amelia-the-miracle

[amelia-the-miracle]

Chapter 8: Being in the Dark

The phrase “in the dark” can mean different things, depending on the context of a sentence. On the one hand, it is most commonly used to describe being in a place without a lot of light, so that is it literally dark and you, our subject in this example, are in it. On the other hand, the same phrase can be applied when you are ignorant of a situation that is happening, and are thus “in the dark” of the situation.

The reason for the latter phrase is because when there is no light to see by, it is very difficult to understand where you are or what the world around you looks like. Information is a kind of light, it helps us see the world more clearly. With information, we can understand the behavior of people better than we could if we try operating blindly without knowledge.

For instance, a botanist is a person who has studied the science of plants. If she were to walk into a jungle exhibit she would likely be right at home describing the different growth patterns and leaf types of the various plants around her. However, if you were to ask the botanist what her thoughts on the 1963 Yellow Plains Revolutions are, she would likely look at you blankly without an opinion. She would be in the dark about those events since they have nothing to do with her study.

Being in the dark does not mean that someone is dumb, just that they don’t know about a particular event or some information on other fields. Doctors rarely know very much about interplanetary travel, rocket scientists don’t know how to run a TV show, TV stars don’t know how to govern a state, and so on. We are all in the dark about one thing or another.

Right now, Amelia was in the dark on many things. She was in the dark about where she was being taken. She was in the dark about how Thomas had found her and who he was with. She was in the dark about whether Ariela had given up searching for her. She was also literally in the dark in the bag that had been put over her head.

Eventually, she was pushed into a chair and everything around her was very quiet. She waited in the dark. Waited and waited and waited and waited.

And then there was the sound of footsteps once more, quietly walking up to her before the bag was taken off of her head. This did very little, she was still in the dark about where she was and even without the bag the room was very dark and she could see very little. There was only one dim lightbulb in this room hanging from the ceiling that lit the only other person in this room as far as she could see.

That person was Thomas, standing in front of her and holding the bag in his hands. He looked sad behind his large glasses. He was wearing all black clothes with a thin gold band that was woven into his jacket and wound around his shoulder. “Hello Amelia,” he said simply.

“Thomas,” she replied, “what’s going on, where am I?”

He smiled sadly. “You are in the headquarters of those few of us who stand for freedom, and few of us there are.”

Amelia laughed, “What do you mean? Plenty of people want freedom. That’s why we got rid of the Affiliation.”

The older man looked down at her quizzically, “Really, and was it freedom that made you run away from your own agents when we found you?”

Amelia had no response to that, she merely looked down at her feet.

“Amelia, you’re in the dark in many things that are happening in your own kingdom. I know you came here to try to help save people, but many of your own strategies and policies have done far more to hurt us than save.”

“That’s not true,” Amelia said. “Look, I recognize as much as anyone that Ariela is a bit out of control right now, but the changes we made have helped thousands of people. They don't have to be afraid when they leave their homes anymore, they can create whatever they want.”

“And just who is ‘they’ in this kingdom of yours?” Thomas asked. “And who are they being protected against? The Adherents, they were all of us at one time, you know that right? We all bear the blue eyes of their mark, whether we wanted to or not. Not that we should lay down and die in their hands, but we also can’t wipe out an entire people group in the name of protecting them. That’s nonsense, and I think by now you have figured that out.”

Amelia didn’t know how she felt about all of this, she felt like she had been in the dark about so much. Thomas looked at her and saw that she was split, so he went on.

“Amelia, do you realize that thousands of people are sitting in dungeons right now. They’re separated from their families, who are in dungeons of their own. No one is keeping track of anyone else, it’s all happening far too quickly for any kind of accounting to keep up with it.”

“Not only that but the agents that you employed and armed walk with impunity through the streets, arresting and attacking any citizen they see. If they are challenged, they merely say that they are being threatened by an Adherent, that they are here to keep the peace. There is no trial, no jury or judge to discern who is guilty or innocent, and oftentimes the people are dead before they could have ever seen a trial anyway.”

