Three Line Tales : Back to fairyland

     photo by Zara Walker via Unsplash

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A window opens up onto the past and she sees herself, five years old in an oversized coat, toes chill in Wellington boots – in her hand she holds a sparkler, its head fizzing, light dancing, a thousand tiny, magical explosions.

She etches her name into the darkness, then flowers, then a hump-backed elephant – with the last sparks she imagines herself a fairy, her heavy boots turned to silk slippers, her spinning body ready to sprout wings, to soar above the city, flit and flap back to magic, leaving times tables and cold and fear far behind.

The window closes and she is her older herself again, standing by the kitchen sink, oil curving into rainbows on top of the washing-up water, an inch of grey slush choking the garden  – she flexes her shoulders, feels for her wings.

 

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Written for Sonya at Only 100 Words’ Three Line Tales. See the prompt and write a tale to join in. See here to do just that and to read the other stories.