The Diary of Joy

The new beginning

16. Joy, the year of the Phoenix

Dear Angel,

Everything in my life is becoming even better than it was. I mean, my life was already awesome, but now it's becoming more than that. It's becoming perfect.

Okay, maybe not perfect, we still make mistakes, and bad things do happen from time to time, but still everything today is much better than it was yesterday.

We have finally managed to become closer to grandmother and grandfather and I can see that it means the world to mom, which, in turn, makes it so much more important to me.

Finally, my grandparents can go past the prejudices and get to know the real us. They have noted my energetic nature, Mischief's tendency to cause trouble, the twins opposing personalities, they have even started seeing how awesome dad is.

I am so happy to see their interaction becoming friendlier and more relaxed because I think if people give dad a chance they all come to realize how amazing he is. He can get well with everyone because he is such a great listener and a kind friend.

What is the best news for me is that we have even started playing games with my grandparents. As you know, games are what I do the best, so it gives me immense pleasure to share something close to my heart with them.

Of course, since they are not very familiar with games (older generation of fairies didn't have the time or the disposition for them), we started them off with some easier, more common games. We played boring games that were not invented by me.

As they started getting more and more comfortable and open-minded, I was able to introduce my flavor of the games. Still, I took it easy and showed them my least imaginative games first.

Even with those games, we managed to have a lot of fun, and in my books, that is a very good thing. If I am being honest, how well they played my games was my test for them, to see whether they were ready for all the awesomeness my games and my family had to offer.

Once I deemed them ready, I decided to show them the one game that was bound to reveal to them what true wonder was. After all, all of my games are bound to leave people breathless (sometimes even literally), and I was pretty sure my grandparents wouldn't be an exception.

Yet, I couldn't help but be nervous about it. What if they failed the ultimate test? What if they didn't like my fantastic game?

At first look, the game might look complicated, but in its essence, it was simple and fun. Its name said it all, Dancing Colors. Okay, okay, it might not say EVERYTHING. I'll explain.

Since this is a game for the whole family, I had to think of something that would be possible for beings without wings to do as well, which is never an easy task for me. What I am trying to say is that it took me a long time to think this game through, but I am very happy with the final result.

So to start from the beginning, the game involves a lot of colorful glitter and great dancing skills (or in dad's case the best attempt at any dance skills). The goal of the game is to get the best score from the 'judges' for artistic performance.

Judges are usually people who don't participate in that particular round of the game, but we all take turns being judges and players. Anyway, the judges have to make a unanimous decision on whose dancing presented the most pleasant visual representation of a certain emotion/theme/action and so on.

The players, on their part, are allowed to make their design of what they believe those things look/feel like by only using colors and dancing. Mostly by dancing in colors but other ideas are acceptable, as well.

I know, I know, it sounds confusing, but believe me, it's not. Maybe giving an example will clear everything up.

One round had the word joy as the one thing we needed to explain. What I decided to do for that round was cover the ground with my rainbow-colored fairy dust, and then I started dancing in it, eventually lying on the ground and dancing while lying, effectively making a dust fairy on the ground.

While I was doing that, I kept tossing and turning joyfully, and it was clear that the judges could see clearly what I was trying to represent myself, that is to say, joy. Of course, I got the highest score, since it was the most unique way to explain the joy and it looked beautiful with rainbow dust all around.

It did take me a lot of time to wash away all the dust from my hair, but it was worth the trouble since the final winner (me this time) got to choose what we would have for dinner. Loving food as much I do, I made sure to win more rounds than the others, thus carrying victory home (or in my belly).

The rest of my family had some great ideas and won a few rounds, but, of course, I was the best one, followed closely by mom, which wasn't a surprise.

What did surprise me was that my grandparents were pretty good at playing the game. I guess, once they allowed themselves to open up, they could be pretty fun to be around.

Being aware of that made me happy that we gave them a second chance, even after everything they had done to us. Well, mostly mom, because we, as children, never fully felt the pain of not having them in our lives since we never had them, we didn't know the difference.

Anyway, after the game was over, I got to pick and choose what we would have for dinner. Of course, that took some time, but when I finally made my decision, I was in charge of setting the table with my siblings while mom and grandmother went on to prepare the meal.

Soon enough, the doorbell rang, and grandma and grandpa came for dinner, meeting my mom's parents for the first time. I expected there would be some friction between the two because of how different they were, but they were all on their best behavior.

It made me so happy to see that my closest family was together and getting along well as we ate delicious cupcakes and honey cakes that I insisted on.

The night breeze fluttered through the branches of the tree under which we were settled and I couldn't think of a more perfect moment. I was enjoying the beauty of nature with the melodic laughter of my family, and loud chatter in the background. What could be more perfect?

And that is my dear, Angel, how the new chapter in our lives started and I couldn't be happier about it. I have a feeling that our future will be filled with laughter and joy (Joy, see what I did there?)

Anyway, before I leave you for good, my friend, I have to tell you that I am very grateful to you for being there for me when I needed you the most.

Love, Joy

THE END

Author's note: If you liked this story please check out my book Fairy Diary which takes place before this one and is written from the point of view of Lyna.