Ravanah

• Meg Arnold, Grade 5
• Poetry
• 2012

1976. Warm, sunny day. Possibly the sunniest day of the year. Day trip with the olds. Laughing and chatting. Marilynn, Ravanah’s sister, was in the car as well next to Raven herself who was in the front seat driving. The call of the birds. The sudden halt of the car in front. Pushing down the brake speedily. The car behind smashing into the back bumper. Screaming in the background from passers-by. Police sirens, heard in the distance. But Raven heard none of that. She was in shock. Both of her parents were dead, killed in her own car. Refusing to come out of her shell of a home. Silently eating, drinking sleeping for days, months, years. Nothing could stop the fact that Heleena and Aidon Levander were gone.

Ravanah, or Raven, as was her nickname, was sitting silently, seemingly lifeless. it was the year 1985. To anyone passing by, she was just another 26 year old, asleep in her normal bedroom in her normal house. But, really, she was reliving the dreadful day in her mind. The day that, at the age of 17, her parents had died. Ever since that day, Raven had not gone outside again to see another ray of sunshine, never once again went to the beach for a swim, certainly not driven a car. You see, Raven had been withdrawn from the world ever since March 24th, 1976. Hidden from the world.

Christabella drew the curtains away from the window. Golden rays of sunlight streamed in through the window. Raven, who was sitting by the windowsill, glanced outside and saw children, playing in the early morning daylight. Longing spread throughout Raven’s grey-blue eyes. Her long, light brown hair cascaded down her back, shining red in the rays of light. Christabella noticed the hunger in Raven’s eyes. Christabella, or Chris, Raven’s closest friend, despaired at the fact that Raven was in deep solitude the rest of the world.

She stood up suddenly, scaring Chris out of misery. Without explanation, Raven lurched towards the door, flinging it open. She received a face-full of pure, unfiltered sunlight. Basking in the sun, Raven’s pale complexion. Staring around in wonder at the young faces of children, not distorted by a timeworn window.

“Why did you do it?” cried Chris, emerging from the almost-hidden doorway. Raven, her voice coarse from almost a decade of silence, replied, “I needed to feel it. The sunshine, I mean. I needed to see the world, how it had changed. I needed to come alive. I do not think I was living life as my parents wished I would. Only it took me so long to realise. The misery, the sorrow in everyone’s eyes when they visited me; I felt it. I felt it reach into my soul. It brought me here, outside. Now, I feel like I’m blossoming again. Sort of like re-birth, I guess. Something was missing. I’ve found it again.”