Mirror
I always thought life is like a fairytale, a fantasy where I’m having the lead role, but as I’m living life, as I fall and fail, as I’m showered with anxieties and miseries and every time I see my love ones suffer, my perception changes…
The magical life I used to dream and looked upon is now cuddled with thick misty clouds and the once majestic way of thinking is slowly sinking i the ocean of pessimism. If life is a fairytale, it doesn’t suppose to be like this! I mean fairy tales do have happy endings. Supposedly, I will be treated like royalty, that’s the way to treat princesses, right?
I twitched and tightly closed my eyes, when the buckle off the belt rested on the girl’s left arm. She was whimpering, as she pushed herself close to the wall in the corner of the room, as if wishing by a chance that the hard cemented wall will engulf her, to be shielded from the continuous whips.
I tried to negotiate to the man to stop the punishment. His fierce eyes with fine lines sign of aging met my gaze. "I told her to go home early, but she dis obeyed! This will serve her right!" I reasoned out but he played deaf. After the man, who was eventually the child’s stepfather, was satisfied with his cruelty, he left the bruised girl behind with one final slap.
I thought she was dead! Slowly white brilliant crystal like pearls started again to make its way to the girl’s numb cheeks, she painfully smiled and looked at me.
I stood frozen, as I stared to the pair of soulful eyes that replicate desperation, regret and complete surrender. "I just don’t want to be with him, he’s been abusing my mom, which led to her miscarriage. She’s still in the hospital fighting for her life, yet I saw him with another woman, and he even tried to take advantage of me!" She slowly blurted out; lips trembling with fear and her bloodshot eyes flashed hatred for that instance. I tried to console her, I really did, but she won’t listen. Her fists tightened as she looked at me and gently smiled.
I panicked when I realized where she’s going. I hurriedly walked out for her. I freshened up her dreams, her goals. I told her she’s a princess, just like me, that should wait for the right time. I convinced her to hold on a little more and never let go of life, like what I’m trying to do, but she dismissed me without a doubt…
She stared down the floor and slowly closed her eyes and reminisced the past. Her hands were shaking but still maneuvered to hold the long - entwined rope that was hanging in the kitchen for some reason. She bit her lower lip and whispered her love for her mother, and she did what she had decided.
I held my breath!
Isn’t life a fairytale?
Cinderella also suffered, Belle sacrificed her freedom, Ariel gave up her legs and crown, and Aurora missed almost half of her life. But why all of them ended up in a castle living harmoniously? Is it because they had chosen the right decision even though that means to sacrificed everything, or because they struggled to make the nothing into something, and they never quit?
I lingered on that thought …I guessed life was never what I have expected. It’s never been a fairytale, and will never be, for there’s no such thing like magic or fairy god mother in reality, to make your life easy in just a snap. Yet, we can’t complain of what we’re having right now, that we can be quiet but never will quit, because we don’t have the authority to decide for our life to be, for we are just Someone’s work of art.
I’m feeling that surging pain and my muscles cramped. Strength is slowly escaping my body as the last tear fell from my eyes from that realization. I stared at the reflection, and with all the effort I smiled, looking at the mirror, seeing myself hanging!
