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Title: Something in the Air
Rating: Okay for All
Word Count: 973
Prompt: a loose interpretation of the lyrics to Anna by Michael W. Smith, the icon used on this post and "show your true colors" on![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
originalficfest.
Author's Note: Allen Street has a fair every summer that is accessible to anyone willing to pay the pittance to enter. This is but a slice of the activities.
She danced through the crowds of people, waving her tufted wand about with a precarious motion that delighted instead of threatened. Several people laughed at her but she was not to be daunted by praise. Neither was she flustered by the people who chided her to stop running and find her parents.
“You shall be a toad,” she announced to a large burly man who dared get in her way. He looked down at her with a frown but didn’t say a word. It took him several moments to realize that his cough had turned into a rather interesting sort of… croak.
“You’d look so pretty with pink hair.” Her smile was so pretty that the woman didn’t know whether to continue berating her about her haphazard manner with the wand. She seemed to be a delightful child with a precocious manner quite unlike any of the other children at the fair who clung to their parent’s hands and begged for more sugar. Later that night, her husband began to chuckle and she was forced to call in sick to work the next day because her hairdresser was on a three week trip to France.
“Come play with me,” the little girl yelled to a particularly shy girl sitting at one of the many food stands set up alongside the path. One wave of the wand and both girls were holding onto each other’s hands and spinning, spinning, spinning…
“Anna!”
The girls stopped, both turning to see what the disruption was all about. The one slunk back to her shy ways while the other rushed forward, her wand flapping once again in the air.
“Lissa! I’ve had such a delicious time today. I do love the fair! May we come again next year?”
Melissa shook her head warily. “I’ve looked all over for you. When I told you to stay near the flower booth, I meant stay near the flower booth. What if you’d wandered too far and I wasn’t able to find you? What would Baxton have said if I told him I’d lost you?”
A little lip quivered as a single, crystal tear slid out of the girl’s soft violet eyes. “But he said I could come play today. I don’t get to play very often and it’s such a beautiful day. Just look at all the people. So many ideas. So many characters.”
In an instant, the sad girl was gone and the defiant, ageless gaze was back. “Besides, I wouldn’t have gotten lost. I can find Baxton anywhere.”
Melissa’s gaze was just as stormy. “When you want to. He still doesn’t know where you went for that six-month period when he was staying in Michigan. It nearly killed him not to be able to write. I love that man too much to make him suffer like that again.”
A horn sounded from the far end of the street, calling all the guests of the fair to a magic act. Melissa grabbed onto Anna’s hand, chanting under her breath so that the little girl was held fast. No matter how much she struggled, she was bound fast to Melissa’s side.
“Shrew,” she hissed. “Vexing vixen. Henpecked harridan. Wilted waste of breath.”
“Call me what you want, muse. I’m not letting you go. No, I’m not listening to any promises. You’ll find someway out of them and I’ll be stuck trying to explain to Baxton what happened to you. Not again, princess.”
The fight drained out of Anna until even her wand hung limp from her hand. Taking advantage of the girl’s acquiescence, Melissa walked her back to the flower booth where only a few of the blossoms were ground into the dirt. She’d left quite suddenly when she’d realized that Anna wasn’t happily playing where she’d been left.
For a glorious hour, Anna sat hunched in a corner of the booth, not saying a word and leaving her wand safely at her side where it couldn’t hurt anyone. Now that Melissa could concentrate on her wares, she was selling more of the brilliant blossoms than she had all day. There was even time to chat with a particularly lovely woman with a brilliant diamond on her finger and the particular mist of joy around her that only a newly engaged woman could conjure.
“Music!” Anna yelped as she heard a distant fiddle. Before she could be stopped, she was headed for the music. Instead of following, Melissa stayed where she was. If there was music, she could be sure that Anna would stay nearby.
For a blissful hour, Anna danced to and fro as the fiddlers barely raised their bows from the strings. At one point, someone began to sing but she was barely conscious of that. She only needed a lively melody or a haunting harmony to keep her perfectly content.
“Watch where you’re going, kid.”
Anna sank back into reality, her eyes already narrowed as she spat her words at the careless boy. “I know right where I am. You are the trespasser here. Begone!”
The teenager never made it home that night. There was speculation that the gang he’d been running with had finally convinced him to do one last prank. His mother put up posters and cried on the ten o’clock news for someone to bring back her baby boy. Grief-stricken, his family left town not long after that, eager to find a life that didn’t constantly remind them of their loss.
But Anna was able to dance unimpeded once again. She was still twirling in the air, her feet barely touching the dirt of the path, when Melissa found her.
“Do you hear it, Lissa? Isn’t it a grand tune? So like they used to play after the hunt.”
Melissa merely shook her head in exasperation. “Wings, Anna? Did you have to show your wings?”
