Lauren--Part Two

A Chapter by Wayne Vargas

Splog # 4

Two

Lauren had been watching the sun as it set, dipping behind, through and among various clouds of many shapes and sizes. As it disappeared and the differing sensations of colors that she had been experiencing faded, she was a little surprised to notice how much light there remained. She could still see almost all the countryside that she had been observing when her "colorization" occurred. Still, it would be dark within an hour, and so she turned to walk up the hill to her home. She decided to see how many hops it would take to get there. First, she made a guess - fifty. A nice round number and, since she could see one of the chimneys on the roof and a bit of the weather vane, it surely couldn't be more. So off she hopped. After ten hops, her breathing was coming in and out quickly and, instead of tiring her, was making her feel even more energized. After her twentieth hop, she decided this was going too easily. So, with the roof of her house in view, she decided to try a hop and a twirl at the same time. It was fun, even if it felt a little awkward. After three hop-twirls, she realized she wasn't going in a straight line towards her house any more. She tried two more but found, since she was twirling clockwise, that she kept veering off to her left. Well, that would be easy to correct. She faced her house again and did two quick hops - one while twirling to her right and the second twirling to her left. She did them quickly because she didn't want to see where she was facing until she finished the second hop. And she kept her head down because she was sure that when she looked up after the second hop, she would be facing the direction in which she wanted to go. Hop-twirl! Hop-twirl! And she brought her head up as fast as she could - and collapsed in dizziness onto the grass. There were sparkles in front of her eyes and she started to giggle. She felt strange but it was a fun strange.

When her vision cleared, she sat up and found herself facing down the hill - in exactly the opposite direction she had expected. It was becoming dusk now and she knew she should be at home soon; but it was pleasant sitting and feeling all the different muscles that had been awakened by her hopping exercise. Her chest and stomach were expanding and contracting with her breathing. Her legs felt a touch rubbery and she knew that if she sat too long they would start to tingle. Her arms felt normal but her head felt a little lighter than usual, like a balloon floating above her neck. That image made her giggle again and then she lay back, just for a moment, to luxuriate in her body.

Was that a star already? There was a dim twinkling right overhead, but the sky was still light - a sort of gray color - and the twinkle was so faint that it was hard to be sure it was really there. She closed one eye and then the other, but no matter which eye she looked through, there was a tiny something glittering straight above her. And when she reopened both eyes - after closing them to make sure the glitter wasn't coming from inside her head - ta-da! There it was. "Star light. Star bright. First star I see tonight. I wish I may. I wish I might. Have the wish..." Wait a minute! She needed a wish. No sense starting a magic incantation until she had a wish to fulfill. She cast around in her mind. What did she need? She had loving parents, a nice home, books to read, countryside to roam around, and a pond to swim in. Someone to play with. How about a pet? A cat. A dog. A big dog! But actually, what about someone to talk to? No, she talked all the time to her mother and father and was surprised sometimes by how much they understood and talked with her rather than at her as most grownups did. But they couldn't play with her as much as she would have liked, and there weren't any children living nearby, so why not someone to play with? That did sound like fun and she did like to play, but to spend an important wish on just playing seemed to ten-year-old Lauren slightly juvenile. But what was more important than playing? If a grownup was seriously playing, playing the way they worked, that would be the idea. But how would one describe it? Playing for a purpose? Playing for a reward? Playing to do something good for the world or, at least, for somebody else? That roused in her mind what she had read in books about people who had had adventures. Adventures! That was it! She would wish for an adventure. Or would she wish for someone to share an adventure with?

The star was still there. She took a glance around to make sure there were no others - a very quick glance in case other stars might have appeared. (If she looked quickly enough, she might not see them.) All clear. She stood up and fixed her eyes on the small sparkle in the sky. She stretched out her arms and slowly began to revolve, trying to add her physical self to the power of the words she was reciting. "Star light. Star bright. First star I see tonight. I wish I may. I wish I might. Have the wish I wish tonight. I wish that I may go on an adventure and make a friend who will share it with me."

She stopped spinning, still gazing at her star and feeling herself filling with the certainty that her wish would come true. She would do extraordinary things and someone else would help her and have fun with her and share excitement and maybe risk danger with her. It was only a wish on a star but it suddenly meant everything to her.

She slowly brought her head down from looking at the sky. Her neck was a little stiff and so she started to stretch it in a circular motion. Again she was facing down the hill and, strangely enough, after a moment she realized that she was still looking at her star. What? She looked up and there it was, slowly getting brighter, and now there were other sparkles and twinkles and glittering appearing to join it. But when she looked down the hill, she could see a sparkle there also.

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