out of that tunnel if she didn't have any legs? Was there any way out of that place or was that the place what awaited them after life?
She found that she could move through the tunnel just by thinking about it. She decided to get moving, trying to find somebody who could help her, explain to her what was going on... She would have given anything for a hug from her mother.
The light seemed to change at the end of the tunnel. As she got closer, she could see a bright blue sky, a green meadow and huge trees like those which surrounded her village... She left the tunnel and looked at herself again, searching for her body, but she found nothing.
Spheres glowing with a powerful white light appeared amongst the trees. Agnes stared at them, feeling paralyzed as they approached. They seemed to be made up of the same light which formed the walls of the tunnel. As they got closer to her, she realized that within each one of the spheres there was a tiny figure. Their bodies were translucent, very thin and with elongated limbs, their hair looked like bolts of lightning that stood on end, filling the sphere. Within that whiteness their very large and silvery eyes shone. Agnes spun around, trying to make her way back to the tunnel.
— It is closed, dear one— the crystal clear voices rang inside her mind. They appeared to be sweet and kind, like a motherly voice. She could not tell how many voices spoke to her at the same time, they sounded as a well-tuned chorus would, as if they had spent years training to convey that message without losing tune—. You have nothing to fear from us or from Eilean.
— Eilean? What is that? — Agnes asked.
— It is the new world that we have created for your kind. You are to be the first inhabitant. We welcome you— the chorus of voices replied.
— Are you fairies? — she asked them, amazed.
— Well, you have called us by this name in the past— they answered between giggles—. We hope you enjoy this new world.
— Wait, don't leave— begged Agnes—. Am I going to be here alone?
— Alas, we feel that shortly you will have much more company. You only have to await their arrival.
— And aren't I going to have a body? — she asked puzzled.
— Yes, if you wish... We had not foreseen the idea that humans would not feel happy about being without body. As we are in this state most of the time...— the voices seemed to be confused—. What appearance do you desire?
Agnes took her time in replying to this. She had suffered her entire life due to being trapped within a body that everyone else considered to be horrible. How was she to pick one for those who were going to arrive? What if they didn't like the body she chose?
— I think everybody should be how they wish, how they imagine themselves in their greatest fantasies— she finally answered.
— And this shall be. What about you however? — the voices asked her—. We cannot see an image of yourself in your mind. There are no memories of the body you possessed on Earth.
Agnes nodded in agreement as she continued to think. It was true, throughout her entire life she had shunned away from any type of reflection that would show her body or face. She had never thought about how she would have looked if she had not been trapped in that fire. It was too painful... And now she was faced with the possibility that she had always dreamt about, the chance to be as beautiful as she wanted and she couldn't find an answer. Maybe she should ask for Tea's body, the most beautiful girl in her village. But she did not feel comfortable with that choice. She wouldn't feel like herself, just some copy-cat within a stolen body. She would never feel comfortable within a human body, she thought bitterly to herself, and then she came up with an idea.
— Can I be however I want? It doesn't matter?
— Of course. The only thing you must do is concentrate on the image.
Agnes thought about the power, the greatness, and the magnificence of her desired body while she felt a hot white light surround her. When it was over, she opened her new eyes and spread her wings to see them glisten silver in the sunlight.
I. The encounter
1. The Trip
Her parent's silhouettes started getting smaller and blurrier, until they became little patches of color faded against the Atocha Station. Luna leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes, trying to stop the tears that she had managed to hold back during the long goodbye. It was stupid to cry, she would see them at the end of summer, in three month's time. The time would surely fly by, but she had never been away from them for so long. The image of her mother holding her hand up to the window, in a last attempt of some form of contact while the train pulled away from the station formed in her mind. She had really seemed worried, almost in despair, and her father's hand wrapped around her shoulder had seemed more like another attempt of holding her back, so that her mother wouldn't run after her to get her off of the train, that a supporting gesture. For a few seconds she had felt the impulse of leaving the train and running to her mother to calm her down. But it wouldn't have been just that. For a fleeting moment she thought that her parents knew something that she didn't and that going on that trip was a very bad idea.
She opened her eyes and stared out across the landscape that was speeding past her on the other side of the window. She took a deep breath and a wide smile spread across her face. There was nothing to be worried about; everything was going to be fine. She was finally getting away from Madrid, to discover new places, to reunite with her aunt after so many years of dreaming about it... She was leaving behind the school year, the fights with her mother, the smoky grey Madrid sky, the angry and busy people in the streets... It was kind of like going to a complete different world and, despite the nerves that were eating her alive, she couldn't remember the last time she had felt so excited.
The memory of her mother's worried face made her feel guilty for a second, but she pushed the thought from her mind. Nothing was going to happen to her. Her parents wouldn't have let her go anywhere if it was going to put her in danger. She wasn't going to join a sect, nor travel to a country in war to volunteer. She was just going to spend the summer holidays in a small village in Navarre with her aunt Emma. They were most probably worried because her aunt wasn't going to control her as much as they did and that she would end up arriving home in the middle of the night, drunk, after having fallen hopelessly in love with one of the boys from the village with whom she would try to run away with in September to not have to split up with him. She smiled at the thought and felt her nerves loosen up the butterflies that were fluttering around her stomach.
As the train left the last towns in the outskirts of Madrid, she sat back comfortably in her chair and picked up her MP3 player, searching for a random radio station to distract her. The trip was almost four hours long and she had already seen the film that they were showing. She looked around the carriage, observing the few passengers that had left Madrid at the same time as her. A young couple sitting a few aisles ahead, holding hands as they watched the film, a woman with three small children who kept fighting over where they wanted to sit, a grey haired man reading a book, a young business woman tapping away on her laptop...
She kept herself distracted for a while observing the passengers, trying to imagine what their lives were like, why they were taking the trip, what they were thinking... They were most probably passengers just like herself, heading North to have a few days on holiday, but imagining other stories was more entertaining: the business woman was making the journey to meet up with a new love she had met over the internet and to who she was writing an email telling him how nervous she felt; the old man was going back to his home town to reunite with his childhood friends; the young couple had ran away from home because her father had forbidden them from seeing each other and they want to stowaway on a boat that would take them to a far away and unknown port where they would start a new life together... And the woman with the three children... That was the most complicated one. Seeing the stressed look on the woman's face, Luna thought that maybe she was thinking about putting the
children on the same boat as the young couple and getting them out of her sight forever. The woman seemed to notice that Luna was staring at her, so she held back a smile and turned to look back out the window.
The tall buildings had been replaced by yellow fields that stretched out to the horizon. From time to time, a small village would appear surrounded by crops of golden wheat or sunflowers already bowing their heads towards the late evening sun. She thought about the place where she was heading and how it would be. She had never been to her aunt Emma's house. In fact, she didn't even know if she lived in a house in the heart of a village like the ones she could see through the window or if she lived in an apartment in a small city or even a modern loft. All she knew was that she lived close to Estella and, despite having looked on the internet, there were so little details that she couldn't fathom how the place would be. She had thought about bringing the subject up days before, during dinner, but she knew that her mother didn't like her aunt Emma. Her parents had argued a lot about whether or not she should spend the holidays with her, so, due to the fear of the arguments returning and them ending up in not letting her go, she had decided to smother her curiosity and hold back all of the
The Encounter Page 2