life of a georgia Artist

Melanie’s teen years past without so much as a whisper of magic sprinkled in. Spells seem to be just out of her fingertip reach.Not one book had shown up in years. On her sixteenth birthday everything was about to change. Little did Melanie know how much. It was a chilly day in April the day Melanie turned 16. She woke up when the sun danced upon her pillowcase. It tickled her eye lids and she slowly responded with a flutter of her long thick eyelashes. She squinted and strained against the morning’s cheery brightness as her eyes settled on focusing in on her dresser across her room. She sat up and her curls were tousled all around her head. They were a mess from her tossing and turning in anticipation of her 16th birthday. She went to the bathroom, brushed her teeth, and bounced downstairs. As she came to the bottom of the stairs, she stepped into the kitchen where her mom greeted her with balloons of all colors and a splendid HAPPY BIRTHDAY shout! Melanie smiled an...

Melanie’s first remembrance of something magical happening was when she was four years old. She was out with her mother grocery shopping and she felt agitated at not getting what she wanted at the store checkout. She remembers thinking she should throw a fit to get what she wanted; she closed her eyes, and in a moment reopened her eyes and saw that everyone except her mother and her were frozen in time. Her mother got down close to her face and gently said “You cannot have everything you want in life. Things do not make people happy, love does. She hugged her daughter tight and in a split second of being in her mother’s arms she released time and let everyone go back to normal. Melanie did not understand what happened, or how she made it happen, but she knew she made it happen. When her and her mother came home they unpacked the groceries together and talked. Her mother avoided the subject of what happened in the grocery until she put Melanie to bed. While tuckin...

Melanie had been so wrapped up in the death of her fiancé, the possible dating situation with James, and now the pregnancy that she had forgotten the bird cage sitting covered in the corner. It was handed down from generations of strong women in her family. It had been in that corner of the living room since she moved in with her fiancé. Legend has it if you put a wish in the bird cage, close the cage, cover it overnight, if in the morning your paper was gone then your wish would come true. The bird cage contained, like so many other ordinary things she owned, magic. It had sat in the corner waiting to be unpacked till she had the perfect spot for it in the house. Well today was that day! She knew exactly where she would put it. She emptied an end table, moved its lamp to another table, and placed the rather large wrought iron black birdcage on the table. “Hmm”, she thought, it was rather cumbersome. Maybe that is why it sat against the wall for so long. No, it will not...

Melanie had found out she was pregnant only moments ago, but all of a sudden she wanted gingerbread cookies . She remembered her fiance loved them. Maybe his baby would as well. It was her first holiday season without him in six years. Now though she had a part of him growing in her and the shock was starting to wear off. He would have been thrilled to have a baby with her , but they wanted to wait a year till they were married. Well now she was without him and carrying his child. Melanie sped out of the doctors office and drove right to a food store on the far side of town. She knew everyone on the other side of town and did not want them to suspect her of having cravings. She wanted to make a junk run, which she never did, and she wanted those adorable iced gingerbread men cookies. She wanted to nibble their arms and legs off just like her fiance used to do. She arrived at the food store in ten minutes and those cravings were getting worse. She skipped to the cookie ...

She caught the peeling gold painted tiny bobby pin as it fell out of her fiery red hair. It was her great grandmother’s and held a special place in her heart. Her hair was just as unruly as every other women in her family’s before her. Her red locks always slipping out of their constraints. A piece here, a piece there, hair always flailing, struggling to fall free. Her ringlets left to flounce in the wind as she walked, her bangs blinding her repeatedly, but still she tried to tame it with an immense amount of bobby pins, her great grandmother’s included. Melanie had replied to James email that she was looking forward to a second date, but thoughts lingered that she was not ready to date. She was determined to try and remain open about dating him. Her fingers lingered on her bobby pins as she sat nervously waiting for him to ask her to do something again. Bowling, dinner, movies, walk, she did not know, but if the bottom of her stomach continued doing flips,she knew s...