The Girl Who Dreamed a War by Paul John Lyon

Author:Paul John Lyon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Paul John Lyon
Published: 2018-08-01T12:37:31+00:00

16

Elena walked the aisle towards her seat. She noticed her carry-on bag opened up on a fold-down seat tray. A drawing pad and a scattering of coloured pencils from her watercolour set lay on top of it.

Elena moved like a clockwork soldier, legs as stiff as tin.

It’s nothing, she told herself. Nothing at all. Millie got bored. She took out my pad to doodle.

A few more tin steps and Elena spied Millie curled up and asleep in a foetal position in her seat.

She didn’t even get a chance to draw. Too tired for it. No need to worry.

Millie moaned and turned over, pressing her face against the back cushion.

Elena reached down for the pad and held the cover at the corner, but dared not flip it open.

Just take a look at it. There wasn’t enough time for her to dream anything, let alone draw it. I was gone ten minutes at the most, not enough time to—

Draw? Dream? How much time did a little girl need to see the future?

Elena’s hand shook as she peeled the cover of the pad back like a plaster on an unhealed cut.

Nothing, it’ll be nothing at all, she thought.

Inch by inch the future was revealed. Purple. Green. Pink. The colours dripped down the page, merging into each other. A familiar watercolour sky marked the paper.

Elena held her breath.

“Apologies for the slight delay, ladies and gentlemen. We've now been cleared to take off. If you would please fasten your seatbelts and….” A pilot announced, but Elena wasn't listening. Her whole being was focused on the colourful drawing.

Millie had drawn norðurljós—The Northern Lights. And below those lights was a new future. A sparkling house sat atop a scratchy black island. Grey, choppy waters surrounded it. And in that house a mummy and her daughter lived. There were no bombs. There was no daddy. Only the strange coloured skies kept the two of them company.

Red and yellow and pink and green, purple and orange and blue.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.