“Those in power have used their authority to wage war on their own citizens, purely on the grounds of an imagined threat that is posed to them. Tell me, what threat do we bear against a lioness? What can we who have nothing do against those with swords and armies?”

Amelia spoke up, “You can’t blame me for this! I didn’t know about all of this, it was Ariela who started those dungeons. She was the one in control of the agents.”

Thomas looked at the little girl for a long time before saying, “Amelia, you had access to that knowledge. You let her operate without checks. You may have been in the dark, but you didn’t have to be. You chose not to see what was happening. You chose a different priority than seeing the truth. When it comes down to it, not knowing about something is no excuse when you have the ability to learn and choose not to for fear of what you’ll see.”

Amelia thought about what he said and felt a rising guilt that started in her stomach and rose up her spine until it consumed her entirely. He was right, she had seen it. “So…” she said slowly, “what are you doing to stop this? Why am I here?”

Thomas stepped back and smiled. “For that part, allow me to turn this over to my colleague. He’s joined us and helped us with new strategies to fight this new foe.”

With that, Thomas bowed and stepped backward as another man walked forward. This one had red hair and freckles and was unmistakably Amelia’s first friend, “Aster!”

The fish smiled at her, “Amelia, I’m glad to see you again.”

The little girl was very serious as she asked, “So what are we going to do?” In that question, she was aligning herself with their side. This was her confession, her acceptance of the responsibility of the monster she had created, and Aster recognized the meaning.

“Our plan is a simple one. Our foes are those who would destroy everything. It’s not the agents, it’s not the Affiliation. Our enemy is greater than those who get caught up in between. They’re just trying to carve out a life between the mess on either side. Our fight is not against flesh and blood, and so we can’t fight them with swords and spears.”

Aster went on, “There is a man here who told me a truth that I’ve not been able to shake. He said, ‘The opposite of war isn’t peace. It’s creation.’ They tear down and destroy. Against such an enemy our only attack must be to build up and create. They are death, we must be life. This is a task that you, of all people, can accomplish. With your painting gifts, you can create so much.”

“But what do we create?” She asked him.

“We create resources and the services that people need. We build schools and hospitals, create food and homes for all people, regardless of who they are.”

“Doesn’t that seem dangerous? I mean, think about it, we gave power to some people to get rid of the bad ones, and then they just became bad too. If we try to help everyone, couldn’t the same thing happen? Whether it’s the Affiliation or Ariela, giving them resources will just make them stronger, won’t it?”

Aster listened patiently, but Amelia could tell that he was just waiting to speak again. “Don’t you see, Amelia? It won’t matter if they’re stronger again, because we will have shown them a better way to be. Why would they attack the people who give them food or a place to stay?”

“I guess that’s true,” Amelia said, almost to herself.

“Of course it’s true. We will kill them with kindness. We will overwhelm them with gratefulness that all thoughts of this oppressiveness will vanish.”

“Don’t you think that may be a bit…optimistic,” Amelia said. She felt like Aster might be in the dark over just how people worked. She couldn’t imagine a plan like this working. She felt like people would certainly take advantage of it rather than change because of it.”

Aster looked a little let down by her words, but he persisted. “Well, it can’t get much worse right now. Families are torn apart, people are sitting in prison, we’re all afraid to leave our homes. What’ve we got to lose?”

Amelia didn’t know whether this plan would work. What she did know was that she thought she knew what would work before, and it hadn’t worked. So now she knew that she knew very little about what works and what didn’t. Perhaps what would work would be to trust those who thought they knew what would work and in so doing work out what would work somewhere in the middle of making it work.

Mostly she was just confused.

Right now she didn’t know for sure, but she thought she knew it for maybe, and sometimes, that’s the best you can hope for.

“Alright,” she said, “let’s get to work.”

#Amelia the Miracle #Chapter 8

[amelia-the-miracle]

Chapter 7: The Potential Moves

There is a very important and famous equation in physics that you have probably seen before. E=mc2. This equation changed the world and how we understood it forever, for what it says simply is that everything is made out of energy. Either it is in the free form of energy such as heat or light or 4-year-old children or is energy that holds dormant in the form of matter which makes up everything we see.

