The Original Dream by Nukila Amal

Author:Nukila Amal
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781503941199
Publisher: Amazon Crossing
Published: 2017-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

14

Collapse of the Iron Fence

Shadows grow murky around you. The women’s voices in the cabinet’s hidden prison are shrill in your head, filtering down and reverberating. Your head full, you no longer look left or right. You run, almost fly, down the wooden steps, the cabinet, the room, window, garden—toward night’s silhouettes, not seeing clearly what’s in front of you, until you slam hard into something. The night air is shaken by your scream. You fall down backward, stiffen suddenly with your breath caught in your throat when you see the view in front of you.

Your father’s iron fence. It has grown tall. The rusty red iron plate, which should reach no higher than your chest, is now a hundred feet high, as tall as the Welcome Monument in the capital. You look at it in disbelief, kick it repeatedly to confirm that it’s actually there. A useless effort. Your feet strike cold metal. The gate, now tall and impeding you and your escape to the outside world, has crashed itself into you.

“Or is it you, you who’ve crashed yourself into it?” a voice says, and a hand reaches out to you. “Hello, I’m Shore.”

She grasps your hand firmly and pulls you up. The sound of footsteps follows and you glance at those approaching, not really remembering their names or where they’ve come from. Two people and a dragon. You don’t get around to thanking the woman who’s pulled you up, in a hurry you run to the gate. You go limp when you see the big padlock locked tight. You rattle the fence, this time with both hands.

The key, your mind shouts. Find the key!

You run to the potted fern, rummage around in the dense fronds; normally the key is hidden in there. But not tonight. You run around searching for it, among the rows of roses, the bonsai, the jasmine bushes. You turn the pots around, pull apart the leafy branches. Not there. You race back to the gate in desperation, grab the locked iron plate, and hear the dragon yell at you, “Maia, your mother’s flower garden is a terrible mess!”

You grab the padlock, look around confused. Plants toppled on their sides, branches broken, flowers strewn all over, glowing dewdrops, fallen to the ground. Your mother’s tidy flowers, trampled by your feet the whole route you’ve run, ruined by your hands thrusting in to find the key. Mama’s flowers, your mind cries out in alarm, but again you shake the tall fence. Sorry, you think as sweat starts to bead on your forehead. Sorry, Mama.

Crest’s deep voice says, in a remorseful tone, “But your mother’s garden was so lush and beautiful, a pleasure to look at.”

“You’ve got to use your body, Maia,” says the red woman now next to you, her index finger tracing the surface of the iron plate, feeling its strength; her face lifts up and looks at you, wearing a mysterious smile. “To knock it down, you’ll have to use your whole body.”

At once you run back away from the fence.

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