The sleeping white beauty

07/02/2022 Nilson Lattari

Clara has searched for inspiration in her books to write stories. Her eyes have got lost looking at the garden in front of her. She has stared at the colourful flowers and plants dancing with the wind, birds flying around in circles and she has thought about what’s lacking something there among the green. Suddenly, her inspiration has moved from the paper to real life before nature in movement.
– There is no water! She screamed. What about a small lake to adorn this green?
She has picked up the phone and has made contact with a professional to build an elegant lake with a fountain inside it. It will be a regeneration of this garden!
After that, some weeks ahead, flowering trees have grown fast and other trees with nice fruits have appeared in the garden and, among them, an apple tree.
The time went on and Clara has kept her head turned to the white computer screen. It has illuminated her darkened room because the external light had disappeared by growing trees. The noisy water of the fountain, more and more, was distant, and Clara has gotten enclosed inside her thoughts waiting for inspiration. The computer cursor has stood there blinking like a challenge. “Decipher me or I will devour you”. Then, she figured out that she hadn’t been looking from a good perspective… but: What kind of story could she tell about her life?
Her look has turned to the garden, darker and darker in comparison to the illuminated computer screen. She hasn’t been seeing the sun anymore because she didn’t go outdoors. Her skin has turned pale and it has been getting white. She has been turning white, white like snow, but she has felt that there’s still one thing lacking to complete her garden.
– Is it lacking animals? People? She found out again.
There were birds that built nets though she hasn’t been satisfied.
Then, she has ordered from the internet seven garden dwarfs. She put them in line, as they were walking home or from some inexistent mine.
She went back to the computer, and has stood there watching the cursor blinking, looking forward to inspiration that didn’t come. “Once upon a time…” and there wasn’t time. Everything was the same. Her friends phoned her to say she should give up her search for ideas, and she should give up writing to meet them. But Clara resisted and kept there alone, in silence, stopped in front of “Once upon a time…”
– What? She asked herself.
The apple tree and its red and delicious fruits bloomed in the garden. From the street, the neighbours couldn’t get to see the house and from the house Clara couldn’t get to see the street as well.
Sometimes, she has looked at the leaves of the garden closing the view and has fancied the small dwarfs in line, with their picks and shovels on their shoulders, singing the known song “I go, I go…” and they have disappeared under her house to work in an imaginary mine.
Clara has continued to search for a story and she has been more and more distant from reality. Clara has slept, once more, on the computer table waiting for some idea but it didn’t come.
All friends have insisted on phoning her, and Clara has invented the more naive stories not to leave her house. The garden has grown more and more and the street disappeared totally. Her house has turned small and she has started to believe that the seven dwarfs didn’t want to sleep outdoors and they have decided to sleep inside her house.
They have fired up the fireplace and have told stories to each other and sometimes they have asked her about her life, what did she do and if they could help her.
One day, someone knocked on the door.
– Who is there? She asked.
A man’s voice answered.
– It’s me, Marcos, do you remember me?
It was her neighbour. A guy with freckles and pimples on his face, and he was the same age as her. She remembered him. He had a gangly walk and his colourful clothes didn’t combine. His shoes were always muddy because he liked to play football. She was disgusted by him! That was the image that she had about him. From her house she asked him, again.
– What do you want, Marcos?
– I just would like to talk to you. We haven’t seen each other for a long time. And now there is a big garden between us.
– So what? She asked him, very angry.
– There is an apple tree in your garden, and I noted that you don’t pick up any of them, therefore I think that we might eat one of them together.
– You are so ridiculous, disturbing my apple tree!
She was really angry. She opened the door and saw a beautiful man, so beautiful and then she realized how long she had been asleep!