The hallways were long and white as always. Kids were moving through them as they traveled from class to class. I had my favorite period next, science. I walked threw the mob of students and turned at the end of the long hallway. Then, there was a smaller hallway, which I walked down, to meet some marble steps. Before I reached the first step, I felt someone ram into me from the back and whoever it was hit me so hard, they knocked my books out of my hand so they fell on the floor. I saw a red streak fly in front of me, swoop down to the floor and pick up my books, and then streak up to the fifth step.
"And Travern comes in from behind and tackles Yardley!!! She steals the ball after the fumble and runs toward the end line!!!! AND SHE SCORES!!!!" My best friend Pam was running up and down the stairs in a victorious fashion, holding my books above her head.
"Pam, you can't just tackle someone when they don't know you're there and then claim that you got a point. I say that's illegal." Her face fell and then lit up again. She must have done something amazing in Spanish for her to be this exited. It was kind of funny how much small things can make a person so happy. She handed me back my books and we started to walk to class together. She talked to me all the way to Science. We had the class together so she talked to me all the way back to my seat. It turns out that she did do well in Spanish and the teacher even complimented on it.
She was bubbling all the way through science. Not even this class could bring her down. She answered a couple questions on Plants right and I listened intently to the teacher as he droned on about the easiest way to make a plant grow before it had fully died. He said that you have to water it constantly and put it in fresh soil. He also said that you have to buy some special plant food to make it grow properly. My spirit's fell as he talked about the plant food. I had no money and I needed a job to get money and since I had neither, I was done for. My aunt would never lend me money.
After school I went home and cleaned for an hour or two. I had tackled the living room and the dining room (which both were a mess). I started to head toward the garden (thinking about what I would clean when I got back), but as I was passing over the bridge something caught my eye. In between one of the loose planks I had spotted something bright. I walked quickly over the bridge and then turned to the pond. I maneuvered slowly to the water's edge, careful not to sink too far into the mud, and turned right to go under the bridge (so if my aunt happened to come outside I would be hidden from view). After I had positioned myself perfectly, I slowly turned my head to the middle of the pond, where I had first saw the flash of bright colors.
Out in the middle of the pond was the most intricate orchid I had ever seen. It was flouting slowly in a graceful circle in the middle of the pond. The flower sent small ripples around the water as it flouted. I looked at it transfixed. Anyone who walked near the pond would see it. The one piece of beauty in the whole place was sitting out in the open for everyone to see, for anyone to take.
I woke out of my trance when the silence was broken by the creak of the bridge planks. I whipped my head up to see that it hurt. I peeked through the boards of the bridge, though the dirt and spider webs, up to the source that had made the sound. It was a person and he/she had stopped directly overtop of my head. As soon as I saw this mystery person, I knew I was not my aunt. She would have yelled before coming out into the garden. Then I noticed the legs were shaved and slim. A boy was ruled out.
I prepared myself for a short wait. No person would look around for someone, call even, and still stand in the company of dead plants, looking for nothing. Well I was surprised when the person didn't move, didn't call my name, and didn't even move her head. She just shifted onto her one foot. She tapped her right foot twice on the wooden board of the bridge, so they creaked. She looked down right to where I was standing. I was sure she saw me when she put a confused look on her face and started to finish her way across the bridge. When she got to the other side, she came down to the water's edge. But instead of turning her head towards me, she looked out over the water.
There, I was able to get a clear look at her features. She was a slim girl, with a very dainty look. She moved in a graceful lope and stood in a casual way. She was wearing the whitest clothes I had ever seen (a low cut tank and a long white skirt that ended in ruffles around her white slipper-like shoes) and as she stood there, her skin seemed to glow with a light of its own. But the most amazing thing about her was not her skin, but her face. Her face looked like it belonged to an angel. She had her fiery red hair pulled back in a pony tail so it added to the small angular features of her cheeks. Her nose stuck out rather sharply from her face, but then instead of jutting outward, it made a graceful small curve back to her face. Her eyebrows were well kept and her cheeks were pale as the white of her clothes. Her eyes were cat like, small dark slits, with blue irises. Her lips slim, and pale, turned down in a frown. She looked like she just fell from heaven.
I was so transfixed by what she looked like; I didn't even notice what she was doing. She was slowly inching her way closer to the water's edge. The angelic girl made her way through the mud to the very edge of the water. She then carefully stepped into the water
I was shocked when her foot didn't touch the water and sink into the mud below. She made her way even more slowly across the water top, never touching the surface of the water, not even making a ripple as the flower was doing. She was two feet away from the water's edge and she started jogging. The gracefulness of the transition from walk to jog was so amazingly shocking, I was stunned for a fraction of a second. That was too much time. By the time I woke out of my shocked trance, she was gone. A small ripple in the water was the only indication that she was ever there.
My first thought was that she fell into the water. That was the only reason she would ever break the surface like that. I was starting to get horrified that I just witnessed a death. Then I saw a small hand break the surface of the water again. I quickly looked onward and saw the small girl standing on top of the water again. She was not touching the surface of the pond and she was completely dry, not a drop of water on her. In her hand was my bird. My best friend for the two months we were together.
The red haired miracle was now slowly making her way back to the shore. She still had my bird in hand and was looking straight ahead. She looked only straight ahead of her, only at her destination. She never seemed to notice me (which was perfectly okay with me). She got to the shore quickly and kneeled. Always inches from the ground, she didn't get any mud on herself. The girl laid the bird gently on the ground in front of her. He laid awkwardly on the ground. One wing bent out to the side at an odd angle, and his head cocked to the side. She bent over top of the creature, so I could not longer see what she was doing. After a few second she came up from her hunched position, and something wonderful happened.
My bird……….He was flying again…..He was alive, wings glittering in the sunlight…..
I watched slowly as he flew toward me and circled around my head. He landed on my shoulder and sat there pecking lightly at my hair.
When I looked back to 'my hero', she had disappeared.