This is how all energy in the universe exists, it is either active such as with the sun burning and lighting the solar system, or it is at rest, such as a rock sitting on the ground. When energy is at rest, it becomes what we call “potential energy” which means that it has the potential to do anything if someone or something put it to work. At that point, we call it “kinetic energy,” or energy that is active.

You, as you read this book, are a huge bundle of potential energy. You’re sitting there reading when you could get up and run around, or go swimming, or if you’re a plant you could grow and spread your leaves. We all have the potential to do things.

Many times we talk about our potential to make the world a better place. We could plant gardens, or raise orphans, or eat 32 sandwiches, or invent a new method of transportation. Each of us has the potential to help those around us, even if only in very small ways.

And yet, when we are sitting as a block of potential energy we also have a tremendous ability to use our potential for bad things. Just as easily as you could plant a garden you could destroy one. Just as easily as you could invent a new device to get around with you could invent new weapons with which to do terrible harm.

We are given the incredible privilege to create and make our energy go from potential to kinetic, but that privilege comes with a responsibility to use such an ability well.

Very few people want to hurt other people for no other reason than to hurt them. However, almost all people have an inner need to help themselves. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with this need, for without it we would all be jumping into the most dangerous situations for no reason at all. However, even as we help ourselves we must try to see how we can make the lives of the people around us better too.

Amelia wanted to help people, that was why she had used her abilities to paint things into existence to try to rid them of the Affiliation. She had seen a group of people that were oppressed and in need, and so she created the tools to free them. And yet, as she looked around now weeks after she had formed her kingdom she wondered whether she had helped anything at all.

Amelia was speaking with Ariela and two of the people who had joined their cause. There was a tall man with dark skin named Clint and a woman with wild red hair named Clementine. They both had red marks on their arms which Amelia had come to learn meant that they had once worked for the Affiliation as their enforcers. They had helped to overthrow the Adherents though, otherwise, Ariela never would have let them come before her.

“So what is it that you wanted to talk to me about?” Amelia asked.

“We have-“ Clint started.

“An idea,” Clementine finished.

“To make.”

“Your kingdom.”

“Even stronger.”

“And rid it of all the Adherents once and for all,” this last bit was spoken by both of them at the same time.

Amelia’s head jumped back and forth between the two as they added onto one another’s sentences. “Do you have to do that?” She asked.

“We,” Clementine started.

“Do,” Clint finished.

They both shrugged and said together, “Old habit. We spend a lot of time together.”

Amelia rubbed her head, which had started to ache. “Alright, what’s this idea of yours?”

The two smiled and Clint started. “Well, you know how,”

“We have tried to get rid of,”

“The Adherents, but some"

“Have escaped our searching?”

Amelia nodded, there were reports that dozens of Adherents might be hiding in secret bases in the homes of the city. While her agents all searched the streets they couldn’t find them.

“Well,” Clint continued.

“We were thinking.”

“If you want to kill a rat.”

“You need to poison the cheese.”

Amelia furrowed her brow, “What do you mean?”

“The Adherents were not”

“Alone. They have families, friends, allies.”

“We worked with them, lived.”

“With them. We know who their connections”

“Are, and we can find those connections.”

Amelia was still confused, “Okay, so you find their families, then what? If they’re protecting them now they’re not going to stop just because we know they’re supporting them.”

Clementine held up her sword and studied the blade, “Maybe not, so we may need to.”

“Encourage them,” Clint finished, holding his own sword up.

“If they want to hide, we’ll just take”

“Their family, and we’ll hold them.”

“We won’t hurt them of course.”

“We give them food, water, a place to sleep.”

“But not much. Not comfortable.”

“Eventually we’ll force the rats out of hiding.”

“And when we do.”

“We cut the head off of the beast.”

“We exterminate the pests.”

