[It sounds like the voice, at any moment, is going to reconsider and slam the journal closed. But after a second thought, a throat’s cleared, and the young girl starts again.]
I’m…this is how you ask questions on these? Someone told me that you can communicate through these journals but I don’t…know if I’m…
Does anybody know…is there…
..I don’t recognize this place. People told me this was called Luceti, but I don’t remember how I got here and I was somewhere different recently and…
[She takes a long breath to calm down. It works, but maybe not too well.]
I want to find somebody I know – find out if he’s here. How do I do that? Do I just – Senel? Senel, are you here?
Third Person:
Some mornings, she knows that she shouldn’t wake up feeling this happy. That the spring in her step and the song in her voice and the wide, beaming smile that Shirley greets the world with shouldn’t be there, but they are.
Because nobody in Luceti is going to bend down and call her Lady Merines. Because Shirley doesn’t need to worry about whither or not the nice, friendly man on the street corner is going to hold a knife to her throat and tell her to show him the power of the Merines.
Because Senel’s not here and Shirley’s still happy.
When she arrived, everything was new, frightening. It was like being on the Legacy for the first time again – or even earlier, after Stella died, when Shirley was alone and scared and nobody knew what was going to happen next. Everyone was strange and different. There wasn’t somebody there to answer every question. She would wander around the village streets in circles, wanting to call out for Senel, for Fenimore, even Walter with his scary grimace and harsh words. Biting her cheek and nails and jumping whenever someone approached her.
And the guilt, every morning after, when she would wake up and feel just an overwhelming sense of relief. There was nobody here that expected anything of her. Nobody that called on her and expected her and was disappointed when Shirley couldn’t do anything for them. That people were missing and she didn’t know if she would ever see Senel’s face again, or hear his voice, or smell the briney scent of his hair ever again, and still feel happy.
But that, eventually, stopped.
Today, Shirley stops and has a conversation on her way towards the lake. She trips over her words sometimes and will stop and turn red and look down at her shoes, because she doesn’t know what to say and feels like a fool because of it. But as she leaves Luceti and steps slowly, savoring each footstep, into the refreshing fresh water of its lake, everything’s gone.
There’s just a chance to swim and be herself. No worries. No fear of who might see her because here, nobody cares who or what she is, whither Ferines or the Merines or what have you. She was just Shirley, trapped here like every other person.
Shirley Fennes | Tales of Legendia | not reserved | 4
First Person:
Umm…
[It sounds like the voice, at any moment, is going to reconsider and slam the journal closed. But after a second thought, a throat’s cleared, and the young girl starts again.]
I’m…this is how you ask questions on these? Someone told me that you can communicate through these journals but I don’t…know if I’m…
Does anybody know…is there…
..I don’t recognize this place. People told me this was called Luceti, but I don’t remember how I got here and I was somewhere different recently and…
[She takes a long breath to calm down. It works, but maybe not too well.]
I want to find somebody I know – find out if he’s here. How do I do that? Do I just – Senel? Senel, are you here?
Third Person:
Some mornings, she knows that she shouldn’t wake up feeling this happy. That the spring in her step and the song in her voice and the wide, beaming smile that Shirley greets the world with shouldn’t be there, but they are.
Because nobody in Luceti is going to bend down and call her Lady Merines. Because Shirley doesn’t need to worry about whither or not the nice, friendly man on the street corner is going to hold a knife to her throat and tell her to show him the power of the Merines.
Because Senel’s not here and Shirley’s still happy.
When she arrived, everything was new, frightening. It was like being on the Legacy for the first time again – or even earlier, after Stella died, when Shirley was alone and scared and nobody knew what was going to happen next. Everyone was strange and different. There wasn’t somebody there to answer every question. She would wander around the village streets in circles, wanting to call out for Senel, for Fenimore, even Walter with his scary grimace and harsh words. Biting her cheek and nails and jumping whenever someone approached her.
And the guilt, every morning after, when she would wake up and feel just an overwhelming sense of relief. There was nobody here that expected anything of her. Nobody that called on her and expected her and was disappointed when Shirley couldn’t do anything for them. That people were missing and she didn’t know if she would ever see Senel’s face again, or hear his voice, or smell the briney scent of his hair ever again, and still feel happy.
But that, eventually, stopped.
Today, Shirley stops and has a conversation on her way towards the lake. She trips over her words sometimes and will stop and turn red and look down at her shoes, because she doesn’t know what to say and feels like a fool because of it. But as she leaves Luceti and steps slowly, savoring each footstep, into the refreshing fresh water of its lake, everything’s gone.
There’s just a chance to swim and be herself. No worries. No fear of who might see her because here, nobody cares who or what she is, whither Ferines or the Merines or what have you. She was just Shirley, trapped here like every other person.
And she’s never been able to feel this free.