Lucky Me

In a time when the world had long forgotten it’s name, and was just another planet, with a few colonies still living off the occasional grasslands among the endless deserts and mountains, a young girl woke up suddenly, wet with tears and sweat.

Her mother came into the room looking half asleep, but concerned. "Ceraphina, my dear, what is it?"

Ceraphina looked confused for a moment, and then great big tears started to stream down her face with the recognition of what she had just dreamt.

"Oh my child, my child..." crooned her mother, holding her close to herself, "my sweet child..."

***

The day was hot and Ceraphina was miserable. Having left her teens, she had been appointed a purpose, with which she was not impressed. But she knew she had no choice. Her preordained purpose in the village was to clean the hovels; and she was good at her work, though she hated every moment of it and missed spending days like these under the willows, with her feet dangling in the cool water of the streamlet and reading a book she’d borrowed from the Old Man. She was frustrated because for twelve years, ever since her first clear vision the people refused to heed her warnings. It made her cry at nights when she would have a vision, a dreadful knowledge, and she knew that she could do nothing except warn and be ignored.

The night before she had dreamt an awfull dream. She had seen a vision of a great explosion in the sky that sent pernicious balls of fire through space. She awoke with a scream shortly after she envisioned her village being struck with the fiery precipitate. That morning, before the sunrise, she ran to each hovel rambling and tripping over her words as she tried to get her warning quickly to the whole colony. No- one had believed her. She had been scolded and shouted at for bothering them so early.

So now, half way through the day, she left the hovel she was cleaning and went over to the stream. She sat under her favourite willow and watched the water- babies playing in the warbling water. And in the peaceful breeze she drifted into a light sleep.

"Wake up, Ceraphina... your father wants you... Ceraphina..."

"Hmm" Ceraphina sighed looking through misty eyes at her guardian angel. "What!"

"Your father, Ceraphina, he’s looking for you, he’s real mad, wants to know where you been."

"Oh no, Oh dear. I... how long has it been dark?"

"Not long, but hurry now."

"Yes, I must be quick. Oh angel, I hope it won’t be too bad"

Ceraphina with her gaurdian andgel hurried back to the village, unsure of what to expect and a little scared. Her father was known to have a temper, and with her visions, it seemed to be like a bomb with a very short fuse. And as she neared their hovel she knew something terrible was going to happen.

"Hello, I’m home."

"He’s in the other room." her brother snorted.

She knew very well what he meat by ‘the other room’. It was one of her father’s rooms, his ‘memory chest’ as he liked to refer to it. The room was more a clutter of stuff more than anything else, just a lot of pictures, letters, books and the like.

"Father?" she said quietly while peering into the room.

"Come in, girl." Her father said sharply.

She did, with timidicy, and stood in front of her father respectfully. "Daddy?"

"No!" her father boomed. "You are no longer my child."

"But, I’m sorry. I fell asleep. I’ll..."

"I don’t care what you do anymore girl. The community and I are sick of your nonsense. What, running off in the middle of light- time to go shirk your duties and think up some more trouble to cause. So I have decided that you will no longer remain in the community. You must leave and never return. You are a disgrace to this family, ridiculing us with your silliness. This nonsense of ‘visions’ must end." The huge man glared at her for a long moment with disgust in his eyes, " Now leave."

Ceraphina stood in disbelief, but the look in the man’s eyes made her realise quickly that he was very serious. After one more pleading look at her father she left the room solemnly. Her mother was there, tears slowly making their path down her pale face, she looked at her daughter and, without a word, turned away. Ceraphina walked very slowly out of the hovel, with her guardian angel tagging closely behind. When she reached the end of the road she turned for a last look and bust into tears. Her guardian angel tried to comfort her without success.

"Oh, angel! If only they would believe me." she sobbed.

***

In one of the last big cities left on the planet and old woman, a retiring Oracle, was giving Little Orphan a cup of warm tea and scones. She had invited her over more because she was lonely than because she knew Little Orphan would love a cup of tea and scones.

"So, Oracle," Little Orphan continued, "Do you know where you were born?"

"That I do, little one"

"Where?"

"In a small colony on the other side of the mountains and deserts"

"Was it nice there?"

"It was very nice there."

"So why didn’t you stay there?"

"Let me tell you a story."

"Please do, I love stories." Little Orphan said excitedly.

Oracle sighed and told the story of how a young girl called Ceraphina had a vision and how it changed her whole life. And one day; many years after she had left, after most people had forgotten about her, and other planets were in war with eachother and were so evil that the other planets condemned them and half universe was in such a big turmoil that two of the planets lost control of their orbits and crashed into eachother sending huge fireballs all around it into space, and when one of those fireballs happened to crash into it; those villagers saw their last day.

"Oracle?"

"Did you like that story?"

"Yes, but Oracle?"

"What is it, my child?"

"Were you always Oracle?"

"No."

"Who did you used to be, Oracle?"

"Ceraphina"

"So you were the Ceraphina from the story, right?"

"Yes, little one, that was me".

"You were lucky to have left the village."

"Yes, Little Orphan, lucky me." She whispered sadly.