Ariela smiled and walked closer to Amelia, “I think Clementine and Clint have shown some real initiative here. They want to head up a new department that will gather the children of the Adherents and hold them until their parents come out.”

Amelia felt like she had swallowed a rock and it was sitting in her stomach, pushing down. “But…those are just kids. We can’t arrest kids.”

Clint and Clementine both immediately looked shocked and hurt, “Of course not! We would never do anything like that. Who would arrest children?”

“But then what are you suggesting?” Amelia asked.

The two came on either side of the little girl and put an arm around her shoulders. They walked her down the stairs and pointed at the city around them.

“We want to bring these children to a safe place.”

“A place that isn’t infested with criminals.”

“We would never want to hurt them.”

“But right now it would be doing them harm and harm to the nation to ignore the problem. We can’t leave them with the very people that we fight against. Who knows what those low-lifesmight do to such innocent children.”

Amelia thought very hard about this, “I suppose that’s true. But…it seems like an awfully big job to make sure all of those kids are taken care of.”

“Oh, you don’t have.”

“To worry about that.”

Ariela spoke up from behind Amelia, “You see, Amelia, we all have an enormous amount of potential in this world. We’re just big balls of energy that need to be set to work. This would be a great way to turn out energy from potential to kinetic.”

“But would it be for good or bad?” The little girl asked and Ariela’s smile disappeared. There was a low growling noise coming from her chest. Amelia missed Aster and his calm demeanor.

“I think it would be very good,” the lioness said. “Again, it’s to protect us from those who would do us harm. These Adherents, they’re the worst kind of people.”

“But their kids aren’t! They didn’t ask to be their children, and I bet a bunch of the Adherents didn’t like the Affiliation either!” Amelia broke from between Clint and Clementine. “I really think this would be going too far. Why don’t we just make a school and then we could just help all of the kids? Then, even if their parents were Adherents we could try teaching them that we can be better.”

Ariela squinted, “You’re sounding like that fish. Remember, he left us. He betrayed us.”

“At least he didn’t stay just to do more harm!” Amelia said this without thinking, without considering the weight of her words.

Ariela pulled the sword from her back and soon a lion was pouncing on Amelia. She barely dodged out of the way in the time, but Clementine and Clint ran to the other corners, cutting off any exit the little girl could make. The lion roared and in the roar, Amelia could hear words shaking all around her.

“I thought I could trust you, Amelia. I thought you could see past the emotional arguments from their side. I can’t believe that you’re willing to let murderers and thieves walk around doing more harm to the people they once held control of. What’s the point of having power if you don’t use it to make the world better?”

Amelia continued running around the top of the castle dodging the giant black cat and the two soldiers with their swords brandishing. “If you think they’re all like that then you’re a fool! You’re talking about locking up their kids, their families! You’re no better than the Affiliation in the first place. You just want to hurt people, and I gave you the power to do it.”

“I don’t want to hurt people,” Ariela said all around them, “I want to protect those under my care. It was the Affiliation who hurt people. Why are you so soft on them?”

Amelia stopped running. She turned around and faced the cat, who rose up to her full height and looked down on her. On either side, Clint and Clementine held their swords up, ready to strike if beckoned.

“No,” the little girl said slowly, “you don’t want to protect anyone. You’re just trying to scare everyone so they’ll go along with whatever terrible thing you suggest. Today you’re killing the Adherents without trial, then you’re locking up kids to force their parents to come out of hiding. Who knows what you’ll do next week? How long until you turn against those very same people you swore to protect? How long until you decide that they are the new enemy?”

The lioness snarled and hung her head down low so that Amelia was faced with the full sight of her long and vicious teeth. The cat’s breath was hot and heavy on the little girl’s face.

“Apparently,” the lioness said slowly, “it’s today.” Then she reared back and bit at Amelia.

In a flash, Amelia tore out her paintbrush and whirled it through the air. As she did the paint materialized into bars that the lioness collided into, slowing her down and causing her to roar again. Amelia didn’t wait.

