Page 25 - Horizon 17-18

Horizon 2017
25
Adalina
The bird had to be the one I saw last night. Those inky black feathers shimmered in the dying forest light, just as they had in my dream. The bird even had that same soft look about its eyes, that uneven squint that would have accompanied a crooked smile had it been a human. I smiled back for some reason, even though a pointed beak jutted out where I felt a mouth should have been.
“Hel-” I stopped myself before the word hello made it out of my mouth. What was I doing, talking to birds? So I had a dream about a raven that spoke to me. That didn’t mean anything. My mind had to have been play- ing tricks on me.
I sat down on the roots that sprang out from under the tree where the raven sat. The ground was cold, and a little damp from last night’s rain,
but I didn’t mind. I’d take the unforgiving wilderness over my unforgiving parents any day. I wondered if they were looking for me. It had been three days now since I’d run away. I assumed they figured I’d come running back after a few days on my own. In fact, they probably had a dinner plate set at the table for me, ready for me to return home and apologize for my acting out. They don’t know me very well.
I looked back up at the raven, who was staring down at me with a look of superiority. “I suppose your parents never told you to get lost,” I mut- tered.
“No, my mother had a little more creativity.”
I jumped, shocked at the voice that had escaped the raven’s beak. It was a girl’s voice, soft and melodic in a way. “She wished I was a raven, and here we are,” continued the bird. When I didn’t respond, she gave a chirp and tilted her head down towards me. “What are you staring at?”
“You can-”
When I looked on with speechless disbelief, she took off from my arm and into the air. “Why don’t you just come with me?” she chirped. “I’ll show you what I mean.”
With a squawk that sounded more like a laugh, she twisted through the air and shot off into the woods. “Don’t fall behind! I’m not coming back.”
I scrambled to grab my backpack and plowed after Adalina, ignoring the branches and foliage that scratched my jeans as I tore through the forest. It crossed my mind at one point that this very well could be the beginning of a downward spiral into insanity, but I figured I wouldn’t acknowledge such a thing had I actually been insane. And anyway, Adalina felt too real to be a figment of my imagination. In fact, little scrapes from her talons still decorated my arm where she had landed.
Alyssa Lyzzini ’18
What if You Knew?
If someone gave you a book about your life, would you take it?
If it reminded you of all your past mistakes, current goals, and showed what the future would hold?
What if it had pictures of your future family and house?
If you knew about the future, would it change how you live your life now? Would that alter your future?
If you knew your best friend would be different in a year, would you drop them now?
Or of you knew who your best friend would be in 5 years, would you find them now?
If you knew what the big hit song would be in a decade, would you write it now?
If you knew what the big technology would be, would you invent it today? Would you skip all the heartache for the “one”?
Or work as hard in school if you knew how much money you’d make? Would you use the knowledge to stop bad things from happening to you or to stop bad things from happening to those you love?
If you knew your future, would it change you today?
Rachel Bokros ’17
Art
We are all born a blank canvas Layers and layers of paint Added by people in our lives We have an image of ourselves We change that image
Taping over it tearing it down and building it back up
John Heinzerling ’17
“Talk?Yes,sowhydon’tweskipthewhole‘butyou’reabird’spielandget on with things. I’m Adalina. You are?” She waited for a response.
“Lucas,” I said, standing up to reach Adalina’s branch. “I would shake your hand, but...”
Adalina fluttered down to land on my outstretched arm. “This is good enough. I hope my talons aren’t digging into your skin too deeply.”
I winced as her claws tightened. “Actually-”
“Good. Then we can get right to the point. I need your help.” She looked at me with wide eyes.
“You need my help?” I asked. “You seem to be getting on fine by yourself. You’re far more evolved than the other birds I’ve come across.”
“See, that’s the problem,” Adalina explained. “I was once a human, but I’vebeenreducedtothis...creature.”Shelookeddownatherfeatherswith disgust. “You wouldn’t believe the looks I get. People seem to think ravens are a sign of death nowadays.”
“Nowadays?” I looked at her with a pair of knitted eyebrows. “How old are you?”
“Well, I’ve been a bird for a little over four hundred years, but if I was turned back into a human, I’d be...about fifteen.” I looked at her with con- fusion, so she continued. “You know, if the curse was broken.”