Prompt:
Alice shook the trouble-causing queen and awakened to find a kitten, something she could hold and comfortably play with. Turn something (or someone) that frustrates, confounds, annoys, or disturbs you into a real or imaginary creature. Write the story of how you confine it, or become comfortable with it, or change it, or destroy it, or simply let it go. Illustrate your creative ideas, if you want.
Here's what I wrote:
Exhausted from a long day, mom tucked her eldest into bed with a kiss and a song and shuffled her way to her bathroom. Wanting more than anything to get in her bed, she skipped the skin moisturizing routine, brushed her teeth, and toppled onto the mattress, her clothes still on. Closing her eyes to the sound of the quiet, she fell asleep.
Light and airy, her dreams began as if on the wind. With each inhale, her body fluttered higher in the night sky. With each exhale, she hovered overhead with the stars. Taking flight, flitting on the breeze through trees and grasses, whooshing through city streets and alleys, she was free; free to go where she wanted, to explore the wide world. Sailing through the sky, she whisked through gardens, soared past the lake shores, and dashed through the rooftop bars.
Perching on the window sill of a travel shop, she gazed at the travel bags, globetrotter jacket, and hiking boots. Resting there, her eyes began to look off into the distance. Far on the horizon she could see a light. It was warm and bright. It seemed to have an energy about it, a buzz calling her forward.
She took flight and began to wing her way toward the light. The beam got brighter, stronger, warmer. It beckoned her, drew her in. She basked in the brilliance. The flood of light took over. It was all she could see. Here in the light there were others, many. Moths, all of them, hovered around the light. The glow felt good, intoxicating even.
Feeling full, she felt the urge to explore the skies once more. Her wings lifted to catch the breeze, but she didn’t rise up. She tried again and couldn’t take flight. The light grew stronger, it engulfed her. She tried to lift her feet. She did everything she could to move. She was stuck, captured. She gestured to the others. “How do I get out of here?,” she screamed. No one answered. She felt like she couldn’t breathe.
Mom woke up and squinted. She’d been in such a hurry to get to sleep that she forgot to close the blinds. The street light outside her window streamed into her room, illuminating the pile of laundry at the corner of the bed. She reached up, closed the blinds, and took a deep breath. Perhaps her inhale and exhale would send her back to flight.