She immediately made for the stairs that ran back down the castle onto the ground, pursued by the others. She ran, jumping the stairs two or three at a time. As she ran she passed the dungeons, which made up the majority of the castle these days.

There were no windows in the dungeons, it was deemed too great of a privilege for the prisoners, who Ariela said didn’t deserve any such accommodation. Even without windows though, Amelia could hear the moaning of the prisoners inside. They were crying out, helpless.

At that moment, Amelia realized she felt pity for them.

But no, of course, they didn’t need pity. These men and women were Adherents, they had done terrible things to the helpless people under them. They were getting justice.

Weren’t they?

Amelia had to wonder, now that the Affiliation was helpless, was the kingdom that she and her advisors put in place just as bad? These men and women no longer held any power, and so they were being treated just as badly, no worse than they had treated the helpless before.

Was it okay to treat a criminal like a criminal treated their victims? Shouldn’t we try to be better, and even in punishment act with mercy and humanity? We have the potential to do good, shouldn’t we? Or was it only possible to be bad when your potential became kinetic?

Amelia didn’t have time to process all of this now though, guards were falling in line behind Ariela and the others so that a large group of them were now chasing down the little girl. She was nearly to the street now where a throng of people that always hung around the castle weregathered.

They saw Amelia and cheered, only to be immediately confused as they saw the procession behind her. “Move!” she shouted at them all, and they hastily cleared the way. “Now go back!” she said, and in confusion they closed the space again, closing off Ariela and the others to the little girl.

She didn’t take time to see whether her plan had worked, she immediately wove in between the people and in seconds was in an alley. She threaded her way through the city and might have made a clear break, but anytime a new person saw her, they shouted out “Miracle!” and so the lioness found her again and again, clearing the crowds by force when they wouldn’t move fast enough.

Finally, Amelia broke into an open area that was wide enough that people weren’t crowding around her. She recognized it as the courtyard where she had come with Ariela to capture the first Adherent. She started running through the open space when she was suddenly grabbed from behind. A bag was thrown over her head and she was pulled away, kicking and screaming all the way.

“Let go of me! I’m the leader, I’m the miracle, listen to me!”

Then she heard a whisper just by her ear, a voice she recognized. “It’s me Amelia, just come with us and you’ll be safe. We’ll fix all of this.”

It wasn’t Ariela, or Clint, or Clementine. This was the voice of a man who had befriended her quickly and then disappeared. She hadn’t heard from him in weeks.

“Thomas…” she said quietly. Then she was pulled away.

#Amelia the Miracle #Chapter 7 #this chapter was supposed to go up last week #but tumblr wouldn't let me upload it

[amelia-the-miracle]

Chapter 6: Dreams and Goals

It’s important to have dreams. I don’t mean the sort of dreams you have at night when you sleep, or the dreams that strike mid-way through the school day when you look out the window and your mind drifts to floating islands filled with dragons that swoop in and out of the trees like birds and the naiads sing lullabies from the stream. Those sorts of dreams are important to have too since they make sure your imagination is exercising and staying healthy, but they’re not the dreams I mean.

No, the dreams I mean are the goals that we make for ourselves. Aspirations, intentions, plans, hopes, visions, dreams. These dreams are all that allow us to make it in a world that is very hard to make it in, for our dreams give us something better to strive for. A dream is like when the light starts to get a little clearer when you’re swimming and go a little too deep until you’re desperately swimming back to the surface for air. And when your hand finally breaks out into the open air and you feel the sun on it, that’s when you know that you have found your dream.

Many people don’t have dreams. They go through life like a wanderer lost in the wilderness, going from one place to the next without really caring where they end up. Sometimes people even have goals without having dreams. They want more money than their neighbors, they want a prettier person to get married to, they want a fancier car. They think these are dreams, but really they’re just swimming deeper and deeper, without ever actually finding air as their world gets darker and farther from the sun.

