Arkadia

<p>Prologue: TMITM</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It was a day like any other in the orphanage.<br />
Esther woke up in a room she shared with three other girls, brushed her teeth in a bathroom she shared with those same girls, and trudged to the cafeteria where she would get her morning meal. Everyone there was nice enough, but even as a seven-year-old, (Seven and a half, if anyone were to ask her,) she could unconsciously feel the pity that they had for her. She didn’t like it one bit. She was seven. She was a big girl.<br />
The cafeteria food was nice enough, she guessed, but it wasn’t anything near what she had been fixed just a couple months earlier, when her mom was still around. But that was before the accident, and Esther didn’t like to think about that. It always made her sad. She still wasn’t over the crushing loss of the only support she ever had, not to mention the dramatic shift her life had went through, still fresh in her mind, even after a couple months. A seven (and a half) year old child adapted quickly, but not that quickly.<br />
Especially after everything she had been through. It would take more than a couple months for her to forget everything that happened to her, no matter how hard she tried.<br />
Esther walked into the lobby of the institution, to visit Ms. Whitiker, who worked the front desk and had always been kind to her, when her eyes immediately landed on a very peculiar woman.<br />
The woman seemed to be in her mid 20s, beautiful, blonde haired, and light-skinned. Second-strangest, this woman seemed to glow. Not like she was pretty – although she certainly was – or that she had a particularly kind aura or anything – although she certainly did – but the lady almost seemed to glow – in a quite literal sense. Not only that, but everything seemed a bit better around her. People smiled more, animals acted happier, even the plants seemed to be getting some of her calming aura.<br />
But that wasn’t the strangest thing about this woman. The other things could have been written off as mere coincidence, but her eyes – oh, her eyes – they were a sort of bright orange, and they, too, seemed to glow physically, though nobody else seemed to notice. They all seemed to think this woman was perfectly normal, but Esther, a young girl of seven, thought this, in her professional opinion, was quite strange. Normally Esther didn’t like strange people, but this woman seemed to have won her confidence just by being her, as some who are, dare I say magical, just are with children.<br />
Still, Esther was nervous, and so didn’t approach right away. She saw that the woman was carrying a book by her side, what looked like a story book with an elaborate cover. Esther tried to inspect it, but was still too far away to see clearly, and was too nervous to approach the woman.<br />
Suddenly, however, the lady, not quickly, but turning as if she suddenly noticed Esther was there, turned her head towards Esther peeking out from behind the corner at her and smiled.<br />
Shocked, Esther retreated back behind the wall she was standing behind.<br />
A few moments later, the lady came into the main living area of the orphanage, carrying the same book that Esther had seen her carrying a couple moments before. The receptionist, the lovely Ms. Whitiker, followed behind to make an announcement.<br />
“Hey, kids? Kids?” Ms. Whitiker said in her kind but commanding voice. “This is Gabriella. She’shere to read you all a story.”<br />
The kids gathered around while the lady – apparently named Gabriella, but Esther sensed something off in there – some sort of deceit. The adults liked to refer to it as a ‘white lie,’ and Esther had adapted to be able to tell with pretty good accuracy when an adult was lying. Anyway, the lady sat down in a plump armchair, took off her jacket, which she laid on the arm of the armchair, and opened her book. Immediately, she was pelted with questions from the twenty or so children that had gathered around her. What was the story about? Who was in it? The receptionist had gone to help someone else – peculiar, because there was nobody else in there to help – so it was just the woman that had to deal with the questions.<br />
The woman raised her hand and, impressively, there was silence.<br />
<br />
“This story is about a princess,” The woman said, her voice soft but strong.<br />
The children sat down, eager to listen to the story. And she was greeted with quiet, an impressive feat for a woman these children didn’t even know.</p>
<p>”This princess lived in a great castle, and she had many whom she held dear.<br />
The princess had a brother whom she loved very much,</p>
<p>But most of all, the princess loved her prince, and they had great fun together.<br />
The princess, her brother, and the prince all had magical powers, and they put them to use helping their kingdom.”<br />
<br />
The story was punctuated with a pause in which the woman held up the book to show the pictures.<br />
<br />
