Those Who Fall

(14) from Cappoquin in Co Waterford

Judy

Stellan was a child who loved to read. Now, this may seem like a lovely quality, however, it had caused Judy nothing but hassle throughout her life. Other children thought she was odd for always reading, while her sister thought she was showing off. Her parents weren’t much better; they thought there were far better ways for a girl to spend time than reading.

Judy would rather read than play with any child, especially those at school. She never understood other children. Her mother told her when she was older she would enjoy spending time with others. Judy wasn’t sure. In her young eyes, people simply weren’t logical: they smiled at each other while passing by, yet said cruel things the moment they turned the corner. Characters in books never do things like this. They fight vicious beasts without an ounce of selfishness in their actions. However, she supposed it’s easy to be valiant when you’re the product of someone’s imagination. One day, Judy woke to the vexing sound of her alarm clock, just as she did every other day. There was nothing special about this day; it was the 11th of April, 37 days until her tenth birthday, 64 days until she finished fourth class, and 794 days until she graduated from primary school. Her mother always said counting days is a depressing habit, however it didn’t bother Judy, so she didn’t see why it bothered her mother.

She went to school and experienced a normal day. Nothing extraordinary occurred, yet somehow the weights of the day felt far heavier. Everything seemed worse: the children’s chatting seemed a little louder, the teacher’s voice was slightly more irritating, and the clock’s ticking seemed slightly slower. There wasn’t one jarring event which made these seven hours so much more unbearable than all the others, yet somehow they dragged on forever.

By the end of the day, she felt her body shaking with how badly she wanted to leave. She couldn’t name a logical reason for her sudden desperation, which bothered Judy even more. As the final bell rang, she raced out of the building. Rather than enjoying the stroll home, she sprinted. She placed her key in the back door with a shaking hand and pushed the door open.

She hoped home would quiet her screeching mind, but it was louder in her own house. Her parents were yelling far too loudly and her sister’s voice on her mobile phone was far too annoying. Even the lights felt too bright. Judy raced upstairs and slammed her door shut. She found it difficult to pull air into her lungs, when all of a sudden she remembered a present she had been saving for over a year. For Judy’s eighth birthday, her Aunt Gloria paid one of her rare visits. Her aunt parked in front of the house with her white Bentley, and made her way into the house, her bob style hair bouncing as she walked. She knocked three times, and when Judy’s mother answered the door, she crossed the threshold without exchanging pleasantries the way adults are expected to do. She stood in the kitchen, not engaging in conversation and curtly refusing any offers of tea presented to her. She then asked for Judy to come outside for a moment. Once they were alone, Aunt Gloria handed her a box wrapped beautifully in an ancient looking wrapping paper. A note was attached to the box which read: ‘Open me only when you truly need me.’ Judy looked up to thank her aunt for the beautiful gift, however she was gone, her car speeding away as if she had never been there.

Judy stumbled towards her closet where the box had sat unopened since that date, deciding it was now time. She tore off the wrapping with a desperation she didn’t know her little fingers possessed, and found a large book inside: for the first time in her life, she felt disappointed to see a book.

She opened it, and found every page inside it blank. She placed her hand on a page softly; however, where she expected to feel the dryness of the parchment, instead she felt a warm milkiness on the tips of her fingers. She pushed her hand in farther, and realised that it continued sinking. Judy knew the smartest thing for her to do was to throw the book away and never think of it again. She could live the rest of her life counting the days and walking through her mundane routines.

However, despite this logic, she placed her forehead down onto the book, and dove.

She found herself in one of the oddest places she had ever been. She felt like she was floating, yet without water. It wasn’t exactly silent, but Judy couldn’t describe any sounds she heard. The world around her was simply a hazy pink cloud filled with tranquillity. She breathed the air in, and felt as if she had been submerged underwater for her entire life, and this was her first time breathing. There was a pureness to the air she had never experienced before, and never wanted to stop experiencing. Judy didn’t know how long she remained, but eventually she turned her head and saw the book floating there. She expected to feel dread at the thought of returning to her own boring world, however she felt a new excitement in her bones, as if life would be astonishingly different. She held onto this excitement, and pulled herself through the book, tumbling onto her bedroom floor as if she had never left.

Judy put that book back in her closet and looked around at her boring room with a smile on her face. I suppose she had no reason to be happy, however, something had changed within Judy.

The breath she had taken stayed with her. From that day forward, Judy always had a land to escape to, even if it was simply to breathe.