There have been great people who dreamed dreams, the sort of dreams that transformed the small playing fields of nations and sometimes even the huge playing fields of people’s hearts. They tapped into the needs that this world has, the empty places between spaces that often go forgotten, and they worked to fill those very spaces. Meanwhile, other people, those without dreams or visions, have been jealous of the creative ability of others and so they crushed them. Those who can see how the world can be are always hated by those stuck in how the world is.

Amelia was not sure if she had dreams. She had created an entire kingdom in the span of a day that was ruled under her throne, so she knew she had power, and for the present, she decided that was enough. She turned to her two advisors, the fish and the lion.

“So, how do we run a country?”

Ariela stepped forward, “Our first priority should be to continue pushing against the Affiliation. We have to suss out every one of their Adherents, take out the entire organization.”

And now Aster walked forward, “But what will we do with all of them?”

Amelia thought for a moment, “We have dungeons. We’ll keep them there.”

“We will need guards,” Ariela went on, “and armies. Agents that can seek out all of the Adherents wherever they hide. They’ll go through all of the streets and the homes, there to protect all of the inhabitants of our new world. They will lock up those who seek to do us harm, and if they refuse to be confined then they will be executed in the name of our safety.”

“How can you kill people in the name of safety?” Aster asked. He crossed in front of Amelia over to Ariela, walking her back. “You don’t want to protect people, you only want the power to be able to hurt them. Tell me, what do you hope for this world? What are your dreams?”

The lioness snarled and there was a growl deep in her chest, “Don’t forget who you’re talking to fish” she said threateningly. She reached for her sword but didn’t pull it out. She simply held the handle and threatened him, like a cat showing her teeth.

“What is my dream?” Ariela asked. “I’ll tell you. I dream of crushing the Affiliation, it was the job I was created for, it is the job that I will see finished. You talk of helping people but you can’t make an omelet unless you break a few eggs. The world is threatened by oppressors like the Adherents.”

“The world is threatened by people like you!” Aster shouted.

“Enough!” Amelia shouted and they both turned back to her. “Come with me.” The little girl rose and began walking down the stairs to the people. The cat and the fish fell in line behind her, both still angry with the other.

The girl was again greeted by chants of “Miracle,” but she ignored them. She looked at every person that she passed, and occasionally she pointed someone out and told them to follow her. She went through crowds of thousands and soon had a few dozen men and women following her. Then she turned and told everyone else to go home and clear the streets.

When nearly everyone had left, Amelia turned to the people she had chosen. “I have a mission for you all,” she started. “Your eyes are blue from the Affiliation, and I want to know whether you stand with them. If you do, you should probably leave now.”

There was a tense moment as everyone held steady, alert for any movement. No one moved and so Amelia went on. “Good. I don’t like the Affiliation anymore than you do, and I think we all know that they are hiding even now from us because they know what justice will mean for them.”

“In my castle, there are dungeons, great dungeons that have room for them all. And if not, we can always make more. I need men and women on my side though, people who will find the Adherents and bring them to justice. I don’t want you to answer as a group, I want you to do this only if you know it is what you should do. This will be a dangerous job. So, who wants it?”

Again they fell into an uncomfortable silence. This time it was interrupted by Aster, who stepped forward and quietly said, “Amelia, I really think that we should-“ but he was cut off by her raising her hand, not even looking at him.

Then one woman stepped forward. Her hair had been completely shaved so that there was only a stiff buzz cut around her skull that looked like it would be painful to touch. She was steady, strong, and without fear. A moment later another woman stepped forward, and then a man. Everyone that Amelia had pulled aside stepped forward, each looking even more determined than the last. There were 30 people in all. Amelia nodded.

She pulled out a sketchbook and some brushes. “You,” she said to the first woman who had stepped forward, “what’s your name?”

The woman looked down to the girl, “Emma.”

Amelia didn’t respond at first, occupied with her painting. Soon they all heard a clattering sound and turned to see Amelia pick up a curved sword in a green scabbard. The little girl handed it to Emma. “Take this, you’ll need it for fighting Adherents.”

