing that that was a long time away and for now she had more pressing matters at hand. Why did the book want to visit her in her dreams? Why did it seem like she could smell and taste what was happening in her dreams? Why did the house down the road have a similar plant, and what the hell was it? They were her main questions for now, but she felt that the list would increase as time went on.

Coffee in hand she finally stopped daydreaming and returned her attention to the book. The page was still at the Honey Trees and Water ponds and she turned the page. What followed was similar to a fantasy fairy-tale, complete with Queens and evil witches. It was completely different to the rest of the book which was had started with what would happen if magic were real and fell into the wrong hands. It was about harnessing and somewhat exploiting magic for personal gain. She was drawn to the idea of the debate about whether magic were real or not, but she could not fathom the idea of it really being real. There were no ‘wizards’ in this world and that was that. Honey Trees and Water Ponds seemed to bore Ciara, but that might have been the hour of the morning. It had no purpose, it had no real story. It was as if the story was hiding a deeper meaning that Ciara could not get her head around. The trees swirled with happiness as the butterflies fluttered with glee. The Queen and the unicorn danced under the moon and the stars and all was well. There was prosperity and growths within the kingdom, harvests were almost as high as the townsfolk morale. The story went on for several more paragraphs, which explained how happy everyone was and how well the kingdom was doing. It was a tediously happy story and Ciara soon felt quite bored. She closed the book in disgust and got up off the bed. It all seemed ridiculous. Why would the book want me to read something that was filled with love and happiness? What is the point of a story without conflict? She went and watched tv for the rest of the day, feeling quite frustrated and disappointed with what was happening within the book. She lazed on the lounge eating popcorn, her mind often drifting off to think about queens and unicorns. The whole idea seemed incredulous and she managed to push it to the far corner of her mind.