Dollhouse (The Dark Carousel)
It all started as I branched out of the dark inner core of the red bricked doll house that I had previously occupied. I was instantaneously burst by an almost blinding array of sunlight. I paused for a swift second, quickly in taking a deep breath as a faint wind crawled passed me, making me wince ever so slightly. I blinked as if trying to avoid hazard, and as if someone had turned on the retrospective flash on the universe, it all became clear. The majestic sun kissed the lower earth with its luminous rays of warmth, leaving the world beneath brighter than I had once thought.
Come to think of it actually, everything looked… different, but not in a gruesome or unfriendly way. The sky seemed glazed with a more indigo hue than what I have even seen before. The clouds were so light and vivid, they spread across the sky with their milky existence. The stillness of the water mass, creating a perfect mirror of its blue superior. Even the grass radiated a certain newness as it danced among the distinctive calm of the lilac trees.
Every color, every detail, seemed so vivid in my now once lacking world. My mind tossed with clarity as I stood on that maple wood porch. I leaned against the rail only hoping to take in half of the outside world’s newly exposed beauty. It was radiant. And as I stay there, I began to realize of how much I had missed in my blinded slumber. Oh, how much I resented my once naïve mindset that had once over passed the details I now have seen.
I felt betrayed, in a sort of uncanning way, I felt betrayed by my own once dismissive self. How could I have never noticed such beauty? Such color? Such vivid beauty? I had to regain myself. I didn’t want to miss any more than I once had. I wanted no more than to immerse myself in the world around me, even if just for a second. I strolled down the hard, wood steps, anxious to be surrounded by the lilac beauties that followed to the lake. The sky gave a great blow, and wind caressed past me, leaving shards of the green grass to flutter around my bare toes. I breathed in, the sweet aroma of the lilac beauties lipped my nostrils, with a slight scent of baked goods being carried from one of the nearby houses.
It was then that my wandering feet meet with the gentle pebbles of the sand beach, and to which my body softly sunk. I stay there, if not maybe a little too long, gazing at the abundance of fresh white and yellow lily pads that seemed strategically placed amongst the sky’s reflection. I sign, not if sadness or in guff, but in rest and realization. The world seemed so vivid and in reach of my fingertips. It was life in all of its euphoric glory, planted and left out for me to see.
The creak of a sliding door echoed past me, and as the patter of old paws swift past me, so does a chocolate brown doberman. With a pant of her tongue and a glimpse of her once young spirit, the brown dog cheerfully lounges into the once still reflection, causing ripples to cross the now fluttering lily pads. With a soft bark, the brown dog fanned her old paws against the quivering fish underneath the shimmering reflection.
The fade in her muzzle gave it away, but in that moment, I could see the once young heart come out in the brown dog, as she tried against the water’s surface. I’m not going to lie, she failed miserably at trying to capture one of those swift little blue gill. They all darted around her, teasingly, as she splashed the water’s edge. The sight brought with it a slight chuckle from behind me, and I raised my head to see a familiar face sitting on the edge of the wooden stairs. A smile slid itself across my lips in acknowledgement, the day’s unseen beauty and humor of the brown dog brought with it an unusual sense. A sense of serenity that had seemed to be a small fragment of our past.
A few heavy drips of water cross my path, and reraise my attention to the brown dog, still engrossed with not the fish, but the freedom of the water itself. I fluttered up from my sandy perch, gently splash a free crystal-like water drops toward the brown, only to than find myself in a game of chase in the shallows depths of the sky’s mirror. The breeze stirred past my playful stride from the young spirited dog, as I swerve around lightened lilac beauties that seemed too had drifted in the wind’s sweet arms.
My feet stumble, crashing me into the water’s shallows, a small laugh escapes my lips as the brown down splashes around me, seeming to cariole a lace of vivid colors around her. A light click is carried past my ears, and my attention draws back to the maple deck where an old camera lens has captured this one truly beautiful day.