Then she turned to Ariela, “This is your leader, our lioness general. Each of you is being trusted with the most important job that I have to offer. Our safety and the wellbeing of every person in our kingdom depends on you.”

Amelia heard Aster muttering something behind her. She turned slowly to face him. “Is there something you’d like to add Aster?”

Now that all of the attention had shifted to him the red-haired man looked uncomfortable, and though he shifted back and forth on his feet he held his ground. “You said the wellbeing of everyone in this kingdom. But that’s not true, is it? It’s not true for the Adherents that you’re going to lock up.”

The little girl stepped closer to him and squinted her eyes. “That’s right, we’re going to lock every one of them up. Do you have a problem with that?”

Emma pulled her sword out and pointed it at the fish. “Do I need to take care of him?” She asked.

To her left, Amelia could see Ariela smirking. If there was any doubt that she was in higher favor than Aster before that was gone now. “Hold on,” Amelia said to Emma. She turned back to Aster, “I asked you a question. Do you have a problem with that?”

The two locked eyes, frozen until finally, Aster looked down. “No…I don’t.”

Amelia nodded and Emma lowered her sword. “Good,” the little girl said. She quickly painted 29 more swords so that everyone had one. “Now go,” she said “find every Adherent and report back to Ariela with your progress. Fill our dungeons to bursting. They took art from you,” here she pointed to the swords, “but we’ll show them just what art can do. They dreamed of a world where they few were in charge of many. We’re going to kill a few dreams today.”

The 30 shouted and then ran into the streets, Emma leading the charge. After they left Amelia started to walk back toward the castle with her two counselors. As they walked she drilled Aster, “Aster, you were my first friend, and I am trying to give you a chance, but you need to either get on board with what we’re doing or go back to your pool.”

“But Amelia,” he said, “you can’t build a nation by locking people up. You can’t teach love by displaying hatred. You can’t bring life by killing.”

“I beg to differ,” Ariela said. “Can’t you just agree to disagree and move on Fish?”

“This isn’t a matter of discussion or agreement,” Aster said, getting worked up now. “This is not a debate of equal ideas, where people have different values. What you’re suggesting is murder. No, genocide.”

Ariela growled, “It’s not genocide. We’re not killing everyone, just those who stand with the Adherents. It’s not that dramatic.”

Aster would not be intimidated though, “And what of the husbands and wives who are married to those who are loyal to the Affiliation? What of their children who are scared and just try to stand with their parents? What of them?”

The lioness shrugged, “They should know better than to stand with a broken regime that was only hurting them, especially now that salvation has come.”

Aster looked disgusted. “We kill the Adherents today, but then who tomorrow? You have riled up the world to overthrow, so what happens when they’ve gotten rid of the old leaders completely? Maybe they’ll start turning to the new ones and think they’re not so great either.”

Now Ariela did pull out her sword and in a moment she was the black lion again. She pounced on Aster and the sound of her voice echoed in their minds, “We are nothing like the old leaders. You’ve had enough sun today, fish. Time to go back to your tank.”

Before Amelia could say anything the lion took off with Aster being held up by his shirt between her jaws. The cat jumped down the stairs and it was all Amelia could do to keep up. Eventually, though the cat turned a corner and was gone, no matter where she looked, Amelia, saw no sign of the two.

“Ariela! Aster!” She called out, “Come on now, we have no time for fighting between the two of us. We need to-“ Her voice fell as she heard shouting in the street near her. She ran down and saw two of her soldiers that had been given swords standing over a man with dark hair and bright blue eyes who was hissing up at them. Nearby there was a woman with two children who cried and called out.

The soldiers picked up the man and walked past Amelia, both beaming at her as they walked. “Where are you taking him?” Amelia asked.

“To the dungeons!” The soldier closest to her said, “Just like you and the general told us!”

And with that, they marched off, the man cursing and trying to break from them all the while. The children cried and screamed and their voices filled Amelia’s head and turned her stomach. These kids looked as young as she did, and she may have just taken their dad away from them. She thought about what Aster said…what dreams might these children have of her now?

