Beautiful Dreamer (Fiction)

Beautiful Dreamer

She was dreaming, her face paled by the full moon which glanced through her curtain as if it were playfully smiling at her in a challenge of peek-a-boo.

Her eyelids flickered restlessly, hiding a tempest. She whispered a name, inaudible, and turned on her side, gently biting her lower lip and holding it between her teeth.

With the softest moan, a tear grew like a honey drop on one lash, then fell, rolling slowly down her cheek.

The wind blew outside, and the sad old tree bowed to her.

A hush passed among the stars in the heavens, then two tiny flecks of the most wonderful bright blue light fell like electric snowdrops, dancing playfully around each other as they circled down through the crisp autumn darkness and drifted lazily to her window.

There the lights stopped, bobbing in the wind.

"She sleeps, my Mab," said a voice like a soft crystal chime.

The lights glided to her, through the window glass, and fell into orbit above her unsettled dreams.

"Oh..." cried another voice, "... her heart is so sad."

The lights drew closer, kissing her cheek with their glow.

"She is soooo beautiful, Mab," came a whisper.

"But she is hurting."

In night silence, the guardian lights paused, feeling her thoughts. They watched her face, the soft skin of her brow furrowed in an unseen misery. They heard the gentle beat of her heart, trapped and lonely in her chest. They sensed the loss.

"I have it!" declared Mab, and span in the air, up and down, then around the room in a speeding circle, growing faster and faster with every circuit.

"Mab?" asked the other, confused.

"Join me! Join me!" sang Mab.

The smaller light followed, wobbling, hesitating to reach pace and unite with the laser light trail of Mab. "What... are... you... doing?" panted the voice as it finally came in line with Mab.

"Bringing on the morn!" said the excited Mab. "Faster! Go faster!"

And faster and faster they went, so very fast, until a ring of pure white hung above the girl and a soft harmony of voice began to fill the room.

Outside, the tired moon slipped from the sky, behind the violet-lined horizon, and, one by one, the twinkling stars in the heavens went out.

Through the window, a solitary ray of sunlight came, hesitant as a lamb to the world, and it crept through the shadow, cutting the darkness away. The guardian lights fell in beside it, guiding it to the bed and the girl.

They lead it to her face, and the warmth of the soft, yellow light evaporated the tear on her cheek, and all trace of its path.

They carried it onward to her chest, and there they stopped, and the ray of light shone.

It shone brightly, caressing her torment, filling her soul.

She absorbed it.

"Have you done it, Mab?" asked the voice.

The guardian lights danced, darting too and fro.

"She has Sunshine in her heart." said Mab, proudly. "And she will always know love."

A laugh tinkled, faint to any listening ear. "Then our work is done, and home we go!"

"Our work is done," sighed Mab. "Let beauty be at peace."

With a final look to the vision before them, the sparks of brilliant blue departed, through the window glass, and faded away into where there were stars before.

And in the dawn; as the powder blue of morning spread across the sky; and the songbirds began their chorus in the meadow; just for a moment, still in dream, the sleeping girl smiled.

The End