Not So Beautiful World - Prologue
PrologueFor a few moments, he stood there. Frozen. What was happening in front of his eyes couldn’t be anything more than the wishful thinking of a lonely boy. Narrowing his sharp, cloudy blue eyes, part of his adolescent mind probably assumed his mind was playing tricks on him. Or his uncle was. But it couldn’t have been. His uncle was inside at the moment. Not to mention… he couldn’t have come out here so quickly and wheeled back inside without him noticing.Turning his head away from the single story cottage where he’s positively sure his uncle is resting, the boy turns back to the sight which has him questioning his sanity at only the ripe age of ten. It’s still there. A fairy. He wants to come up with a more scientific word, but nothing else comes to mind in that moment. How else can he describe what looks to be a female no taller than his hand? Her skin reminds of him the coffee his uncle drinks every morning from his clear mug, and for some reason this makes his stomach flutter. She’s moving about the tall grass, completely oblivious to the larger being stalking her, her mind seemingly elsewhere. She says not a word, but continues to dart about, occasionally throwing a frustrated look over her shoulder.And that’s when the boy sees it.The fairy has not two wings, but one. And though it is a lovely looking wing, something even a ten year old boy can appreciate, he understands that the symmetry is not there. Even through the seemingly massive blades of grass, the sun catches the blue stained glass appearance. The boy looks over his shoulder a second time, noticing that the window near his uncle’s bedroom holds nearly the same look and again, his stomach flutters.I have to see her again.Quickly, he turns back to the spot in the grass, but to his dismay, the fairy is gone. The one winged fairy has disappeared from his sights and his heart plummets. He falls to his knees, pushing aside the overgrown grass, hoping to catch a glimpse, but there is nothing there. Maybe she never really was in the first place. He hates how frustrated he becomes, his eyes watering, and he stands with trembling hands.He runs back to the cottage to tell his uncle about his discovery, and sure enough he’s in the kitchen making himself a fresh mug of coffee. The tears quickly return, remembering how the fairy’s wings—err, wing, was just like it.His uncle’s eyes widen at the sight, and quickly he maneuvers towards him, as the boys tears quickly turn to frustrated sobs. “Hey, what’s the matter?” he asks in that soothing voice that the boy has come to love even after only spending a few weeks of the year with him over the summer for the past two years. The boy shakes his head in frustrating, streaming of tears of mucus falling down his polo. “Are you alright?”Finally, the boy nods. “I saw something,” he begins in a quiet voice. “In the garden. I saw something and now it’s gone and I’m not sure if it’s okay. What if a bird got it? What if that big mean dog got it? Will she be okay? Can she fly with one wing?”“Wait, wait,” the uncle says, pushing a tender hand through his nephew’s raven hair. “You’re going a mile a minute there, bud. What if a bird got what?”“The fairy,” he says without hesitation.The uncle cocks an eyebrow. Not quite believing, but not quite dismissing him either. “Fairy? You saw a fairy?”“I know you don’t believe me—”“In the garden?” the uncle presses. “Is that where you saw them?”He shakes his head. “I only saw one.”The uncle nods, glancing past his nephew’s shoulder towards the window facing the garden. “And you’re worried about her, huh?” The boy nods and the man’s expression turns more tender. “There’s nothing to worry about. Fairies are stronger than they look. They may be tiny, but they can fly away. If a bird shows up, they can fly away! Super fast. And if a dog should come—”“No!” the boy bursts out, rushing away from his uncle and towards the uncle. “Not this one! She was different.”“Different?” The uncle follows his nephew to the window, staring out into the greenery. “Different, how?”“She only had one wing,” the boy says softly, scrubbing at his tears with a loose fist. “It was pretty, like her, but there was only one.”“Only one wing, huh?” The man continues to stare out into the garden, partially wondering if he should call someone to tame the grass, partially wondering if what his nephew saying is true. He takes in a deep sigh. “Well, if there’s one thing I know about fairies, or humans even for that matter, it’s that we can adapt. And even if this fairy doesn’t have both of her wings, I bet she’s figured out a way to survive.”The boy shakes his head. “She’s so little. If she can’t fly away, what can she do? She’s too small. She needs help.”The uncle chuckles. “Well, that may be true, but unless she wants help, you can’t force it on her. That’s how life is, I’m afraid.” He pats one of the sturdy wheels of his chair, as to remind himself. “There’s no point in offering help, unless the person wants to accept it.”The boy keeps staring out the window. He probably doesn’t understand the importance of his uncle’s words, or how his very presence in the cottage is proof of this statement. For too long, his uncle’s words meant next to nothing in his adolescent mind. His uncle, the one in the wheelchair. The one with strong arms, but weak legs. He’d never be like him. He often said confusing things, but the boy never thought about it. He wasn’t like him. He didn’t have to spend his life trapped in a wheelchair.That was until fate changed everything. The course of his life.It was over ten years later that someone struck the boy’s car.And suddenly, the very same boy who rarely gave thought to the one-winged fairy and the home of his disabled uncle… couldn’t stop thinking about either one.Because now he was like them.
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