Hayley

• Melanie Wilk, Grade 10
• Short Story
• 2016

Stars light up the sky like pearls under the ocean. The silver moon splits through a gap in the drapes like a blade to paper illuminating the bedroom walls and young Hayley’s face. Hayley was a bright, young girl, sandy blonde hair, roughly around age ten with a continuous twinkle, in her innocent blue eyes that could like up your day just like that. She wasn’t like every other girl of her age. She was different. She was a young girl with a remarkable gift. Maybe it was amongst the cold night air that blew slightly against her like a tidal wave, maybe it was beyond the vision of ongoing deep sapphire night outside her bedroom window. Whatever it was. She was soon to find out.
At just the very end of the novel she was reading, ‘Wind in the Willows’, the feeling of being awake suddenly began to disappear. The ongoing paragraphs slowly blurred. She softly placed the book on her night stand feeling the smooth cover slip from her fingertips. It was given to her by her Grandmother who had passed when she was just six. She was also given a CD that was to be opened by her at the end of that year. As the last, slightly distant few whistles of the night time birds filled her hearing and the final taste of that night’s dinner left her tastebuds, she was quickly met by sleep.
Hours went by as she dreamed her heart away. The dull glowing of the bedroom walls worked as a relaxing frame of mind. That’s until the wind picked up. The winds that began to blow firmly in the night like waves on a beach. It was the reason her eyes suddenly opened. It had awoken her. Accompanied by the scent of the cold outside air, came the ghostly blanket of wind, coming through the slightly opened window. It was different though. She felt safe and an overwhelming sense of happiness. It was beyond anything she had ever felt before.
She felt as though she was safe but not alone. She turned slightly to find that is was midnight. Not the usual time that she’d be awake. The wind continued to blow as a shooting star caught her attention. Covered by a fuzzy feeling along with vision of the moon shining brightly once more and brightly lighting up the first drawer of her night stand. She didn’t think much of it until the thoughts of her Grandma kicked in. Grandma had always called Hayley, “her ‘Number 1 girl'," and that explained the situation. Then, once again, a familiar feeling washed over her. It was the drawer the CD was kept in.
As astonishment pumped through her veins, the whole room began to light up as she remembered,
“By the end of the year,
once you turn ten,
you may open the CD”
Her Grandma had told her. Ten was their personal lucky number as a lot of special times were spent together in October. She shook her legs to stand and slowly opened the drawer to the CD. The slightly rough feeling of wood firmly in her grasp as she opened it up. She pulled out the CD and peered inside. Illuminated still by the light of the night sky, a smile slowly began to creep onto her face. As she saw it was the early hours of December 25th. And there, in her late Grandma’s small handwriting read the CD’s title:
“You’ll Never Be Alone on Christmas.”