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Broken Magnolias| Dark Curls and Darker Eyes

I’m tarnished now, spoiled, and impure. The unicorn was supposed to come tomorrow.  I won’t be able to look into my mother’s dark eyes when I come from the glade without the white flower that unicorns give you.  The unicorn always comes to pure girls. A face like mine, with warm brown skin and dark brown eyes. watching me with disappointment from the crowd.

He didn’t come to Moira on her birthday.  The same thing happened to her, but instead of being ashamed she embraced it. She kisses and fools around with the boys all the time, but she’ll have no problem finding a husband.  Her family is very rich and no one cares about her impure status.  For those with less money that’s all we have.

She was the one who helped me up after the miller’s son was through with me. She told me that the old woman who lives in the enchanted forest saw the miller’s son go behind the pub.  She dusted me off, and wiped the dirt off my cheek. “Go home to your mama, Vivian.”Moria said I was going to need all the support I could get soon. I stumbled off in a daze barely thanking her. Tomorrow she would be with the rest of the town when they found out that the unicorn didn’t come.

It’s my birthday tomorrow.  I’ll have to look at my family, and give them fake smiles.  I’ll have to assure my brother everything is okay, and nod when my mom asks if I’m sure.  I’ll have to look at the miller’s son tomorrow from across the courtyard. I’ll have to smile at him and take his gifts with us both knowing that I will not be coming back with a flower. He’ll touch me, and I’ll have to try not to recoil away in front of everyone.

Seeing a unicorn is the second most important day of your life next to your wedding day.  All girls dream of walking through the forest and seeing a unicorn. Milky white flanks, and flashing black eyes that hold our future dances within our hearts. We lay at night when we’re young dreaming of hearing horse hoofs beating against the grass, and seeing the unicorn with a white magnolia blossom in his mouth for us. I lay now dreaming of the same thing, yet each time I begin the fantasy it ends with me sitting in the clearing crying without a flower.

It’s my birthday.  I walk in through the morning in a daze.  I get up from the breakfast table, and go up to my room.  I look at my self in the mirror, and all I can see is a brown skinned girl with out a flower.  I shrug, and I begin to get dressed.  I pull the long white gown my mom made me over my shoulders.  It’s so beautiful made especially for this day.  It’s long, graceful, and light as a feather.  I can hardly believe it’s me in the mirror as I put the crown of rosebuds on my head.  I look into the mirror once more, and pray that my family won’t hate me when I return.

It’s my birthday. My mother is humming in the kitchen as she bakes my birthday cake.  My older brother is off at school. He’s going to be a squire someday, and work in a nobleman’s house. I sit on the wooden stool in my room. Staring blankly at the mirror.  My little sister drops her toys on the floor so that she can crawl into my lap.  As she proceeds to give me a sticky happy birthday kiss, I look into a younger version of my own eyes.  I look at her dark curls and I see myself screaming.  I hear myself being told not to say anything, and I begin to cry. I know what I have to do.

© SL. Williams 2015

5/5

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