Our Mother's secret

Something Strange and unexpected.

"Allison, Allison." That was the third time I hear my name. It seems like I had fainted because I couldn't comprehend where I am. I hear Amanda call my name again, this time more louder than before. She also seems to be in this weird dream of mine, a dream I am having with my eyes wide open. I am not sure of my surronding but my eyes seam closed but I try to open them and the more I do, my dream is getting closer and clearer to me. 

"Allison." I could hear Amanda's voice clearly now and I can see her now but my surrounding was still blurred. I hear birds chirping and singing, squirrels chattering, the rustling of leaves, that is when I realize that I am in a place I never imagine. 

"A forest!" Forest? How can that be. I am certain I slept on my comfy bed, so my realizations are so shocking. 

"Amanda. Where is this." I ask still confused and dazed. 

"Am afraid, I don't know." Amanda say. I open my eyes wider to really ucomprehend what I am seeing and what I see leave me astonished. It is really a forest but not a scary one but the most beautiful one that I have ever seen. The whole place is so bright and beautiful. It looks like those pictures mum showed us when we were little. 

"Amanda. How did we get here and why are you wearing this?" I ask. She was wearing a nice long yellow dress that is as yellow as the sun that is shinning down hard on us. The dress made her pretty but it looked weird on her. I don't remember the last time Amanda put on a dress or even the last time I put on a dress for that matter.   

"You should look at yourself too." She says in an amused manner which always makes her nostrils wider than normal. I know my sister not to joke with serious matter like this, so I know that whatever it is that I am wearing is actually funny or at least to her. 

I refused to look at myself, afraid that I might not like what I will see but then I look. I am dressed like a Disney princess in the movies, like Cinderella or sleeping beauty. The pink designs on the dress make pretty flowers and brings out the volour of the dress. 

"Oh God." I say and Amanda smiles. She knows I don't like dresses and I hate dressing up like this. 

Your eyes are strangely blue." I tell her. Her eyes are light blue with her brushy eyebtows which she doesn't like keeping. I don't know I why her eyes are really blue, more blue than it has ever been. 

"Yours too." She moves closer as her eyebrows points towards each other. "More than ever. Wow." 

"I feel so hot. I still don't understand where we are and how we got here but I feel hungry." Amanda complains and I agree with her. 

Food isn't something that we should be thinking about, owing to the situation at hand, but I am hungry right now that I can eat a whole chicken. 

I stand and look around. The trees are so huge and tall, they seem to reach the sky. The leaves are strangely blue in color like the morning sky. Then l look left and what I see startled me. The leaves of these tree weren't blue like sky, they were red and orange giving a stange color of yellow even more beautiful that the sun which seem to be prominent here. 

I was still looking and gazing or doing both when Amanda pointed my attention to something. 

It was a path. It looked straighten and prepared like it was just there for us to walk on. We either have to go through this path or walk into the forest through these trees. Even though these trees are beautiful, they are also so strangely unexpected. 

"Well, everything is strange here." I say aloud. 

I hold Amanda tightly not because she couldn't take care of herself but because I was scared and I know she is too. 

"I really don't understand. We were in our room just hours ago. What happened?" Amanda whispered. 

We are now talking in whispers because we do not know what to expect in this strange place. 

We continue walking toward the straighten path, even though we are tired and hungry. Amanda was holding her stomach and that is a sign that she is feeling hungry. I don't know what I should be hoping for right now in this place. 

Food? Water? Or help? 

We really need all of that as We walk through that path for at least what seems like two minutes but might not have been the time, owing to the weirdness of this place. I see a little cottage and heaved a sigh of relief. 

Funny how I actually see a cottage and heave a sigh of relief. A cottage isn't something I would see and become this happy but this cottage and the people in it could help us. 

"Look there." Amanda pointed out to me. 

"Yes. Let's see. The people who live here can help us." I prau and we hold hands moving forward slowly and quietly like the earth is about to fall on us and our being alive depends on how slow and quiet we move. 

The cottage is small and I wonder if anyone actually live there and if we ourselves can fit into it. As we walk slowly, I notice that the flowers around us seem to be moving too, with our rhythm. It seem like they we're following our steps, like they can jump on us and eat us. 

I look at Amanda to know if she notices it too but she wasn't looking at me. She was just as scared, amazed and confused as I am. 

As we get closer to the cottage, it seems to grow bigger and bigger. It is a magical cottage that is beautifully decorated with flowers and nice shrubs that only seems to exist in this world or land or mountain forest or wherever it is we are at the moment.  

The roof of the cottage looks like snow under the white strange sky where the clouds were scattered. The lamp stands seem to be there for nothing because the sky was brightly liting up the whole place. Pink and royal purple flowers seems to decorate the walls and with many colors around, it seem too much for the eyes to take in or at least for me. 

Amanda is smiling and is amazed at the same time. 

"Alison." She calls. "It's like those fairytale stories that mum always told us. Remember?"

I don't answer but I do remember that this was almost the same cottage, if not exactly the same one, that mum usually told us about in her most favorite story. 

We read that story everyday especially when she is at home. It was her most favorite story of all time. "Was."

"Oh Lord, help us awake from this dream. This is too much for me already. How can I be seeing imaginary things like this. Am going to be twenty one for goodness sake." I thought aloud. 

"It was like mum knew about all these and she was kinda preparing us for it. Alison, do you think she knows?"

I don't understand what Amanda is saying because I see something I never think or imagine seeing in my life. That is the most unexpected and wild thing she has ever said. 

There, beside the cottage, on a very beautiful white bench seat, is sitted a strange creature. I don't know how to draw Amanda's attention to it but I guess she already sees it because it was walking slowly towards us in the strangest of all manner. 

Amanda starts to draw me backwards and we walk slowly, "it" moving towards us and we, Amanda and I moving away from it. 

"Stop, ok!" She says. 

I am surprised at how suddenly we stop, it is like she is controlling us. I look at Amanda to know what she is thinking and maybe figure out what we can do but her face is blank and her face is never blank. She always had one expression or the other bit this time it is different, her face is totally blank. 

The creature moves closer and suddenly let's out it's long wings and hover around us, like it was investigating us. 

I shiver and look up and was simply amazed at how the sun reflects on her lovely wings, it simply brought out the beauty of both the wings and the creature itself. 

We are just standing there astonished at this as it confined hovering around us, taking a good look at the people who came to her home. 

"What do you think this is?" Amanda ask looking up with her brightly lit blue eyes which is the same colour it was, when we were at the forest. 

"I don't know." I say. "And I don't care." I also wanted to say but thinking about it. This is something I should really care about. Appearing from nowhere to a place we don't know and then having this "thing" fly over us, is certainly something I should care about. 

"You're eyes are so blue, like blue blue, I mean really blue, like deep blue sea." She is trying to emphasize how blue my eyes are. "So strange." 

"Not really." I thought. I just haven't told her of how my eyes sometimes turn blue, really blue. It is always something I keep to myself because it made no sense, telling a story no one would believe. 

"You too." As I say that, the creature flies down and dusts herself. It has beautiful pink eyes and is wearing a pretty pink dress that gave her nice fittings to her little waist. It's hair is golden yellow with a touch of pink at the straight edges which seem weird and absurd. Well, since everything I'd seen here today is weird and absurd, how much this? 

"Hi." It says in a really high pitched tone as I hear my ear drum make some squeaky sound. "Welcome."

"Am Elvina." She says and starts dancing around like someone who just meet her lover. "Am so happy to meet you guys." She says like she was expecting us. 

"Come on, come on." She urges us into the cottage in front of us.