But every beginning
is only a continuation
and the book of fate is
always open in the middle.

There was once a girl in orange pyjamas. Who expounded wisdom of the unprofound sort from behind the widescreen of a maturing (and sensitive) box of clackety clack. She wrote because Mrs. Fernandes from back in 1982 once mentioned that letters hang out together, like beads on a string, fluttering flags of fraternal unity, preening at their narcissistic selves. A glutton she was for all 26 of them, a virtual scrabbler of thoughts, playing with the wee ‘uns for hours on end. Until one day, there was a Mutiny.

Somewhere in the Kingdom of Contentment, a spell was dissolved. And as ochre vapors rose to meet the sky, the Words stretched their mouths hungrily. Muh-neh, they moaned, we needsss muh-neh, and their decaying teeth clicked in impatience. A dragon passer-by had whispered that the creators of other Words sold them for a price and great deals were struck by folks who juggled them cleverly. They too, the dragon had promised, could live in air-conditioned comfort on the top shelf of New Releases, if only they’d get their scrabbler to prostitute them.

Release ussssss, they screamed, their crimson rage drowning her once-vibrant orange, they want usssss and we shall be theirssss. And the girl, nay, woman, (for the dreaded number was almost upon her), turned in horror at the monsters of her own making: hedonistic, greedy phrases who desired incentive to survive. Mere existence was suddenly not good enough. Now, Being meant getting a substantial something out of it.

And so one night, when she had sung them to slumber and patted the box shut, she walked down to the river and set them a-sail. Gently into the night they went, the once-grumbling imps of discontent, and she turned around and walked homeward, lighter, happier, and suddenly free.

She roams the kingdom now, the girl, nay, woman, and if you watch carefully, you’ll catch a sudden flash of orange as the sun melts into the inky horizon. And someday, somewhere……maybe, just maybe…..through a quiet clearing in the woods, you’ll turn around and see her standing behind you again.