Winter's Tale
Background: I am a writing prompt addict. There. I feel better having admitted that. One week, I came across a prompt that resulted in this little story --I can't remember where because, as mentioned previously, I am a writing prompt addict. There tend to be a lot of prompts from a lot of different sources. The themes in this story are common ones for me: loneliness, supposed imperfections which are really just differences, and friendship. The writing style is different from my usual, I think, so that must have been part of the prompt. Or not. Maybe I was just experimenting. It happens.
It will never be published for the following reasons: 1) it's arcane; 2) it's short; and 3) it's arcane -that counts for double points against publication, so I said it twice.
Winter's Tale
There once lived two sisters: colorful Spring and plain, gray Winter.
People looked forward to the coming of Spring.
“Look at her flowers!” they would say.
“She’s so light on her feet! Thank
goodness she’s here!”
This saddened Winter.
She noticed how differently people treated her.
When she came near, people not only covered their faces but walked
away. They huddled in their houses. Occasionally, they peered outside to see if
she was gone.
“I’m so cold and plain and gray,” Winter sighed. “But it doesn’t matter. Spring will do what Spring does, and I will
be forgotten.”
Winter became sadder and sadder –so sad, in fact, she was in danger of
disappearing into the plain, gray sky.
In her sadness, Winter did not notice the Wind watching
her.
The Wind wanted to bring cheer to the heart of Winter. He devised a simple plan.
The Wind swelled his breath. He lifted
droplets of water from a lake with a gust of air.
He blew the droplets higher and higher and higher into the plain, gray
sky.
He knew that Winter’s sadness would chill the water, would
turn the water to crystals, and diamonds would fall around her feet.
Winter watched in wonder as jewels fell from the sky.
In her wonder, she allowed the clouds to part. Short glimpses of sunlight illuminated the
diamonds playfully.
She watched them sparkle and Winter thought to herself, “How brightly
these diamonds glow!” They shone more
enticingly against her plain, gray clothing than they ever would have against
her sister’s colorful gowns.
And Winter smiled.
As she smiled, a wonderful thing happened …
The people came out of their houses. They too marveled at the jewels the Wind had
given her.
And Winter, the Wind, and the people danced together
against the diamonds and the plain, gray sky.
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