“The princess and the prince were in love, (A couple ‘eeeeewwwww’s came from the otherwise captive audience) and they traveled all around the world to see all their subjects.<br />
The princess’ brother didn’t like to come on adventures, though, and so he stayed in his library, reading about this and that, and practicing his magic.<br />
The prince’s powers scared the princess sometimes, but they were for protecting the kingdom, and the princess knew that sometimes protecting the kingdom meant you needed to be scary.”</p>
<p>Another picture showing, in which a couple of kids ooohhed at the art.<br />
<br />
“But one day, the princess’ brother got word of many evil monsters coming to the kingdom, more than they had ever fought before.<br />
The three were very worried about these monsters, but said they would all fight together, just as it had always been.<br />
But then, in the middle of the night, the prince left to go fight the monsters himself. He knew that if he had brought the others along, they would die.</p>
<p>The prince died fighting the monsters, killing all of them, and sacrificing himself for his kingdom, but most of all, for his princess.”<br />
<br />
The woman showed a picture of a huge battle where the prince was fighting scary monsters.<br />
<br />
“The brother and the princess found the prince and were very sad, but the monsters were coming again, and this time, they had to fight.<br />
The princess and her brother tried to fight the monsters, but there were too many, and they weren’t strong enough.<br />
The princess was very scared.<br />
But just then, a man in a hat came and rescued them, killing all the monsters like a wild animal.”<br />
<br />
The woman showed another picture of an epic battle.<br />
<br />
“Even though the man in the hat looked scary, and different from her prince, somehow she knew it was him.<br />
But the man in the hat had a hard time remembering anything about being a prince.<br />
The man in the hat looked like a monster, and even though he helped them, for his magic powers were very, very powerful, his mind was confused and he was mean to people sometimes.<br />
He laughed a lot, for everything was funny to him, and he scared the princess.”<br />
<br />
The woman showed them another picture.<br />
<br />
“The princess knew that even though her kingdom was safe, and that the man in the hat would defend the kingdom, she was sad, because she had lost her prince.<br />
The princess hoped all her life that her prince would come back.”<br />
<br />
The woman showed them one last picture, and then closed the book.<br />
“That wasn’t a happy story!” One of the boys accused.<br />
“I never said it was going to be happy,” The woman replied.<br />
“Why is it so sad?” One of the girls asked. “The princess must be so sad.”<br />
“She was,” The woman said. “but not all good stories are happy.”</p>
<p>”What’s the lesson?” One boy said. The others said words of affirmation.<br />
The woman just smiled at them. “You need to be grateful for every day you spend with the people you love,” The woman said. “That’s the lesson.”</p><br />
<p>The mood in the room grew somber. Even if they didn’t remember it, or didn’t understand it at the time, all of them had lost people closest to them.</p><br />
<p>The woman smiled, and the radiance of it picked up the mood in the room a little. “Let’s have a game.”</p><br />
<p>The children shouted yesses.</p><br />
<p>”What game shall we play?” Asked the woman.</p><br />
<p>”Tag!” one kid shouted.</p><br />
<p>”Red Rover!” another yelled.</p><br />
<p>”Hide-and-Seek!” another shouted.</p><br />
<p>”Hide and seek is a good game,” The woman said. “Let’s go to the yard and play Hide-and-Seek.”</p><br />
<p>All of the children rushed outside, and the woman said that she would seek first. Esther hid in the bushes at the edge of the yard, a wise hiding spot, as she would probably find the other children’s hiding spots before hers.</p><br />
<p>But just then, Esther noticed a snake hiding with her in the grass. Esther screamed and made to lurch up, but this scared the snake and it bit her on the arm, then slithering away. Esther cried, but suddenly the woman was right behind her. Esther didn’t notice the woman approaching her, it was like she had just appeared, but Esther knew that wasn’t possible.</p><br />
<p>”Can I see it?” The woman asked.</p><br />
<p>Esther nodded, but she couldn’t do more than that. She was bleeding bad, and the snake bite hurt really bad. It felt like her arm was splitting open. Esther felt woozy, like she was going to throw up. Her knees got weak.</p><br />
<p>The woman touched her head, and the woozy feeling went away. “No, you’re okay. You’re going to be fine,” she said as if speaking it into existence. As if this was one of those stories that she liked to tell.</p><br />
