MAGIC for TWO >>

PART 1 >> One toothless girl sat on the edge of the bed, sobbing and gasping as I stroked her head.

“But mama, please, I don’t understand. You said she lived in a far away land. Is she coming? I’m sad, is the tooth fairy real?” No more words from her mouth, she just buried her head. She hugged me and cried, her innocence dead.

Oh my child, I thought, this is cruel and disheartening.  Please, please, please, someone help me find strength for my darling. 

“Do you believe in magic,” I asked as she stared in my eyes. My question gave her pause, it took her by surprise. 

Gulp.

Breath.

“But Mama, do you?” 

Choose your words carefully, or she’ll see right through…

“Of course,” I said, to those enormous, naive eyes, “Just think of the colors each morning we rise.  The sunrise is magical, don’t you agree?  Just like the sunset, the galaxy, stars and moonbeams.”

No more words, just nodding, albeit unsure.  Her heart was revived, a bit of magic the cure.

PART 2 >> One woman sat alone after she left, unable to move from the edge of the bed.  Heart pounding, hands clasping and begging for grace, while soft drops of salt water rolled down her face. 

“I told her there’s magic, I can’t feel it! But why? I promised my heart: just one more time try…to believe in those beautiful creatures that fly.”  

The problem was simple: she, too, needed magic. But it was no longer possible to capture. (It was tragic.) The butterflies drawn to her warmth and her light all flew away in the middle of the night.

Please, please, please someone help me find strength, oh my darling. I am lost, I can’t find them, they’ve fluttered away. I don’t understand, they promised they’d stay. A small (yet grand) gesture doused her warm light. And the butterflies meant for her died there that night.  She’d fought hard to revive them and to keep them aflutter, but wings can’t be caged when they flock to another…place that is glowing, perhaps more magic there, more excitement and beauty, more warmth and less tears.

And although she’d believed and promised her toothless girl so, she’d lost something too: a magic called hope.