"There are two themes that run through Maya's story children," said the old woman. "Who can tell me what they are? One's a word, and one's a picture. Which comes first?"
"Serendipity!" shouted the little girl.
"Which is?" prompted the woman.
"The word! The one that comes first!"
"It's true it is the word, but they actually..."
"Come at the same time." finished the boy, as if it was obvious.
"Yes they do, so can you tell me what the picture is?"
"A rock."
"A rock what?"
"Falling into water and making ripples."
"Why? Why is that important?"
"Because that's what her granny told her. Everything that ever happens is the rock, and it makes things happen, which are the ripples." said the girl.
"Well done! Now, who wants to hear the actual story?"
"Oh me! Me! I do!"
"Yeah, me too." said the boy, eager in spite of his efforts to look disinterested.
_________________________________________________________________________________
As Maya stood on the bridge, she was entranced by the water. She reached into her pocket, pulled out one of the pebbles she had collected earlier that morning, and dropped it into the water, fascinated by the ripples it created in the otherwise perfectly still surface.
Once those had disappeared, she chose another, and repeated the process, which is how the boy, dragged there by his mother, and let loose, as long as he 'stayed where I can see you!' found her. An odd little creature dropping rocks into the wateer.
"Why are you doing that?" he asked, making her jump.
"My granny told me that the rock is everything that ever happens, and everything that ever happens makes things happen, which are the ripples. My granny's so clever!"
"Oh, can I see?"
"Um maybe, but if you want to drop a rock, you'll have to find your own. Because these are MY rocks."
"Ok, if I want to drop a rock, I'll find one. But I don't know why you can't share!"
"Because I don't want to!"
"My mummy says that it's mean not to share."
"Yeah well I don't care! No one EVER likes sharing!"
"It's true, I don't like sharing. Especially not my Spiderman."
Plop. Another rock dropped into the water.
"What happens if they splash?" he asked.
"I don't know... When my granny comes back I'll ask her. She knows EVERYTHING!"
"Wow. That's a lot of things to know!" he said, awestruck.
"You know what, let's go find her! She's setting up our picnic."
"You're having a picnic!?"
"Yeah!"
They ran off, Maya's pebbles clinking in her pocket.
"Granny! Granny!" she shouted.
"Yes Maya?"
"Granny you know the ripples?"
"Yes," she said.
"What happens when the rocks splash?"
"Well... which rocks splash when you drop them in?"
"Big ones?"
"And sometimes little ones. It depends how they land."
"Oh. But what does it mean?" she pestered.
"Well, big rocks mean big splashes don't they?"
"Yes..."
"So, the splashes wouldn't happen if there was no rock there, would they?"
"No?"
"No. So the splashes are things that happen DIRECTLY because of the thing that happened, instead of things which are CHANGED because of what happened. Do you see?"
"I think so Granny." she said, pensively.
"And the splashes have their own ripples, things which change because of the thing caused by what happened."
"Oh."
"Who's your friend Maya?"
"He's my imaginary friend!"
"No I'm not! I'm called Charlie!"
"He's called Charlie!"
"Yes I gathered that Maya. It's nice to meet you Charlie." she said, smiling.
"Granny we're going back now."
"Ok but the picnic's in about ten minutes."
"Ok." she said running off.
When they reached the bridge again, Charlie poked her.
"What did you do that for!" she said, tears welling up in her eyes.
"You called me imaginary! So I poked you, to show I'm not!" he said.
"Fine! I'm sorry I called you imaginary Charlie." she said, pouting.
"Good." he smiled. "You were right, your granny's really clever!"
"Is your granny as clever as mine?"
"I don't know, I've never met her. When I asked my mummy, she said granny 'wasn't here any more.' I've met my grandpa though. He's really grumpy! It's funny!"
"Oh."
"Are you called Maya?"
"Yes."
"Hi Maya!"
"Hi Charlie! Why did we do that?"
"Because you never told me your name."
"Oh!" she laughed. "Guess what!"
"What?"
"My granny told me something else too!"
"Really, what!?"
"Serendipity!"
"What's that?"
"It's my favourtie word, in the whole wide world! It means good things happening by luck!"
"Ser... what?"
"En-dip-it-y."
"Ser-en-dip-it-y?"
"Yeah!"
"It is a funny word!" he giggled.
"Maya! Maya!" they heard called.
"That's my granny. I should go now. We have triangle sandwiches for lunch! With no crust!"
"I like the crust!"
"Well you're weird!"
"Well. You smell funny!"
