The Diary of Joy

Mischief

4. Peace, the year of the Phoenix

Dear Angel,

I have told you a bit about my sister Mischief but for you to be able to fully understand what my sister is like, I think I should tell you more.
As far as I can gather from our parents' bedtime stories, the only peaceful moments she spent in our house were her first few days.
That part of the story is pretty sad because it seems like her actual parents just left her in the middle of the forest where mom and dad found her and decided to be her new mommy and daddy.

Although our parents love us all equally, I think they weren't ready for Mischief.
When they brought her home I imagine she was the cutest little human ever, she is still adorable, but after a few days, she became more than they could handle.
You see I am very energetic and that sometimes gets me in trouble, but Mischief, it seems as if trouble follows her wherever she goes, she is the trouble, I think.

I know, you are probably thinking that I am exaggerating. Well, let me give you a few examples of how my dear sister behaves sometimes.
Don't get me wrong I love my sister to the moon and back, but she is so naughty sometimes that I don't know what to do about it.
Anyway, why do I say Mischief is naughty?
Well, I have felt it on my own skin.

Since I was a baby, I have had this paralyzing fear of spiders. It probably has something to do with the fact that once my wings got stuck in the spider's web and my parents barely got me out.
While all that was happening, a huge black spider just stood there watching me with its multiple eyes and it just terrified me.
Although mom says that we should love and respect all the living beings, I choose to respect the spiders by staying away from them.

So Mischief, naughty as she is, decided it would be a good idea to put a spider in my bed.
Let's just say that I hit the ceiling. Literally.
I got so scared that I flew out of bed in a matter of seconds and the next thing I knew I hit the ceiling, nose first.
The next thing I heard was Mischief laughing hysterically although I didn't find it even remotely funny.
I guess from her point of view it might have been funny seeing me flutter around in panic and run into the ceiling, but I was not amused.

You might be thinking what kind of monster would put a poor little spider in harm's way, but don't worry Mischief might be mischievous, but she is not cruel.
When I calmed down, I noticed that it wasn't a real spider it was a conjured up image of a spider that looked so realistic it was creepy.
How can regular human use magic? Well, she isn't using the type of magic that is available to me or our parents, it is the magic of spells.
That kind of magic, according to mom, was used in the past by humans but it didn't end well for them.

Honestly, she never explained what happened to them, the only thing I heard by accident, from her and dad's conversation is one word 'Salem'.
I have no idea what that word means, but I could feel that there was a dark story connected with that word. A story that was so dark that even dad would never tell us about it.
That is a surprise in itself since dad has told us some very peculiar and frightening stories before, but this one, he refused to share.

Back to Mischief, she found a book of spells in the Neverending Library, and she spent months testing out different spells.
Most of them didn't work so well, but she was eager to learn any type of magic she could, so she spent a lot of time practicing.
I just wish she didn't practice on me and that she didn't practice making spider images, but oh, well, no one is perfect.

You must be thinking that this is all normal sibling behavior, but she is actually misbehaving even with our parents.
Often times she would trick them and leave the house without telling anyone and go into the forest to have fun.

She would usually sneak out to spend time playing with lizards, spiders, snails, and all the other creatures that I am not so friendly with.
Our brothers love that about her because it is something to bond over and none of them understand why I don't like spending time with those creatures.
It seems to me like my darling sister can never sit still and going off to explore things is usually what gets her in trouble.

I distinctly remember one time when she didn't get home after playing with her friends and mom and dad were sick with worry.
Everyone we cared about was asked to help us find her.
We were all running around, even us children, looking for her worried that something might have happened to her.
I don't remember ever seeing mom and dad so scared.
It was probably the first time Mischief did something as serious as that, to just leave without telling anyone where she was.

While we were exhausting ourselves in the search for the cute little angel, as everyone saw her, it turned out that she was having fun.
What happened was that on her way back from her friend's house she saw an entrance to the cave nearby.
Instead of just leaving it be, like I would have done, she decided to check it out.

When she entered the cave she noticed a shiny little spark that was moving rapidly and was soon joined by other bright yellow sparks.
Fascinated as she was with the display, she forgot all about us and how worried we might become.
Instead, she started chasing the little firebugs getting deeper and deeper into the cave.
She was enjoying her game so thoroughly that she didn't even notice when she lost sight of the cave entrance.
This probably happened because she stumbled upon hundreds of firebugs that almost lit up the whole dark cave.

For some reason, I can't understand even now, why, but they really liked her and started creating beautiful shiny pictures for her by flying close together.
She enjoyed the show while it lasted, but once it was over she realized that she couldn't find her way back.
Before she could panic too much, the firebugs helped her out by lighting out the way out of the cave.
When we finally found her, she was smiling happily while all of us watched her in shock as she told us what had happened.

Mom and dad were not happy about her actions, so she was punished in the worst way possible, she had to stay home without the possibility of exploring the forest.

The problem with my sister is that she usually doesn't think, she just follows her curiosity no matter where it might take her.
I could see that she was feeling bad for worrying us all, but I was also sure that many more similar situations would occur since she couldn't control her curiosity. It just ran rampant, and all we could do was hope it wouldn't get her in trouble.

As you might imagine dad and Mischief get along really well since he can sometimes be as mischievous as she is.
Sometimes they even get in trouble together, when they do something really dangerous or simply not very clever.
I can't understand how an adult can act so childish, but I would never change that about dad since I love him just the way he is.

From time to time, she even manages to trick our brothers into getting into trouble which is not an easy thing to do, trust me.
They are not always nice and obedient but when they do something they shouldn't, they are usually clever enough to get away with it, but still, Mischief sometimes gets the better of both of them and gets them in trouble.

Of course, we don't get into a LOT of trouble, just a fair amount of trouble, as much as any child does.
Well, all of us except for Mischief, she gets in trouble more than average. When Mischief was younger mom and dad sometimes spent hours chasing her around the house because she just wouldn't sit still.
She would jump around the house, run around and explore every space, even the smallest and the best-hidden ones.

Oh, dad is coming. I better hide you. I don't want him to find you. See you next time.

Love,

Joy