Magnolia

I finished a 500 page book, Indonesian book, this week. This is the 8th time I've read it and still loving it. The main character is one who dreams to become a children's story writer. I was inspired.

                There’s not a lot that one may know about Magnolia. Her looks reveal a little to nothing, she barely speaks. The time she invests in school seems not to disclose her personality. No one comes to her house, only her, for she lives alone. When you speak to her, Magnolia responds but only to the degree of obtaining your satisfaction, rest everything else, is a secret. A deep guarded secret. There’s no a lot that one may know about Magnolia, but what I know, whether speculated or proven I will tell to you now.

                Her life is a constant routine, but little sparks of joy always speckle her life, saving her sanity. Her loneliness is her biggest plague, but she has an antidote, which will never be prescribed by a doctor. If you ever got the chance to visit her residence, it will be quite obvious that it is not quite ordinary. For one her home is extremely huge, it seems unfit for a solitary recital. But she is not alone, she never was.

                Guardians, nor parents are never in sight of her home. They seem not to exist in the life of Magnolia, and one cannot help but wonder how her life may be supported in a world which thirsts for money, when those who supposedly provide it aren’t present. But Magnolia has a secret, one which keeps her living. Breathing, huffing and puffing the air. One which keeps her walking on the road to school, day in and day out.

                Despite her bland exterior, Magnolia has an overflowing amount of drive to learn. Each day she strives to perform her best. Although she seldom speaks, teacher’s lectures, chatter of class friends, I dare not say close friends, always cheer her. But Magnolia has boundaries, in which despite her will to she may not excel, she must not out stand others, for if she does, she fears her secret will show and thus she must let go of the ideal life she lives, well not quite ideal.

                Nobody, well only a handful, knows her origin. What country she is from? Where she was born? Many preliminary information exchanged during greetings are no more than vague clouds which hover around her. Everyone at a certain point, finds their curiosity racing, the urge to know more of her come to their minds, but none of those curiosity have ever surpassed the point of investigating this matter ever more deeply. I guess that is for everyone, but me.So they choose the easy way out, to estimate, speculate or imagine the life of Magnolia, but it is no more than a scientist of no destination, a hypothesis is formed, but none tested.

                Thus, many opinions are formed of Magnolia. Some say she’s a witch, which hails from the far East there to deem them all of ill luck. Some say she’s just an ordinary orphan, or is she? Most however, contain a horror/eerie nuance to them, maybe its Magnolia’s glare, the way she looks seems so lifeless and dead. But if I may say, truly it is due to her extreme exhaustion.

                It is at this point now, that I will start to reveal her secrets, hence explaining why she keeps them and guards them so tightly.

                Let’s go back to the house, her house. Which is extraordinarily different to her seemingly ordinary personality. A quick trivia of her house: it is of a formidable size, the garden constitutes most of the house, while the building itself is miniscule. So what exactly is in her garden, plants, a barn and a cabin. But what’s more? Her house contains giraffes, elephants, snakes, peacocks, hippopotamus, tapirs, deers, wild boars, ostriches and many different animals, all of which your mind can possibly imagine. So this is Magnolia’s greatest secret, she is in fact a zoo keeper.

 At daylight, she is occupied by school, before returning to tend her zoo.Maybe you’re wondering, I love zoos, I should’ve seen her then, I must’ve visited at one point or another. Yes, you’ve seen her, you’ve probably visited her zoo, maybe once maybe dozens of times. Actually, I’m quite sure you’ve seen her before. Remember that school trip to the zoo you had way back when? That was a visit to her zoo. So now your brain starts melting from its solid state, the gears start running and you wonder, how can I miss her, if I’ve been to her zoo many times before then I should’ve noticed her, and you start wondering again, well how come her neighbors don’t notice what is happening.

That, is a whole other explanation in itself, a whole new secret. Are you curious now,of what the name of her zoo is? Well here comes the next part of her secret, her zoo is everywhere, her zoo is all over the world. No, she doesn’t own all the zoos in the world, nor does she franchise her zoo as a Multinational business. Remember her barn, well in fact it is filled with a giant time portal. During the evening, she lends her animals to zoos all over the world, transporting them through the time portal, where they are kept until she returns home the next day from school. Then they are quickly returned to her for their special grooming before they are borrowed yet again by another zoo.

Don’t believe me, well I have a dare for you, try look out for a specific animal in a zoo, choose one, and visit that same zoo the next day, try to find that same animal, is it truly the same? Nope, it never is, because Magnolia always trades the animals, in this way they are never bored of their scenery and so the risk of them escaping the zoo due to boredom are minute.

                So through this zoo exchange Magnolia earns her daily livings, and the reason you can never spot her out in the zoo is because she was never there. Maybe next time you’re in a zoo you’ll look out for her animals, or maybe at school you’ll look out for her, just a clue, she’s the girl sitting behind you, the one wearing jeans and a checkered shirt, with shoulder length brunette hair. Maybe, you’ll say hi to her, I hope you do because she truly deserves a friend, and maybe that friend is you.

               

Author's Note

I tried to write a children's story, I don't know why when I read through it I get a dark ominous tone behind it. Maybe, it's in my description of Magnolia, or the fact that I so freely mentioned how she has no parents. Unlike 'Perfection' I tried to re-read this story. I was quite displeased/disheartened by the ending, I thought it was quite unsatisfactory. But, totally, tell me what you think?