once upon a time...

ok, so...
once there was this girl
just your average, run-of-the-mill girl
big brown eyes
long brown hair

she lived in the middle of this vast, gray city
thousands of people
all wearing gray
hundreds of cars
all painted gray

she hated this city

she felt compleatly alone
she had no friends

she hated this city

one day, she went to school
and everyone was talking about the new kid
lonely girl didn't care
she didn't care about anything

but then she finally saw the new kid

a boy

now don't worry
this is not your usual, boy meets girl, girl meets boy story
they don't end up falling in love

anyway, just your average, run-of-the-mill ordinary boy

but when lonely girl first saw him,
she passed him in the hall
and heard the wispers as he walked past
saw everyone turn to look at him
eager expectant looks on their pale faces
so she looked too
and at the same moment,
he looked up
their eyes met
and she saw they were a bright, and peircing blue
like ice that's just frozen
really thick ice
that cold cold blue that makes you shiver
just by looking at it

and she loved his eyes right away
because they were the first thing she'd ever seen

in her entire life

that wasn't gray

it was because of his eyes,
that she went over and talked to him
introduced herself

they became friends
lonely girl and blue-eyed boy

she liked this strange kid
he was funny
he was kind
he brought out the good side in everybody

they became not just friends
but best friends

and slowly, she began to notice more color
a man walked past in a gray suit
with a bright red flower in his buttonhole

a gray car drove past
and turned purple where the sun hit it

a green leaf fell past her window one day
an orange bird flew overhead

one day, blue-eyed boy told her they were going on a trip
she didn't know where they were going
and she didn't care
she sat in the passanger seat while he drove
and watched pale green grass roll by
and the bright blue sky always overhead
and wondered how she could possibly not have noticed these things, in her gray city

they arrived at a great meadow

a sweeping plain of grass and flowers, birds and bees

she ran out of the car
and raced with her friend through the tall grass
feeling only the cool ground beneath her bare feet

finally they slowed
and lonely girl saw that blue-eyed boy was holding something

"it's a kite"
he told her
watching her as she examined this strange new phenomenon

he showed her how to work it
and they flew it all day
he was always at her side
because the day was windy
and the kite sometimes hard to control

but after hours and hours of flying it
lonely girl decided she wanted to fly it on her own

so she told blue-eyed boy to let go
he reluctantly did
the wind was strong

she set off running
he ran behind her, holding the kite

"let go!"
she called

he let go

the kite soared upwards
flying higher and higher

lonely girl let out more string
and more string
and still more string
finally, the kite flew so high that she was left with only the spool
and the very end of the string

the string finally unwrapped all the way
and she was left with an empty spool

laughing, she threw it away
and raced after the string
finally reaching it
holding it firm once more

yet the kite was continuing to rise
the wind was strong
and lonely girl felt herself rising
her arm being pulled upward by the wayward kite

soon, too soon, she was flying above the meadow
above blue-eyed boy
above the world

she was doing what she'd always wanted

to fly away from anything and everything

away about the very clouds

and as her dream was finally fulfilled
and she looked down upon the world
spread out at her feet

lonely girl realized she was afraid of heights