House of Starlight

Moon noticing Cran is less clear about things, mentioning bits and pieces of things and running off more than normal, finds the truth about Coco, raises hell, Cran realizes her truth and is enamored of Moon standing up, finishes Coco

New orphanage is a home of smiles, angel is there

We are adults now we can stand on our own make our own path

Cranberry was thankful to her mother for finally seeing her.

She would have died mute and lame if not for the drilling.

From the train tracks, many of us came. Forgotten souls in lifeless bodies, and nameless. Coco named us based on our first most noticeable characteristic, or one they could draw out of us. Our brand. Our image. A one-dimensional box to perhaps never escape from. We were all simply physical extensions of Coco’s mind.

Enter Angel, the presumably mute and gap-toothed smiling one. Eyes alight with the sun and stars. Pale eyes reflect each cloud in perfect detail. A soft nose that melts into the roundish face. Feathery whisps of snow white hair tumble about in every which way. Always looking to the heavens, or the wonders of a dandelion on the side of the road; her eyes never meeting another humans’ save for when she’d look you straight in the eyes, searching. Searching for the tiniest speckle of light in eyes most often glazed or hard. Walking with arms swinging wildly, she’d often scrape her knees or bang a gangly elbow. With a penchant for yellowing bruises, her icily pale complexion often looked quite unearthly.

( Angel gazing into her crystal ball)

Cranberry and herself appear in the image, sitting across from each other. Cranberry looks upset. Her eyes are hard and cold, yet bloodshot from unshed tears. “You don’t deal with your feelings. You act like you don’t have them! You don’t look inside, you toss every thought aside as if you don’t have any. Every human has thoughts. All of them.

(Five years later. Dominica is singing, opening the show. It is always the same. She is in her red dress, lights are down. She is the star that draws everyone in from the cold, their dreary world. We are all too tired of the snow which sucks the life from our bones. From here on out the snow is magical snowflakes that bring wonder and excitement. Dominica sings, her heart on fire, throat exposed to the heavens. Everyone flocks to her, she draws them into the red tent. The House of Starlight is open for business.

What happens next, is always a surprise.)

-

When I met Dominica, I could not have followed her in all her glory. If she had shown up in her red dress to our performance that night, I couldn’t have met her eyes. My barrier would have been up. Cranberry the dagger girl would be all she would get to see. The trapeze girl. The fire thrower. But she showed up wrapped up in a dark brown shawl, elegant yet humble. Her eyes sparkled as she intently watched me on the stage. She was the only one truly listening to the music, whom Henry poured his heart into. His heart in a machine that would never love him back. To an audience that save for the performers and this one woman, was unheard. The holy chords only meant for angels’ ears.

Coco did not usher her into my dressing chamber, dash and aplomb. No. Dominica waited until I had changed, waiting in the cold a ways away, warming her hands by the fire. I could see Sunny lurking , ready to ask her if she needed assistance, or perhaps assist me.

I decided to look up, for once. Make eye contact. ‘Hello,” I said. She smiled at me, and offered me a boon. A turquoise pin, the likes of which I had not seen since I had been in my own country. The country I had left behind. This woman was full of mystery.

Time stood still as she asked me about myself. The real Cranberry. I felt very much that this is what I had wanted from Coco and never gotten. What I had placed upon Coco, and seen as much as I could with my eyes clouded by artificial stars. I was truly looking at this woman, and her at me. She came by each day that week, always waving a handkerchief in the audience, blowing kisses to Angel and Sasha’s birds.

I spoke with Moon about her. For once she had a positive opinion of a stranger, of a person other than myself.

-

It was only magical, how the relationship between Dominica and Aslandia came to be. It did not become clear to me until a little later, why Aslandia seemed familiar to me. I had almost forgotten the man who had saved my life.

He had been on the way to the High Country, in a wagon. It was snowing, and I was surely going to die in the night. He looked at me with the purest blue eyes. He gave me a piece of bread, and looked concerned about whether to take me with him or not. But he had a mission, and perhaps trusted in Coco too much, as I had. But all transpired as it was meant to be. I met Moon, and Dominica in the Wasteland. And Dominica met Aslandia, in the Land of Dreams.

-

There was one time, a few months down my walk with Dominica, that Cranberry made a little mistake. A harmless, silly mistake, messing up the dates for an event. And Cranberry broke down, throwing herself to the ground, pulling out her hair in agony. Apologizing and prostrating herself. Dominica allowed her time to calm down, and later discover what was causing this. Cranberry’s first ‘owner’ had been very strict. Mistakes were never allowed for Cranberry. Later, Moon talked with her about this as well, and the two came up with a promise that it is ok to make mistakes.

-

Cranberry, surrounded by all her dance shoes and equipments. She had never gotten rid of anything - the shoes Coco had procured for her, the ones she had made herself. Time to pick up the broken pieces of herself, look at them. Hold them to her body, and let them go. She would burn them in the fire with Moon at her side.

-

Life was no longer something to hack. Life was hers to create. Cranberry could be her true self, after years of finding out who that was. She was life and light. She reveled in her own light. She was safe to be the highest expression of herself.

-

When Cranberry and Dominica made it to the HIgh Country at last, Cranberry couldn’t believe how beautiful it was. It was even more than anything Dominica had described. It was abundant with flowing rivers, gorgeous plants, everyone was smiling and happy. The air was humming with love. It was like heaven. Cranberry cried for she could have never known such a place was possible, not so far from where she had always been.

“I can’t go back and give myself all the love I never got. I can imagine it. I can let you take me to eat and we sleep together each night. But I want to show up for kids like us. I want to sing them happy birthday and make them pancakes. I want to be there before their hearts totally break. I want to buy them the toys they want. I want to read them stories that make their hearts soar. I want to tuck them in a warm bed. I want to braid their hair gently. And if they want something different I will do that. But I hope at least one girl will want all the things I wanted. So I can give it to her. And maybe next time around, I’ll be that little girl. “

Cran smiled at Moon, tears falling. Moon released a gloved hand to pat the tears with a handkerchief, embracing Cran. Cran’s chest heaved. “And so you shall,” Moon replied, petting the back of Cran’s head. “We will. All of us.”

-

Renaming House of Starlight. Turning the orphanage into a place of smiles and laughs. Turning all the ghosts into warm homes. This was magic. Not running away and starting anew.