17 Apr Picture Story
The village folks were at an awe… they understood what they were in the presence of. It wasn’t natural, it wasn’t ordinary…It was godlike.
Born of something otherworldy and incomprehensible was this young silver haired girl, we still don’t know her name but we call her silver (for obvious reasons). I remember the day we took the picture you see here in black and white, it was around 40 years ago but it still feels recent like yesterdays dinner; I had a cereal bowl with almond milk. You’re probably asking where i am in the picture but alas I’m the camera man, the biggest problem for camera men is that you’re never in the picture and so you’re often forgotten. But this story isn’t about me, its about the being we called Silver.
It was a windy summer night in the Arkansas forrest, the green foliage and darkness were neighbors to our small village settlement known as Monty Adele Settlement. The beautiful starry night sky and lack of light pollution made it easy to see the constellation and celestial bodies. On this night, something incredible happened. Crashing down in fiery green and purple flame, fell what an object and plummeted against a group of the largest trees by the village. In the burnt wood and red glowing ashes, there she was. A rather tall 8 year old girl stretched out and brought her feet to stand, he hair being silver reflected the lit pieces of wood and moonlight shine. What a fantastic scene to witness, I remember hiding as I was already sleeping on a nearby hammock. Her eyes had a strange color to them, almost magenta. I ran towards her despite my every cell screaming to get the fuck out of there. How could I? This expressionless girl in the forest would not last a night. The villagers arrived shortly after the loud bomb sound went off, some arrived with guns and others with pitchforks. I remember reacted frantically in a scandalous fashion. They were scared and didn’t let the memory die for years.
After bringing her in my house, I remembered trying to communicate with here but it never really phased her facial expression. She always maintained her monotone expression. Her features were petite and she had slightly blushed pale cheeks. Weeks later, I learned that her favorite food was cereal, i’d tried to use cows milk but it made her throw tantrums. Something happened whenever she got upset to that level. Usually only food made her feel that way. The house would shake as if a tremor occurred. My shelves and small ornaments would all fall or shake out of place. Usually she’d leave my pottery broken and that meant i had to clean up. What a mess!
I tried to teach her from the books and although i wasn’t a very good teacher, she understood and unraveled what would have taken any other child a lot longer in hours. Silver was a goddamn genius. I’d taken this adoptive parental role and as a parent, that’s life for you. One moment you’re thinking about going to school and the next, you’re an adopting parent to a crazy powerful silver haired being. Anyways, I began to lower my guard as she began to lower hers. Our strange father-daughter role began to unravel. I still remained vigilant and watched her whenever she played in the woods, just to make sure nothing happened; like the villagers finding out or getting a clue about what she was. For that very reason, I made her wear an old brown hat that clipped far enough form her head to cover her eyes in a shadow. If anyone ever asked where she came from, i’d just say it was my sisters kid. Another strange ability she possessed was that whenever she found a dead animal, she would pick them up and they would…i guess…re-fucking-animate. Yeah, just like a zombie. But they actually seemed rejuvenated, thankfully we didn’t have zombie squirrels cause that would be absolutely terrifying.
One day i had to leave for groceries at the local market and silver was being a brat, she called me poopie. I told her many times that my name was “Papa” but she was mischievous and found it hilarious. My actual name is Frank by the way. Anyways, bratty silver went out into the village and i don’t blame her. It could get boring seeing the same thing everyday. I was walking by the meat products and i caught a look at what seemed to be the brightest silver necklace just skipping through the road. It was her, and she ran inside a house of dying old woman. I chased behind her almost as fast as my heart was beating. Inside the house in was bed and inside it was a decrepit fading old woman and Silver grasped her hand. The old woman family gathered in confusion as her skin tone and vitality seemed to return in a matter of seconds. They witnessed a miracle. Soon after, the gossip spread like a wildfire, we had a godchild capable of miracles. And that brings us to the picture up above. The banquet took place 6 months after her arrival. Everybody touching her head is sick and to a dire degree.
One of the problems with man kind is the way they react to things that aren’t understood. We live in fear of alien, we prefer to remain in a comfortable place. The same applied to how we reacted to Silver. The kind girl healed the troubled and became our saint. However, some of the villager took her acts as examples of darkness and unnatural evil. For every admirer she gained, there were 2 that hated her and wanted her either away or dead. Silver was out walking alongside a popular forest trail alongside the village, but she wasn’t alone. The sun began to set and the smell of rain encompassed the atmosphere, there was a nasty storm brewing. Silver must have just been enjoying her stroll and tossed some pebbles and carved the tress with rocks. She really turned into a sweet playful girl, i guess thats what being human does. All of a sudden in the quiet forrest solitude, a husky nervous scream yelled “Attack!!!!!” and a group of about 30 villagers began to throw rocks and all sorts of things at her. Silver ran into the densest part of the forest but then they lit the torches and burned the foliage, that tried to suffocate her with the toxic smoke. Silver was alone and scared, but as expected, fear turned into anger. In a high pitch hummingbird wave she screeched. The villagers fell to their knees disoriented and in a even more intense fear than before they began to shoot their weapons at her. At that point she had enough…
Silver began to glow and soon ascended to the very sky she came from, in the same fashion as well. She lit up in a fire ball of green and purple and was never seen again. I stay up at night and ask myself if she will ever return or if we even deserved her…Maybe one night she’l visit me again.
