FANTASY
I slide off his back and gaze at the sun peeking at me from over the trees. All of our faces are glowing orange because of the florescent sunlight.
“Whoa, this is absolutely beautiful,” I say to him.
The peak is a beautiful wilderness. It looks like a scene ripped from a fantasy movie. The colors, the trees, and the sky, all looks perfect like a miniature heaven.
Eric and Jessica finally take off their shoes and place them next to their backpacks. Jessica also takes out a small black speaker from her backpack. Eric walks over to me barefooted with a huge grin. He lifts me off of my feet and holds me like an infant.
"What are you doing?" I ask.
"Go with him Iva, it’ll be fine,” Jessica says.
Eric begins walking through the clearing.
"Where are you taking me?"
Eric looks down at me and says...
"You’ll see in a second. Trust me, you’ll thank me later.”
"Okay,” I reply weakly.
I look over at the sunset again. I see treetops in the horizon. Then it hits me like a ton of bricks; he’s walking me towards a cliff. My brain switches to panic mode instantly.
“Fasten your seatbelt, farm girl,” Eric says while laughing.
"Are you crazy?”
“You didn’t know?” he replies.
He runs into a sprint and leaps off the cliff with me in his arms. I feel myself falling at an incredible speed. The adrenaline is expanding massively inside my stomach. I let out a scream halfway down, but I can only feel it vibrating in my throat. The fierce wind causes me to become temporarily deaf. Before I impact into the ground, I feel my body lift upward.
I incline higher and higher until I swoosh over the trees. My throat is starting to burn from me screaming at the top of my lungs. We continue to incline higher and higher until we pause in the sky. I have to be hundreds of feet above ground. In this moment, when we reach our peak in the sky, I can finally hear myself screaming like a crazy person. I feel my lungs slam against my back as I shoot towards the ground again.
“OH MY GOD…!” I can’t muster another word because the wind is so powerful.
The ground is approaching rapidly. I close my eyes tightly while the wind blows hard against my face. Every inch of my body is overdosing on adrenaline as I plummet to the ground at a chaotic speed. I feel my body lift again but only slightly. Now, the wind is no longer blowing hard against my face, yet it’s a gentle breeze flowing smoothly through my hair.
Eventually, I stop screaming like a maniac and sluggishly open my eyelids. My tense body settles down. It’s as if I’m driving an invisible car in midair. I can see trees pass by me. In front of me I can see the subtle sunlight and all of the glorious colors surrounding it. I realize that Eric’s arms are no longer holding me. Instead of hands, these yellowish talons are holding me by my upper body and shoulders.
My legs are hanging in the air. I use my hands to squeeze down on his talons as hard as I can. I’ve never been on a rollercoaster before, but I have seen people ride them on television several times. This is similar to a rollercoaster with the metal restrainers over your shoulders.
I gaze above me and see these large brown wings gliding in the wind. An eagle looks down into my eyes and says...
“This is what living feels like.”
He then shifts forward again. I look below me and see my reflection in a lake. The water is so crisp and clean that I can see a school of fish swimming smoothly through it. He lowers me closer to the water.
The tips of my shoes caress the surface of the water, gently. Then I witness the fish behavior changing. Fish of various size and colors begin to jump from the water while they follow me. The beauty of it all…it’s hard to put into literal words. I’ve never witnessed anything so stunning in my entire life.
I shoot skyward abruptly, and then I feel my body turning. I’m now flying over trees. Birds of all shapes and sizes are exploding from the tree tops and dispersing. Soon, we make it back to where we started. He opens his talons and I fall onto my feet. I turn around just in time to watch the giant eagle land onto the thin grass. The wind from his wings makes me stagger backwards and collapse onto the side of a fallen tree. I grab my chest to make sure my heart is still beating.
Athena and Courage approaches me.
"How did you enjoy your first rollercoaster?" Athena asks.
“I think…I just died,” I reply. “I’m dead.”
"Did you like it or what?" Courage presses on.
I open my mouth but the words come out misconstrued.
"Please….that…what you did….don’t…never again,” I reply.
"You didn’t like it?" Aero, the giant eagle, asks with his bold voice.
I exhale deeply for the first time since our departure.
"No. I mean...yes..,” I take a moment to calm my pounding heart. "That was the most fun, life threatening thing, I’ve ever done.”
