CHAPTER 1 - THE REFLECTING FOUNTAIN
There once was a girl named Michaelah who lived in sleepy little Middletown. She was born and raised there, a town that was not quite the city and not quite the country, but somewhere perfectly in the middle. Adults called it a suburb. The biggest thing going on in this town right now was the July sun beating down upon them. With summer being in full effect, Michaelah would have lost track of the days just like any other kid her age if not for one reason. Today was the day before her birthday. She eagerly anticipated tomorrow when all of her friends and family would come over her house to spend the day playing in the pool, singing happy birthday, eating birthday cake, and watching Michaelah open her presents. It was her favorite day of the year and she had spent all of her patience up waiting for it. Now it was almost bedtime. Michaelah had already gotten into bed when her dad walked in.
"Michaelah, I have some good news and some bad news ..." he said, "I’m afraid I have to go into work tomorrow."
"But, daddy! It's my birthday-," Michaelah said.
"So... I am going to give you your present now," he continued.
Michaelah grew very quiet. What could it be? A new watch? A phone…finally? Her dad pulled a silver locket from his pocket.
"A necklace!" exclaimed Michaelah.
"This is a very special necklace," said Michaelah’s dad.
"Why is it special?" asked Michaelah.
"Because no one knows what is inside," explained Michaelah's dad.
"Can you open it?" asked Michaelah.
"I cannot but, if you hold your ear up to it, go ahead try.”
Michaelah held the locket right next to her right ear, as close as she could. She listened closely.
“Can you hear the ticking?”
“Yes.”
“It means one day the locket will open on its own, and whatever is inside will be yours."
"When will I know when it is going to open?" asked Michaelah.
"When the time is right, it will open. Now go to sleep, sweetheart. You have a big day tomorrow."
Her dad said goodnight to Michaelah. He kissed her on the forehead and left the room. Before she could fall asleep, Michaelah took a deeper look at the new locket she was holding in her hand. The silver was so shiny she could see her own face looking back at her.
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Michaelah's little sister, Mickennah, came sneaking into her room. In fact, from Michaelah’s point of view she did not even realize someone had entered the room. Mickennah crawled like a cadet training in boot camp. Her elbows and knees moved her quietly across the floors of her house. They pressed down on the soft tan threads of the carpet. She was a master of being the littlest person in the family. Michaelah was not surprised in the slightest by her sister’s sudden arrival because it was a common occurrence most nights. Mickennah crawled onto the bed and asked Michaelah what she was holding. Michaelah told Mickennah it was a special locket and her first birthday present. They both looked at it.
“It’s so shiny.”
Michaelah put it on and vowed not to take it off until it opened. They both quickly got tired. Mickennah returned to her room the same way she came in and Michaelah laughed at her little sister’s furtive effort.
The next day Michaelah rose with the sun. Which was exactly part of the plan, her plan to squeeze every last ounce of out the day. She left her window curtains open last night so the sun would wake her up early this morning. She went over to the window to look outside at her glorious day. In her time on this earth, each one of her birthdays has been a sunny day, not a cloud in sight. That was what her mother had always told her. It never rained on her birthday. Michaelah checked and it was very bright out, another beautiful day for the history books. Her pride swelled within her.
When Michaelah looked down at the front yard, she saw her dad leaving the house in his work suit. She could tell by the black tie waving in the wind. Still drowsy from waking up early Michaelah had completely forgotten that he told her he was going to work today. She quickly wrapped her brunette hair up in a ponytail, put her white sneakers on, and ran outside. The only thing was she neglected to remember she was still wearing her pajamas, which in today’s case meant her most treasured rainbow leggings. She wore them the most out of all her wardrobe. So all in all it wasn’t terrible to be seen out in public with them.
"Wait! Dad!" she yelled, "It's my birthday!"
She chased him down the street. Michaelah passed by a beautiful garden with tulips, roses, sunflowers, and strange grey statues of old people’s heads, but she was too busy to stop to have herself a good look. No matter how fast Michaelah ran, she just could not catch up with her dad. It felt like a dream. She had almost lost sight of him when Michaelah saw her dad walk inside a building. Right before Michaelah followed inside she was distracted by a nest of different color songbirds in a tree next to the building's entrance chirping and tweeting.
Once inside, Michaelah saw that the building was a train station and smelled of smoke. There were people walking around everywhere; here and there, back and forth, over and over again, to the stampeding trains. There were so many people crossing her path at every second that she could not find her dad. Michaelah could only see other adults wearing long tan and black jackets getting on and off the trains. Michaelah watched the adults as they walked in tight lines like tiny human trains. She was quickly getting confused and lost.
Right when Michaelah was about to give up and go home, she saw a beautiful fountain. The fountain looked carved out of ivory stone and shooting sparkling water into the air. The water went up and rained down onto three stone bowls. The bowls were made of stone and thin, kind of like dinner plates. They stacked on top of each other and the water trickled down from the smallest one on top to the other, to the other, as they got larger and larger until finally collecting into a pool at the bottom where the water was pulled back up to the top from the middle. And sitting on the edge of the fountain was a panda.
Michaelah thought to herself, ‘what a strange place for a panda to be'
Suddenly the panda fell backwards, into the fountain. Michaelah ran over to it. She looked into the small pool of water. The panda was not there. Michaelah could only see her reflection. She was looking at a picture of herself in the water. The picture was looking right back at her. It looked like her reflection on the locket. Michaelah waved her hand at herself. She watched as her reflection waved back. Michaelah looked at herself waving on the other side and wondered… where did the panda go? And what was on the other side of the water?
Suddenly, a fish, the same color as the water, jumped out of the fountain and bit Michaelah on the nose. "Ouch!" she yelled. But before anyone looked over at Michaelah, she lost her balance and fell into the fountain. Michaelah was a very good swimmer, yet something was pulling her down to the bottom of the fountain. Further and further, she fell down into the water. She was getting scared because she could not hold her breath forever.
Michaelah could not explain why she was sinking so fast and for so long inside a fountain. Then she hit the bottom and her feet landed on a sandy floor.
Why is there sand?
Could pennies and nickels erode into sand if they sit at the bottom of a fountain forever? Something was not right, but she did not have time to worry about that now. Michaelah still could not breathe and was starting to choke. Luckily for her, just then the strangest thing happened.