Fourteen-year-old Ellodie was woken up in the middle of the night by the fragrance of woodland flowers, and long hair tickling her nose.
Her best friend Isabel loomed over her, grinning large, eyes bright and mischievous.
“Isabelllll, go back to bed…”
“WE’RE going on an adventure.”
“SHhh, please… it’s so early…”
“It’s only 4….am.”
“Isabel, where are we going?”
“To plan your eighteenth birthday, of course!” She said giddily. “Get your shoes!”
“Outside?!”
“Yes, outside! At the spot…!”
“You’re hopeless!” Now Ellodie couldn’t help but smile. “What if we get caught?”
“C’mon! We’ve got so much to discuss!!”
Ellodie reluctantly hopped out of bed and ran out her door.
Isabel placed her finger to her lip looking left and right. When the coast was clear, Isabel turned the opposite way from their usual route.
“I have a shortcut, this way!”
“When did you have time to find a shortcut in my home?!”
Giggling profoundly, Isabel grabbed Ellodie’s hand and raced down the corridor, dragging her eagerly behind her.
Quiet laughter and loud shushing echoed through the chamber as Isabel guided them through the hall, down a hidden staircase, navigating countless twists and turns until they reached a tiny opening in the brick wall.
As Isabel nudged Ellodie towards the gap, Ellodie whirled around, her face contorted with confusion.
“You don’t mean..”
Excitedly nodding, she tumbled to the floor, squeezing her slender body into the small crack. Once she was on the other side, she offered her hands to assist Ellodie.
“You’ve got to be-” She groaned as she rolled on the floor, barely inching past the tight width of the wall. With one more heave, she collapsed into the grass before tumbling down the hill, almost plummeting into the pond.
Wheezing from laughter, Isabel rushed to her, plastering the same bright smile as before, plopping down next to her, and began to plan.
Ellodie mostly tuned her out until she mentioned this.
“Now your exotics lay to rest, & millions of fancy ballroom attendees will watch you take your first dance.” Her eyes stared just above Ellodie’s shoulder, dazed, lost in thought.
“Thousands and thousands of suitors prancing around, each begging for a single second in your gaze but you don’t care because when you see him…Everything falls away.” Isabel started to sway to her internal ballroom music, her voice humming a simple tune.
Ellodie attempted to close her eyes and feel the rhythm in her heart like Isabel could, but her internal beat wasn’t enough. So she sat quietly as Isabel sang herself a love song she recognized, one she heard one of the maids in her manor sing as she dusted the shelves.
A song of nature, full of lively happiness.
An emotional connection between lovers that fate would intertwine, just to pull them away from their short-lived romance.
The search to find one another was led by determination and courage, longing and passion…
They searched forever,
They continue to search.
It ends simply with a line connecting to everyone’s destiny of love,
“Worth ‘twas the two to love and lose instead of lack thereof…”
“Lack thereof” She whispered before awakening from her trance, antsy and ready to move again.
“18 will be the most beautiful year for you. Love will infect its melodious music into your lips, and before long.. you’ll understand…”
“It sounds wonderful Isabel…marvelous, even. Where did you learn this song?”
No response, but she didn’t feel it was needed.
They slipped into a comfortable silence as the pond swelled and murmured its sweet tune. The wind added its voice into nature’s soul, and the soft soothing skin of the Earth nuzzled her body as Ellodie breathed deeply, and just listened.
She finally heard it that day. She knew where the song came from. It moved her so intensely that she couldn’t wait for the music to end before she said—
“We should fall in love at the same time, Iz,” Ellodie said, lying down, but not remembering when she began to. “This experience is so beautiful…”
“It is meant to be shared.” They said in unison, staring at each other.
Soon, laughter overtook their bellies and voices. Earth laughed right along with them. It sang along to their heartstrings, to their dreams, as they laughed and listened and loved.
Isabel held out a slender pinky. “Swear.”
Ellodie took it to heart. “I swear.”
When the sunlight dawned its bright eye over the world, and skies greeted them with the sound of sleepy clouds and dusking stars, the beauty of the invisible Earth kept Isabel and Ellodie on the hill, near the babbling white reflection of the mountains and valleys of their nation.
It was a strange stillness that scared and attracted their attention, kept them in their seats, desiring everything the Earth was willing to give them, breaking all the rules for an impossible challenge of enjoying their little section of the planet.
“Who have you fallen in love with, Lodie? Tell the world. When the world knows what you want, who you desire, chance changes its course.” Isabel said.
Ellodie’s mind immediately flashed to a grin she had memorized the first time she made him laugh, his mysterious demeanor that drew her in and pushed her away during his brief visit to her castle, and the hair that she fantasized running her hand through every day since he left.
Quiet dreams flowed through her mind of what could have been, but she threw those thoughts away as soon as she recognized them.
Flushed, she threw Isabel a simple shrug, thousands of words uncommunicated, lost to the breeze. She then realized her short-lived romantic feelings would never interrupt her journey again, her heart finally out of danger of breaking apart.
Safe, but in agony.
A regret that she would carry forever.
Isabel shrugged back, and they kept their hearts closed off, allowing their eyes to drink in their drifting full moon and the fading patterns of the celestial heavens until sleep took their breath away…