Sunlight Starbright
Preface
All my life I've been protected, cherished, and loved. I never really understood any other emotion besides happiness. I got everything I ever wanted, spoiled rotten some would say, but I'm sure that I never took any of it for granted. My family, large in every sense of the word, always made sure that I was never anything . . . but happy.
Of course, I did have experiences with those other emotions from time to time, as anyone would. Sometimes I would get angry, or sad about something, but I never really understood what those feelings meant.
When I was around two years old (though I physically looked like a six or seven year old), my daddy gave me a music box for one of my multiple birthdays that year. It was beautiful; shimmering white with colors that danced all over the surface in the light, laced with gold vines and leaves. Set in the middle of the lid was a single letter, also made of gold, in a curvy, elegant cursive. Of course, it was an R, for my name. When I lifted the lid, a gorgeous ballerina popped out. It was rather cliché for a music box, but that never mattered to me, because that little porcelain figurine was one of the most beautiful creatures I had ever seen.
Her hair was long, with reddish hues running delicately through the dark curls that lay softly against the smooth, almost snow-white skin of her back. The dress she wore was simple, yet elegant against her lithe and flowing figure, pure white, only shades lighter than her skin. Though it was also made of the hard porcelain that made up the rest of her, I couldn't help imagining that it would be made of the softest material, if she were real. And unlike a ballerina that you would find in any other music box, this one didn't wear any slippers on her feet, though they were wrapped loosely in pale pink ribbons, which ran up her form to play with her arms and hands.
Daddy had said that the woman was supposed to be me, but I always thought she was way too pretty.
I had tried to mimic the pose she was in many times, but I never could seem to get it quite right. I couldn't get my arms to reach behind me in just the right way, nor could I stand on the tips of my toes like she could. Jacob Black, my best friend, would laugh at me for long periods of time as he watched me try to copy the moves of my twirling, porcelain friend. I never did mind that, since I loved his laugh so much.
And I loved that music box too . . . in fact, I loved it more than any other gift I had ever gotten, not only because it looked beautiful, but because it sounded beautiful too.
My daddy had written a song just for me, like he did for my momma back before they had me. I called it my Sunrise Song, since he would always play it for me when I woke up in the morning. It was light, and cheerful, and always put me in a good mood for the day, no matter what sort of dreams or nightmares I might have had while I was asleep.
It was that song that played every time I opened that music box, and every time I would be taken into a dream, watching that beautiful porcelain woman dance to the beautiful tunes of my Sunrise Song.
I broke her.
I had been . . . sad then, and I didn't understand what I was feeling. Jacob explained to me, or tried to anyway, that I was sad because something I loved so much was broken. It made some sense, but I never did get used to that feeling. It wasn't nice, and it hurt . . . I decided then that I never wanted to feel that way again.
Apparently Jake never wanted me to be sad again either, since he fixed my music box for me before the day ended.
That had been one of the very few times where I had felt anything other than happiness. My family had always been so doting, and caring with me, protecting me from anything and everything. I had lived in a controlled environment where it was almost impossible for me to be anything but happy.
But that made me curious. Over the six years of my life, I hadn't seen much of the world. My family and I stayed in Forks for nearly four years (and how my grandpa was able to convince the people at the hospital of his age I never understood) so that I could be close to grandpa Swan and Jake. But of course, we eventually had to move, but we stayed close, only a few towns over so that I could still see my best friend regularly.
Again, it all made me curious. What did the rest of the world look like? People, places, animals, I wanted to see it!
I wanted to see the world.
But . . . I never would have imagined . . . that my wish would be granted like this . . .