Читать книгу The Project Zoe - Galina Nelson - Страница 3

“If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that beliveth.” – Mark 9:23

Lucy, short for Louisa, an eight-and-half-year-old girl, opened her eyes and looked around. She was resting on a soft lawn, freckled with tiny, motley wild flowers, under bright blue sky. Flowers, flowers were everywhere.

She saw lots of bright poppies – yellow, orange and scarlet – standing tall in random circles on the right; swarms of elegant tulips were resting laxly on the left. In front of her, tall hydrangeas lolled in a company of gorgeous peonies. Packs of ranunculus, surrounded by roses, breathing aroma, like children guarded by suspicious parents, were cuddling so close to her, that the strong sweet fragrance tickled her nose and she sneezed. “A-a-a-choo!”

“Bless you! Welcome! Welcome!” voices came from every side. Lucy was surprised, because she did not know the flowers could talk. “Who are you?” she wondered.

“We are your friends …We love you! Let’s dance!” White Rose replied, gently bending its beautiful head.

At that moment lovely music commenced and the flowers, as odd-shaped birds, flew up in the air. Their roots shaped into trousers on some and into tall hair-styles on the others. Those flowers with hair turned upside down momentarily and fixed the hair hastily, splashing leaves in the same manner as ladies splashing their gentle hands. Soon the flowers with the trousers walked to the flowers with the hairstyles. They formed couples as courteously as royalty in a ballroom and waltzed in the air, making whimsical lustrous patterns, spreading bittersweet aroma.

Lucy watched them in astonishment. Probably the flowers dancing upside down are ladies because their petals look exactly like dresses, and the flowers dancing “down upside’ are gentlemen because their roots look like trousers, – she thought.

Then Lucy decided it was not polite to rest on the grass when everyone else was dancing. At least I need to get on my feet, she thought as she stood up, feeling compelled to dance. She looked herself over and found that, surely, she was not a flower. She did not see roots or petals or anything else that would look like a part of a flower. Nor did she have wings. She had two ordinary arms and two ordinary legs, sticking out of a casual, long, white batiste gown, that she used to wear at nighttime.

It looks like I am just a girl, and girls do not fly, she thought. But the merry dance was so inviting! She dared to make several tiny steps on the ground, twisted around herself and, suddenly felt her feet left the ground. Up she flew, raised by an invisible force. In a moment, she found herself dancing in the air with flowers, as if she had done so all her life. She made two steps up, one step down, one step left, one step right … “And one-two-three, one-two-three, one-two-three…” she started to count.

“I am dancing in the air! I am flying, without wings or petals!” Lucy laughed and then realized she was not sure at all if she was the same girl anymore.

“Who am I?” she asked to a white fluffy dandelion who, in the dance, was shaking his head so vigorously, that the fluffy seeds, one by one, flew off his head into the air, leaving it shiny and bald. Dandelion did not answer, but White Tulip, with pretty hairstyle, gently whispered in her ear: “You are angel! But do not think about it, make a wish!”

“Make a wish! Make a wish!” Dandelion, who was obviously eavesdropping, insisted. “You blew off all my puff and now your wish shall come true!”

Lucy did not want to argue with him. She was sure Dandelion became bald all because he shook his head in the dance. And, though it was nice of him to let her make a wish, she did not want to lie.

“I did not blow off your puff,” she said. “It flew off because you were shaking your head. You’d have had to be more careful if you wanted to keep it on.”

“Do not be annoying, make a wish! Make a wish!” Dandelion repeated fiercely. Then all the flowers started to murmur at once, in different voices:

“Make a wish! Make a wish! Make a wish!” The voices first were soft and nice, then grew louder, into such storm of shouting that she could not hear the lovely music anymore.

“Make a wish! Make a wish! Make a wish!” the flowers yelled. She wanted to run away but the flowers were everywhere around her.

Lucy, because she was just a child, suddenly frightened by them, burst into tears.

“Please do not be so loud! I want to see my mommy! Where is my mommy? Mommy!”