I take another deep breath and release it extra slowly.
"I really do think I just...died,” I say while laughing.
"Adrenaline, this is Iva. Iva, this is adrenaline,” Aero says.
He shifts left and right.
"Where’s Raven?" Aero asks Courage and Athena.
A giant black bird swoops down and lands perfectly on the ground.
"How did she like it?" Raven asks.
"Iva and adrenaline has a love, hate, relationship,” Aero responds. “It’s complicated.”
Aero turns to me with excitement.
"Yo want to see something cool? Check this out.”
Aero burst hard into the air. His wings create a strong gust of wind that almost blows me back. I look up into the air and notice he’s already a small spec in the sky. I then see him descending towards the ground, hastily, until he shoots down the cliff.
I wait for him to reappear but it doesn’t happen.
"Guys, where is he?" I ask them, but my concern ceases when I see him heading towards the sky again.
This time he’s spinning wildly as he climbs towards the atmosphere.
“YEAH!” his voice echoes.
"Iva, please don’t pay him any attention,” Raven says.
"The more you feed into it, the worse it gets. He has attention issues,” Athena states.
"It gets annoying,” Courage adds.
He swoops back to us without blowing too much wind everywhere.
"Cool, right?" Aero asks me as he lands.
"How fucking lame was that,” Raven blurts out tonelessly.
He shifts towards his sister.
"I didn't ask you,” he says before brushing her face with his wing and taking off into the horizon.
"You little shit,” Raven says as she takes off after him.
“Here they go again,” Athena says as she sits on the ground next to me.
"Where’s Mane?" I ask.
Athena lifts her chin up and looks left.
"Over there,” she responds.
I look over and see Mane sitting by himself, staring at the sunset.
"Don’t worry about him,” Courage says while flattening onto the dirt. "He’ll come over when he’s fit and ready.”
We watched on as Raven and Aero play tag until the sky becomes inky blue. They finally call a truce when the moon reaches its peak in the night’s sky. Tonight’s moon seems a lot more vivid than usual. Maybe that’s because my view is so clear from here. As Aero and Raven dances around the full moon, I can’t help but think about my mom and her safety.
I feel a warm rub against my leg. I look down at Courage, who is looking back at me.
"What’s bothering you?" he asks.
I stare back at the moon.
"My mom,” I reply as I watch Raven and Aero spinning upward together.
"Don’t worry about her,” he assures me. “I have parents too, remember. I always tell myself that they will be okay.”
"How can you? Aren’t you scared?"
"You just have to have faith and everything else will fall into place,” he explains.
"I understand you completely, Iva,” Athena joins in the conversation. “I know a lot about paranoia. It can drive you crazy. It can ruin your social life, give you strange thoughts,” she suddenly pauses and lowers her voice. "It can keep you up at night. It’s a disease. Don’t let fear get inside your head because when it goes in, it’s hard to get out.”
A brief silence falls over the three of us. Athena stands and walks away. She falls down flat on the ground with her face turned away.
"She’s fine. Sometimes she gets paranoid, that’s all,” Courage says in a quiet tone. “She always feels like something bad will happen.”
I look over to see Mane approaching us like a bored tortoise.
"You finally decided to come over,” Courage says to him.
Mane doesn’t respond immediately. He flops onto the ground in front of me, scattering dirt into the air.
"It’s getting late,” Mane says. "I might head back soon.”
We all take a break to stare at Aero and Raven dive-bombing in the horizon, then shooting straight up again.
"Hey, Iva is still scared about her mom,” Courage says softly.
Mane slowly shifts his yellowish-green eyes into mine.
"You need to stop worrying about everything,” Mane assures me.
"I know,” I reply.
We watch as Aero and Raven put on another fantastic display. This time they are flying around in a giant circle around the moon. Suddenly, they turn angles and swoops down and lands directly next to us. Their wing power are like miniature helicopters; creating a gust of wind that is strong enough to blow away dirt and leaves. I turn my face and close my eyes so no dirt particles get caught inside my eyes.
“Hey, Iva, grab my book bag,” Raven instructs me.
I look around the area and see her backpack resting lonesome in the shade. I can only recognize it by its glittery Hello Kitty design outlined in hot-pink trimming. I walk over and lift it up and glare at Raven for more instructions.