<p>The woman touched the snake bite, and for a moment, Esther thought she saw the woman’s eyes turn gradually to a sort of gold – and her eyes changed to look like kaleidoscopes. The woman touching Esther’s arm didn’t hurt, but make it feel warm and tingly, like she was next to a fire, the feeling spreading slowly to the rest of her body, so Esther pulled it back, startled, even though it had felt kind of nice. The feeling in her arm dissipated and when she looked at it, she saw that the wound was gone, completely gone, except for two faint marks where the holes in her arm used to be.</p><br />
<p>Eyes wide and mouth agape, Esther looked back to the woman, and watched her eyes slowly turn back to a soft amber color, and the weird geometry fade away.</p><br />
<p>One of the workers in the orphanage, a lady who she could not remember the name of – it wasn’t like she spoke to many people here, anyway – rushed over. She said she heard a scream, but the woman said that Esther had just been scared by a snake, but it hadn’t hurt her. There was nothing to worry about. Just shaken up, is all. The worker nodded – it was bizarre to Esther that this worker would take a complete stranger at face value – and went to assure the kids that everything was alright.</p><br />
<p>That night, after spending all day with the children in the orphanage, the woman came into her room at night to tuck her in. The other girls had already fallen asleep, but Esther had remained awake, wondering about what had happened to her that morning.</p><br />
<p>”Lady?” Esther asked the woman.</p><br />
<p>”Hm?” The woman asked as she knelt down beside Esther’s bed.</p><br />
<p>”Are you an Angel?”</p><br />
<p>The woman laughed and smiled down at Esther. “Well, not like you think of angels, but I suppose I could be,” She said with a mischievous glint in her eye.</p><br />
<p>”Have you ever met God?” Esther asked.</p><br />
<p>The Angel considered her question. “No, I haven’t. But I know he’s real.”</p><br />
<p>Esther looked confused. “How can you know he’s real if you’ve never met him?”</p><br />
<p>The Angel smiled and poked her in the nose, which made Esther giggle. “Because I see him in you people every day,” she said. “I see him in the sky, I see him in the earth. This world couldn’t have written itself as much as the story I read you could’ve.”</p><br />
<p>”Someone wrote that story?”</p><br />
<p>”In a sense.”</p><br />
<p>Esther was silent for a moment.</p><br />
<p>”Do you think he listens to me?”</p><br />
<p>The Angel cocked her head. “I don’t know, but I know that I’m listening to you. If I ever meet him, I can pass a message along.”</p><br />
<p>Esther nodded. “Okay. Tell him that Michelle wants a new dolly, and that Mike wants a new dad.”</p><br />
<p>The Angel laughed. “I will.”</p><br />
<p>A moment of silence passed.</p><br />
<p>”Did you ever meet your parents?” Esther asked.</p><br />
<p>The Angel furrowed her eyebrows, like she was trying to remember something. “I remember some things, and I know they must have existed, but I don’t know exactly who they are, or where they are, or when they were. I know they existed at some point, but I know that I have no parents right now.”</p><br />
<p>”That’s sad.”</p><br />
<p>”It is.”</p><br />
<p>Another moment of silence.</p><br />
<p>”Have you ever lost someone you loved?” Esther asked.</p><br />
<p>The Angel nodded solemnly. “Yes.”</p><br />
<p>”Who were they?”</p><br />
<p>The Angel sighed and looked up at the ceiling for a moment, before bringing her gaze back to Esther. “He was one of the kindest people you would ever meet, but it would surprise you how intense he could get when he was protecting something he loved. He was amazing. He was strong and wise and smart and funny and everything that I liked.”</p><br />
<p>Esther thought for a moment.</p><br />
<p>”Are you the princess?”</p><br />
<p>”Hm?”</p><br />
<p>”In the story you told. Are you the princess?”</p><br />
<p>The Angel smiled solemnly and winked at her. “I could be,” she said.</p><br />
<p>Just then, a white bird with scary pitch-black eyes fluttered onto the windowsill. It cawed at the Angel, who shooed it away.</p><br />
<p>”Yes, I know, I’ll be there in a second,” The Angel said, waving it away. It fluttered off into the darkening sky.</p><br />
<p>”I have to leave now,” The Angel said. “I have to go to a meeting.”</p><br />
<p>”Will you come back and visit me?” Esther asked.</p><br />
<p>”As often as I can.”</p><br />
<p>”You promise?”</p><br />
<p>The Angel nodded. “I promise.”</p><br />
<p>The Angel got up from where she was and opened the window.</p><br />
<p>”It was lovely meeting you, Esther,” The Angel said as she put on her coat.</p><br />
<p>Then, the Angel jumped out the window.</p><br />
<p>For a moment, Esther was worried, but then she saw a pair of big pearly-white iridescent wings soar off into the night sky.</p><br />
<p>And the next time Esther blinked, she was asleep.</p><br />
<p> </p><br />
<p> </p><br />
<p> </p><br />
<p>The next morning, Esther awoke, remembering all that happened the previous day. For a moment, she worried that it was all a dream, but when she looked over at her bedside table she found a pearly-white iridescent feather.</p><br />
<p>Esther smiled.</p><br />
<p>It hadn’t been a dream after all.</p></p>

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