The Dream
The sun had set, and the birds had grown still in their nests. The little girl’s parents had tucked her into bed and kissed her good night. It was almost time to sleep. But first, the little girl had to say good night to all her toy clowns. She had twelve of them in all, each one a different size and color than the next, although they were all Pierrot dolls, with painted white faces and loose-fitting clothes over porcelain bodies. Humming quietly to herself, so as to not alert her parents of her nightly activity, the young girl danced with her dolls, picking them up, bidding them good night and carefully placing them all into the large toy chest in the closet. All, that is, except for one. The smallest doll was the young girl’s favorite. This doll had on a dark blue outfit with sparkly stars sprinkled all over. The doll wore a black cap on her head, as did all the others, but unlike the others, also had a huge ruffle around her neck that seemed almost too big for the doll’s small porcelain body. This doll had been the first one the girl had received, not too long ago on her fifth birthday. It had taken only six months for the girl to fall in love with the doll and collect the other eleven. No matter how many dolls she got, however, this one would always be her favorite. The little girl took extra time to hug and kiss this doll good night, and twirled around her room, dancing with it, before finally placing it into the tiny toy chest her father had made especially for the doll. With a yawn, the little girl clambered back into bed, pulled the covers over herself, and promptly fell asleep. So sudden was her slumber that she didn’t notice the mysterious twinkling of the stars or the uncharacteristic brightness of the moon hinting of the great adventure to come.
The young girl woke to find her bed spinning rapidly on its own accord. She sat up, the bed grew still, and she was able to look around herself, quite confused. It was neither dark nor bright in her room, at least not in a day and night sense. There was both a hint of darkness and a glimmer of lightness in the room, something about it that made it feel somewhat foreign. At this point the little girl became aware of the fact that all her clown dolls had grown to life size and were dancing around her bed in a room that felt like her own but couldn’t have been, for it was large enough to accommodate a good number of clown dolls dancing in a circle around her bed. Now, she noticed her favorite doll waving to her not too far off. The little girl excitedly waved back and ran over, arms wide. The two embraced and danced around each other. The clown laughed, a sound that resembled very closely the jingling of tiny Christmas bells. Presently, another doll joined them. The trio twirled and leaped together, while the other clown dolls danced together around them.
As if by magic, the little girl suddenly found a large, emerald-green storybook sitting on her bed. She picked it up, and saw that it had neither title nor words. It was no matter to the girl.
“Tell me a fable,” she asked of her clown friends. “Tell me a pretty story!”
The clowns said nothing, but smiled and continued to dance. The two smallest dolls, with which the little girl had been dancing with previously, rose into the air as if they had had fairy powder sprinkled over them. The little girl watched in amazement as they flew joyously above her head, and clapped her hands with glee. The bedroom was filled with a magnificent mixture of music and movement, sights and sounds. The little girl never wanted the moment to end. She leaped, twirled, flew up in the air, always landing gracefully back down. Fireworks lit purely by her happiness burst into the sky as the little girl sung out to her clowns, “And now I dream… dream…. Dream a dream that will never end!” The words came to her without her thinking about them, without her even really knowing that she was saying them or what they meant. Then, with one last flash of color and one last crash of thunder, everything went dark. The music stopped, the sights vanished, and the air grew still.
The little girl opened her eyes, and wondered briefly at why they had been closed in the first place. She could see a hint of sunlight peeking through the blinds of her window. The little girl sat up in bed, confused. The room was back to its regular state, the bed pushed up against the wall, the door not even ten steps away. No clowns were dancing around her. No music floated around in the air. Where had everything gone? The little girl got out of bed to check on her dolls. They were still all in the toy chest, lifeless and small as they had been before. The starry blue clown still sat in its little box, although its smile seemed a little sweeter than usual. The little girl took it out of its box and set it on her nightstand. She sighed and climbed back into bed. It had been a dream, after all. She closed her eyes in hopes of returning to that wonderous land of dreams. As soon as she closed her eyes, the blue doll blinked, turned its head and smiled even wider at the little girl before turning its head back and resuming its lifeless look. There had been some magic after all.
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