Flash Fiction Frenzy

Standing Still

Why can't I be like everybody else? Maple thought. She watched the children run through the grass and laugh and scream with their friends. Even farther away, a little boy was tossing a baseball back and forth with his father.

Aria, Maple's only friend in the world, sat at her feet with a book in her lap. She was scribbling a red crayon back and forth inside the black outline on the page. When she was finished with the red, she picked up the brown.

"Isn't it a pretty day?" Aria asked, smiling at her. Maple wished she could tell Aria that she agreed. The cool breeze and the warm sunlight felt wonderful on her arms. She wished she could move them.

"I went to this fun place yesterday," Aria began her story. "There were rides and a pony, and I ate cotton candy! Mommy said I shouldn't have eaten all of it but it was so good..." Aria's words faded into the background as Maple felt the weight of her condition. Aria had a voice. She could walk, and run, and scream, and eat all the cotton candy she wanted. Maple would never have that.

"What color should I use next?" Aria asked, and Maple snapped back into the moment. She glanced over each individual crayon. She wasn't sure which color she enjoyed best. "I'll use the orange," Aria decided. Maple wished she could tell her friend that the green would look better. The picture was beautiful, though. She longed to compliment it.

"There's this boy at school," Aria started again, "who won't leave me alone. He always takes my toys and says they're his," she sighed. Maple tried to move her arms. She had to. Aria needed a hug. It was no use. No matter how hard she tried, Maple's arms would never move. Aria continued scribbling in her book.

"Aria!" A woman sporting thick black heels and a navy business suit came striding over to collect the girl.

"Mom, can I just finish this?" She begged. "Pretty please? I'm almost done!"

The proper middle-aged woman glanced at her watch and back at her daughter. "You have five minutes, and then we have to go meet Daddy." she waddled back to the bench next to the playground, heels clopping on the sidewalk as she went.

Aria picked up the blue crayon. "I just have to color the sky and then I'm done!" she proclaimed, excited to finish her masterpiece. Maple stared at Aria's hand as the space around her picture filled with color. Maple did not think. She only watched and felt loved in the presence of her friend.

"Aria, let's go!" her mother sternly beckoned.

"Coming!" The little girl replied. She placed all of the crayons back in the box one by one and turned to show Maple her finished drawing. It was a tree-- much like the ones in the park that stood tall and mighty, leaves blowing in the wind. For some reason, Aria had colored its leaves red and orange instead of green.

"Do you like it?" Aria grinned. "It looks just like you!" She stood there only a moment longer, then stuffed the book into her bag and skipped away into her mother's grasp. Somehow, Maple knew that this was the last and only time she'd see her.