Unicorn Seasons by Janni Lee Simner

Author:Janni Lee Simner [Simner, Janni Lee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Janni Lee Simner
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Fall

Tearing Down the Unicorns

Karen was tearing down the unicorns.

She pulled poster after poster from the wall above her bed, throwing them down to the floor beside her. A unicorn with pink ribbons in its mane and butterflies dancing around its horn ripped loudly away from the plaster. A unicorn flying through a green field, a wreath of wildflowers about its neck, tore in half as she pulled. Bits of paper and brittle tape were everywhere—on Karen’s frilly bedspread, on our pink carpet, on my own bed and dresser, halfway across the room.

I stood in the doorway, too startled at first to do anything but watch. Some of those posters had been up for years, for longer than I could remember. Karen reached for another poster, this one of a unicorn with gentle purple eyes, curled beside a rabbit in a snow-covered field.

"Stop it !” I yelled. Karen spun around, noticing me for the first time and looking more than a little annoyed at being interrupted.

“What are you doing?” I asked, a little more quietly—but not much.

Karen rolled her eyes. I knew she wished I’d just go away. She’d been like that ever since she’d started junior high. Until then we’d done everything together, so much so that people called me “Karen’s shadow.” Mostly I didn’t mind, though sometimes I wished they would use my name, Stacey, instead. But lately Karen didn’t seem to have the time to be bothered by either a shadow or a sister two years younger than her.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” she asked, her voice dripping sarcasm.

“Okay then, why are you doing it?” I stepped into the room and stood beside her.

Karen sighed dramatically—she’d been doing that a lot lately, too—and said, “Just look at them, Stacey.” On her wall only a couple of posters were left. One was a copy of some flat-looking medieval tapestry, a unicorn sitting quietly inside a low fence. The other was of a girl on a silvery unicorn’s back, both its mane and her pale hair flowing softly out behind them. Sometimes I wished I could find a unicorn of my own like that, even though I wasn’t so sure unicorns were real in the first place.

I’d only admitted to Karen about not being sure once, back when we were both younger. Karen’s eyes had turned steely and cold. “Of course they’re real,” she’d said. “Assuming you believe hard enough.” Her voice had made it clear that she believed, so I bit my lip, did my best to believe as well, and didn’t ask her again.

Yet now Karen was the one who looked at the posters on her wall, on her floor, and repeated, “Just look at them. They’re so sappy, so stupid, so—” She hesitated, searching for the right word. “So fake.” She yanked down the last two posters. Then she snatched the whole pile up from the floor, as if ready throw them all away. My stomach knotted painfully at the thought.

“No !” I ran over and grabbed the unicorns away from her.

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