Rating: Okay for All
Word Count: 973
Prompt: a loose interpretation of the lyrics to Anna by Michael W. Smith, the icon used on this post and "show your true colors" on
originalficfest.Author's Note: Allen Street has a fair every summer that is accessible to anyone willing to pay the pittance to enter. This is but a slice of the activities.
She danced through the crowds of people, waving her tufted wand about with a precarious motion that delighted instead of threatened. Several people laughed at her but she was not to be daunted by praise. Neither was she flustered by the people who chided her to stop running and find her parents.
“You shall be a toad,” she announced to a large burly man who dared get in her way. He looked down at her with a frown but didn’t say a word. It took him several moments to realize that his cough had turned into a rather interesting sort of… croak.
“You’d look so pretty with pink hair.” Her smile was so pretty that the woman didn’t know whether to continue berating her about her haphazard manner with the wand. She seemed to be a delightful child with a precocious manner quite unlike any of the other children at the fair who clung to their parent’s hands and begged for more sugar. Later that night, her husband began to chuckle and she was forced to call in sick to work the next day because her hairdresser was on a three week trip to France.
“Come play with me,” the little girl yelled to a particularly shy girl sitting at one of the many food stands set up alongside the path. One wave of the wand and both girls were holding onto each other’s hands and spinning, spinning, spinning…
“Anna!”
The girls stopped, both turning to see what the disruption was all about. The one slunk back to her shy ways while the other rushed forward, her wand flapping once again in the air.
“Lissa! I’ve had such a delicious time today. I do love the fair! May we come again next year?”
Melissa shook her head warily. “I’ve looked all over for you. When I told you to stay near the flower booth, I meant stay near the flower booth. What if you’d wandered too far and I wasn’t able to find you? What would Baxton have said if I told him I’d lost you?”
A little lip quivered as a single, crystal tear slid out of the girl’s soft violet eyes. “But he said I could come play today. I don’t get to play very often and it’s such a beautiful day. Just look at all the people. So many ideas. So many characters.”
In an instant, the sad girl was gone and the defiant, ageless gaze was back. “Besides, I wouldn’t have gotten lost. I can find Baxton anywhere.”
Melissa’s gaze was just as stormy. “When you want to. He still doesn’t know where you went for that six-month period when he was staying in Michigan. It nearly killed him not to be able to write. I love that man too much to make him suffer like that again.”
A horn sounded from the far end of the street, calling all the guests of the fair to a magic act. Melissa grabbed onto Anna’s hand, chanting under her breath so that the little girl was held fast. No matter how much she struggled, she was bound fast to Melissa’s side.
“Shrew,” she hissed. “Vexing vixen. Henpecked harridan. Wilted waste of breath.”
“Call me what you want, muse. I’m not letting you go. No, I’m not listening to any promises. You’ll find someway out of them and I’ll be stuck trying to explain to Baxton what happened to you. Not again, princess.”
The fight drained out of Anna until even her wand hung limp from her hand. Taking advantage of the girl’s acquiescence, Melissa walked her back to the flower booth where only a few of the blossoms were ground into the dirt. She’d left quite suddenly when she’d realized that Anna wasn’t happily playing where she’d been left.
For a glorious hour, Anna sat hunched in a corner of the booth, not saying a word and leaving her wand safely at her side where it couldn’t hurt anyone. Now that Melissa could concentrate on her wares, she was selling more of the brilliant blossoms than she had all day. There was even time to chat with a particularly lovely woman with a brilliant diamond on her finger and the particular mist of joy around her that only a newly engaged woman could conjure.
“Music!” Anna yelped as she heard a distant fiddle. Before she could be stopped, she was headed for the music. Instead of following, Melissa stayed where she was. If there was music, she could be sure that Anna would stay nearby.
For a blissful hour, Anna danced to and fro as the fiddlers barely raised their bows from the strings. At one point, someone began to sing but she was barely conscious of that. She only needed a lively melody or a haunting harmony to keep her perfectly content.
“Watch where you’re going, kid.”
Anna sank back into reality, her eyes already narrowed as she spat her words at the careless boy. “I know right where I am. You are the trespasser here. Begone!”
The teenager never made it home that night. There was speculation that the gang he’d been running with had finally convinced him to do one last prank. His mother put up posters and cried on the ten o’clock news for someone to bring back her baby boy. Grief-stricken, his family left town not long after that, eager to find a life that didn’t constantly remind them of their loss.
But Anna was able to dance unimpeded once again. She was still twirling in the air, her feet barely touching the dirt of the path, when Melissa found her.
“Do you hear it, Lissa? Isn’t it a grand tune? So like they used to play after the hunt.”
Melissa merely shook her head in exasperation. “Wings, Anna? Did you have to show your wings?”