“Okay, now what?”
“Open it, get the bag out, and pour all of its contents on us.”
I open the book bag and grab a large bag that’s almost the size of the book bag itself. The book bag falls to the ground and inside is a square shaped black bag. I stare at the black bag in my hand, curious about what’s inside.
“You want me to pour this stuff on you guys?”
“Just do it Iva,” Courage rebuttals. “You’ll love it.”
“Okay,” I reply with uncertainty as I rip the bag open and pour its contents on top of Raven.
The contents inside the bag are this glittery dust that glistening like crystals underneath the moon light.
“Make sure you really get it in there,” she instructs me.
I continue to pour with one hand and rub with the other. I then repeat with Aero. Afterwards, I turn and then pour some on Mane and Courage. Mane sneezes like crazy and growls at me.
“Not us Iva,” Courage says while shaking the dust from his head.
“Oh I’m sorry,” I reply honestly.
I honestly and sincerely didn’t know. I thought she meant all of them. But Mane doesn’t believe a word.
“You knew that. You just wanted to be an asshole,” Mane replies with anger.
Athena sees it and starts laughing.
“Y’all looking cute over there, all glittorious,” Athena says and then giggles.
“Shut-up!” Mane says to his sister but she just giggles even harder.
“There two flashlights in the side pockets,” Raven continues. “Cut them on. The blue one is mine and the pink one is Aero’s. Press play on the MP3 player.”
I do what is instructed. I hit the play button on a silver MP3 player on the ground. The old MP3 player is attached to a speaker, which isn't the best sound quality. However, I can still recognize the song that’s playing. It’s “Fireworks” by Katty Perry. I then cut both flashlights on. Both have black casings and fluorescent lights; one pink and one blue.
“Give it to us. In our beaks,” she tells me.
I follow her command and give the pink one to her and the blue one to her brother.
Raven and Aero then switches into a running position like two jets about to take off. They spread their wings, which creates a shadow over me. Thanks to me, each feather is evenly covered in sparkly glitter.
“Ready?” she muffles to her brother.
He nods and replies...
“I'm ready,” he muffles back to her.
Together they take off running. The dust is falling from their backs as they gather speed. Then with a strong gust of wind, they shoot up to the sky like two feathery airplanes. The colorful dust is falling to the ground like glistening microscopic jewels. The lights in their beaks make them look like two fireflies in the sky; one blue and one pink.
They then separated, only momentarily, and cross paths again, creating a waterfall of sparkling glitter in front of the moon.
“Whoa,” I say off reflex as the shimmering glitter slowly fades away from the moon’s luminescent light.
They then dive-bomb to gain momentum before shooting back up to the sky in a spiral. The formation makes the shape of a DNA helix. The shape fades and dissolves into speckles of flickering dust.
“Now that is so awesome!” I say with my eyes wide open like a kid watching fireworks for the first time.
From here they look like shadows overlapping the full-moon. They switch angles and dive-bomb towards me. WHOOSH! Wind from their wings lifts my hair off my shoulders as they fly over my head. They then shoot back up into the atmosphere; climbing and climbing until they are small fireflies once again.
This time they are directly over me. The last bit of glitter held within their feathers rains down into my hair.
“I appreciate this,” I tell them. “I really do.”
“We couldn’t find any fireworks this time of the year,” Courage admits.
“It’s perfect,” I reply.
I don’t want them to notice that my eyes are glistening. I don’t want to come off as dramatic, but I can feel my heart swell with joy and it’s hard not to get emotional. Besides my mom and uncle, no one has done anything heartwarming for me. Not even my own father.
Awwwww how sweet
Yes, over the years I had great nurses and doctors watch over me like guardian angels, but that was their job to do so. This act of kindness comes purely from the heart and not from a pocket or bank. They actually remember what I told them at the table. I’m grateful knowing that I have people around me that actually listen to me.
I have to admit, this is very uplifting. All of my anxiety and fear towards my mother has fled my body, although I know it won’t last forever. We all can't be as fearless as Mane all the time. I now know the real meaning of friendship. Friends are people who lift your spirit when you’re feeling down.
I usually don’t like surprises but this is an exception. I needed this like how a sick patient needs medicine.
“Thanks guys.”
“Don’t mention it,” Courage replies. “Besides, that’s what friends are for.”…