Spirit

SPIRIT

BY

STEVEN MEAD.

I

     Spirit didn't like the cold and damp. She had no more substance than a puff of smoke but she still found it chilled her and made her melancholy.  There was a thin sliver of moon this cold, October night but the sky was clear and sparkled with thousands of stars like twinkles in friendly, mischievous eyes. She thought of the stars as her friends, they had been her companions for countless nights and she had made up her own constellations to remind her of things she deemed it important to remember. These days though, she found herself recognising some of the constellations she had named but couldn’t bring to mind the reason. She had forgotten what she had tried so hard to remember and it made her sad.

     It was easier to drift with the breeze than move against it and besides, she had nowhere to go so let the wind carry her.  The streets were empty of people and the village was hushed. All the windows where shut against the cold night air, while the secret nocturnal drama of the animals played out in the deserted streets. The rats scavenged in the bins while the cats hunted them from the shadows. Spirit watched it all as she had done thousands of times before. Neither the Rats nor the Cats were aware of their audience of one. She was just a gust of wind.

     The gentle breeze blew down the main thoroughfare taking Spirit with it, lost in her thoughts and indistinct memories. The street lamps spread their yellow light and all the houses were in darkness apart from a small, pretty looking cottage where a warm glow burned from an upstairs window.  As Spirit was carried past it caught her eye. Perhaps it was the cosy yellow glow that looked so inviting and homely, perhaps it was just good old fashioned curiosity either way she moved towards it and peered in through the glass.

     It was a child’s bedroom with pink painted walls and a princess quilt cover thrown on the floor. The white shelving on the wall contained books, brightly coloured ornaments and many cuddly toys of different shapes, colours and sizes. There was a large, painted dolls house in the corner and a desk in another corner with a pink laptop sitting on it. A dozen dolls were in the middle of the room laid out as if interrupted in the middle of a game. On the bed, a young girl of eight years old with long, brown hair sat clinging to her mother, her child’s eyes red with crying and her face stained with tears. Her face was screwed up in anguish as she wailed uncontrollably into her mother’s shoulder and crushed herself into the safe embrace as if to hide.

‘Lily, Lily calm down, it’s only a dream, I’m here now, no need to make such a fuss’ the older woman cooed rocking her back and forth. They shared the same long chestnut hair which matted together as she pulled her closer into her body.

‘Shush Lily quiet now, god your making enough noise to wake the neighbours, that’s a good girl shush. You don’t want to disturb daddy do you? He has to go to work tomorrow and he’ll be mad if you wake him.

‘Too late’ a man’s voice chipped in thick with annoyance.

‘I’m sorry mummy, I’m sorry, I can’t help it’ Lily grizzled into her mother shoulder.

‘Never mind honey, never mind. Try and calm down. Was it the one about the monster with the big teeth again’ asked the mother. Lily nodded as if too frightened to say it out loud.

     The mother rocked her terrified daughter unaware of the presence outside looking on. Spirit was overcome with a sense of loss as she remembered her own nanny comforting her. She had no eyes to cry but was weeping into the wind from the bottom of her soul. She longed for the comforting touch of a human being, to feel the warmth from a roaring fire and the satisfaction of a full belly. She wanted to be that little girl on the bed being embraced. She would gladly suffer the most horrific night terrors if it meant she could be comforted like the girl before her. The child was about the age spirit was when she ceased to be, and she had looked like her. Spirit had had similar long, dark hair that had been her pride. Nana used to brush it a hundred times every night before bed. She had possessed the same dark eyes that Papa had said would steal all the boy’s hearts when she got older. They could have been sisters, spirit and this little girl Lily.  The ageless spirit decided to go and introduce herself although she knew in her heart of hearts it was a very bad idea. 

                       ****** Part 2 Next Week *****