"That's really mean Charlie!" she said, running away.
As they reached Maya's granny again, they heard someone calling Charlie's name.
"That's my mummy. I should probably go now or she'll get angry."
"Bye bye Charlie! See you soon!" Maya said, as he started to run away.
"So guess what Maya!"
"What?"
"We're going somewhere nice after lunch!"
"Where!?"
"It's a surprise!"
"Oh!" she moaned. "I want to know now!"
"No... eat your peanut butter and jam!"
Maya gasped, "Granny we have Frubes!"
"I know!"
"Can I have one!?"
"Only after you've eaten your sandwiches!"
"Ok!" she said with her mouth full.
"Maya. Don't talk with your mouth full!"
Once they had finished their picnic and it was packed away, Maya followed her granny up a path, towards a large glass building.
"The Butterfly Farm!" said her granny triumphantly.
"I like it here!"
"Why? I thought you didn't like butterflies?"
"Yes but here I know that they're trained not to kill me."
"Ok dear. Shall we go inside?"
Maya had always loved the word serendipity, and when she was older, she decided to give up on God, and to make her own way in the world of belief, and keep serendipity as her own version of fate, since only the best luck could ensure that the boy she met while watching ripples, would become her best friend, and a friend made quickly one summer morning, who would otherwise be forgotten about, would move in next door.
*At 10*
"Maya! I've got a present for you!"
"Really! What is it Charlie?" she said, rolling out from behind the car forming part of her snowfort.
"This!" he shouted, throwing a handful of snow at her.
"Charlie!" she screamed, scooping up a huge handful and throwing it at his head.
"Haha you missed!" he taunted.
"Well I don't care! I'm going to keep building my igloo! And if you knock it down I will kill you!"
10 minutes later Maya was sitting on top of Charlie rubbing his face in the snow.
"Getshrfwgoffweijfepwme!" he cried.
"Well you shouldn't have kicked my igloo!" she shouted, getting off him and stomping inside.
*At 15*
"Maya, would you ever get with Charlie?"
"No. Never. Ever. Ew!"
"Really?"
"No, the thing is, I've known him for so long, that to me, he's just Charlie, and he's like a brother. Plus he lives next door, so anything that happens here has to go back with us. It's not like everyone else who just sees him at school. It's almost like I live with him! Plus... ew!"
"No I think he's really fit! I mean, it's not for nothing that he's one of the most popular boys in our year..."
"Because he's a 'lad'!"
"Haha yeah!"
"Just no. It's weird enough to think of him doing the stuff that goes round as rumours..."
"And truth!"
"I don't want to think about it."
*At 20*
"Maya!"
"Mfklkjhgfd?"
"How's your hangover?"
"Mofghsljh." she said rolling over.
"Ok then, I'll just go."
Maya sat at the table, nursing a coffee and a headache.
"What did you do last night?"
"You don't even want to know."
"Charlie?"
"Yeah. That's never going to be the same again."
"Wait! You mean after you fell out, you...?"
"Ew! No! But I think we had a major argument... and apparently, according to Vee, I slapped him..."
"Yeah. You did. Repeatedly. I saw that. And you called him a lot of bad things. You were quite insulting."
"Yeah..."
"And you told him you wanted him out of your life. Never to talk to you again, or see you again or anything. And then you said (and I quote) 'I may be drunk, but I know what I'm doing, and I'm deadly serious Charlie.'"
"Oops."
"And now he's gone."
"To New York."
"And then to Australia."
"And then to some other place. Damn him, being successful! Especially at 20! Who does that!?"
"Charlie."
"Yeah... I guess so... Do you think I should ring him?"
"You can't."
"Why not?"
"You deleted his number from your phone..."
"You've got it though? I just want to say sorry."
"You deleted it from every phone you could get your hands on."
"Oops."
"Do you know it off by heart?"
"Not in the slightest. I just had him saved to my contacts."
"Well you're screwed."
Hey everybody! New thing... the note's at the end! Just for once! I hope you like it... Please comment, vote and tell me how much you love/hate it! Also check out Soulsearching, and Even If It Kills Me if you feel the uncontrollable urge!!!
(By the way, a bit of trivia. I honestly did say that to my grandma when we went to the Butterfly House near where I used to live in London... *sniff* I think the one I went to closed down!!! So yeah. I thought butterflies were dangerous. Guess it puts spiders into perspective eh? Haha!!!)
Also this really doesn't fit into any of the genres... sorry about that! It's a little bit like Amelie, if you've seen that, so a bit of an oddball!!!