"I can speak!"
I felt euphoric but she tempered the feeling by shaking her head. She did it so fast and long I feared it would fall off.
"Stop the shaking, you scare me," I screamed while pulling her at her shoulders and trying to hold her still. What was wrong with her? From one moment to the next she stood still and glanced at me. She completely calmed down and responded as if nothing happened.
"My dear, you always talked, you always could just not by using words out loud as most people do. Not everyone can talk. If you can't talk people call you 'mute'. It's not a bad thing believe me. Once you are an adult you'll find out humans find you attractive and above all mysterious. Being talkative isn't a wanted skill. The world needs thinkers, listeners. Look at me... I keep rambling on, now you know why no one likes me."
It only took her a few minutes to recover from her sadness and as if nothing happened she continued her story.
"Words do come out of a mouth but believe me without I can hear you. We all can hear you loud and clear. It doesn't matter if you whisper, talk, shout, cry, or yell I hear you, we can."
She wrapped her arms around me as she continued "Ask them, talk to them."
Quickly she snapped her fingers and again I was surrounded by those tiny creatures I had met earlier this morning. This time a huge number of them surrounded me. Actually, they were not small at all but had the same size as me. I must admit I never saw that many someones in my entire life. Not even at the marketplace where I thought the whole world had gathered to buy or sell something and to stop by to bully me. Where did they hide the whole time, came from all of a sudden? Not once during all those days, I walked through the garden I spotted any of them. Now, all of a sudden, she announced they heard me. What did that mean?
"How can you hear me? How can I talk to you if I do not have a voice? I have no voice!" I screamed. My head felt like exploding any minute. I couldn't help, cried, and kept crying. I fell on the ground and wailed while I was surrounded by even more little whatever they might be. I never imagined I would ever meet that many living souls in my entire life. They looked at me and waited in silence while I shed my tears. I shed more tears during that moment than I did in my entire life not even at my birth I whimpered. My friend watched me and looked as if she observed the weirdest creature she ever met.
"Now I think about it, there's no need to be sad. Shouldn't this be a happy moment? It's good not to be alone and to be heard don't you think so? My friend you have a voice, you always had. It's inside of you, in your mind, your soul. You are heard. Carmen can hear you too. Didn't you know that, didn't she tell you?"
She pressed her tiny face against mine and looked me in the eyes.
"What an awful lot of tears you have. How interesting."
I heard what she said and through my waterfall of tears, I saw the others nod. They agreed with her and tried to comfort me, convince me there is nothing wrong with me, I am quite normal. Nevertheless, I couldn't stop the flood of tears. Why did I sob, not feel happy at this particular moment?
"It's the old hurt. She needs to cry it out," the one at my friend's right said. After the rain the sun shines, trust me. I remember someone told me 'shared sadness doesn't feel as worse than carrying the load alone... on your shoulders'. What do you say, guys?"
She looked at the others and I couldn't help noticing her happy face.
As if she had given the sign for it the whole community started to cry. They screamed, moaned, whined with me till the moment no tears were left.
"I know why you feel different," my friend whispered. "I didn't come to tell you earlier but... well, you better put this on because you are naked and the weather changes fast."
We stood underneath a bush of lavender as she handed me over a lovely robe similar to hers. She helped me get dressed and except for my different looks and the fact I was a six-year-old child no one would notice the difference from a distance.
"Now you are one of us," she beamed, "whoever thought about that?"
"I am? But... who or what are you, " I asked.
I had never met creatures like my friend and doubted they were animals or humans. They looked different, too much different from me and it was hard to tell.
"It depends on how you like to see or call us. We are what you like us to be, what you name us. Perhaps elves, gnomes, little people, or just happy helpers. We can live in your fantasy and who knows you live in ours. Some call us aliens and a threat but I prefer to call us the magic ones. Yes, that's what we are. We rarely show us but today... today is a special occasion. For sure it is."
Carmen came back home.
"Wake up Clarissa, come to have a look at what I brought us."
Owl chicks! They were so adorable. Those who say they are ugly are blind to the beauty of nature, mother Nature. It was quite a surprise Carmen brought them to our home. She had never mentioned having pets before and these were no ordinary pets. She explained how we had to train them all six of them. They would be our messengers and could be sent out to each point of the wind.
"The plague won't harm them. They fly high and low, mainly at dawn and nightfall. Imagine all those messages they can deliver and after that, they easily find their way back home."
"Can't we use pigeons?"
"We can't, they get tired, die fast, spread too many diseases and with those dark days... People will kill and eat them just like they do with the other animals. Cows, goats, pigs, chickens, dogs, cats, ducks, pigeons, and many more are killed. It's hard to find some living animals around here. The streets are empty, the people left are hungry. You like to give me a hand?"
I was still a child but how could I refuse to assist in raising the most amazing creatures I ever saw? They looked at me with their big round brown eyes. Carefully I lifted one out of the box and placed it on my lap. As I stroke it with one finger it closed its eyes and leaned against me. It was one of the closest feelings I ever experienced. The little owl liked me and I would do everything in my power to give it a good life.
"The owls will stay with us for a long time. Each one of them easily reaches the age of twenty years."
I hoped Carmen was right. Twenty years sounded like a very long time. In twenty years I would be 26 and... old.
"I hope the dark days will be over at that time, we can grow old together would you like that?" I said to my chick.
I am not sure if it heard me, understood me like Rosemary and the others did but the little owl, my owl Birca, made a sound, answered me which was good enough for me.
The memory of how Birca came into my life fills my heart with happiness. After all these years I can still hear her. The blanket knows, remembers her well. She passed away after a long life. Not once from the moment, she came to our home I walked alone. If she didn't sit on my shoulder she flew above me and spied the sky. As long as she lived nothing bad happened to me.
Good memories are precious just like good friends. Carmen belonged to the good side and so did Rosemary and her clan and the owls. Although Birca was the most special one to me each one of them enriched my life and together we built a happy and strong family, the family I lacked at the moment of my birth.
Total amount of words: 2020
Prompt used: -
A part of this episode is not published.