Their screams were cut off by the noise of a far louder, more piercing scream moments later, and Amelia turned to see another three of her soldiers walking out of an alley. They were laughing and talking. They all held their swords and dripping from them was something that even a young miracle like Amelia could recognize.

It was blood.

She ran over to these soldiers, “What are you doing? Have you killed someone?”

The three smiled and shrugged, “They resisted arrest. What were we supposed to do? They might have been dangerous.”

The three walked off and Amelia was alone in the street. “How can they be dangerous to you when you are in control and have a weapon?” She thought. It was then that she understood what Aster had meant when he said there was a difference between wanting to protect people and merely wanting the power to be able to hurt other people.

“Amelia,” the voice of Ariela said, startling the girl from her thoughts. The lioness came out of a nearby street, in human form. “The soldiers are making quick work of the Affiliation. Soon there will be no trace of the filth that once held this world in shackles.”

The woman smiled, and her mouth was filled with the sharp jaws of a lion. “We hold the power now,” Ariela said.

And as she looked at that smile, Amelia knew that it wasn’t her power any longer.

#Amelia the Miracle #chapter 6

[amelia-the-miracle]

Today’s chapter is delayed

I need to rework some of the storyline to make sure it’s accurately teaching the message I want it to. I might be able to get the chapter finished before next week, but otherwise, expect it next Tuesday.

#thank you for your continued support! #this is to make sure that the story is as good as you all deserve

[amelia-the-miracle]

Chapter 5: The Company of Others

Have you ever talked to yourself when no one else was around?

Yes, I have, I do so fairly frequently actually.

Yes, that’s what I thought, being that you are me.

The thing about being alone is that no one likes it, not really. It can be nice to get away from the crowds on holiday once in a while, but eventually, we look around and realize that we would like very much some company, thank you. We get lonely, and then we need to talk to someone. Since there is only one person around, ourself, that person becomes our conversational partner.

It’s true, and after you get comfortable talking to yourself, it can be very difficult to stop, even when you actually are in the company of others. Then you attract some glances from the other people on the bus with you as you mutter to yourself.

And your teachers and coworkers come over to ask if you’re alright.

And your readers begin to wonder how long you’ll keep this up before getting back to the story.

Ah, you’re right, they’re looking at us now, aren’t they? That’s a bit rude, don’t you think? This is a private conversation and they’re butting in.

Honestly, people have no consideration these days, no consideration at all.

The day that a miracle came out of nowhere to save the world would go on to be celebrated for years to come. Parties were held, banners were waved, and the people grew to love the annual event almost as much as Christmas, Hanukah, and St. Patrick’s Day all rolled up in one. However, for the little miracle herself, the day was a whirlwind of activity that seemed to move too quickly to be in any way enjoyable.

As Amelia watched Thomas walked away she was sad and didn’t understand. She had saved him, hadn’t she? She had come to give him the chance to paint and live freely, but he didn’t seem any happier if anything he looked even worse.

He had disappeared in the streets like everyone else in the crowd, all going their separate ways. He didn’t walk in the direction of his shop though, so Amelia had no idea where he was going. After a moment, she was the last one left in the small courtyard and she began walking back toward Thomas’s shop and her white room where Aster was still waiting.

As she walked she could hear a rumbling that underpinned all the other noise of the city. It was like the sound of a million voices all shouting at once accompanied by the stomping of two million feet. “That sounds like a million voices all shouting at once,” the little girl said to herself, “accompanied by the stomping of two million feet.”

She was alone as she walked, and so she talked more and more to herself as she went. “I wonder why Thomas left, why doesn’t he believe in our peace and change? It seems very clear to me that we were able to make a very significant change indeed. Those Adherents will never be able to harm anyone and the people are back in charge of their own lives.”

The more the little girl thought about it the angrier she got. “How does Thomas have any right to be upset over what we did? He was the one who complained about how it was before. He was the one who chose to live as a criminal. If he didn’t like it when someone came in and cleaned his messes then he shouldn’t complain about it.”

She had worked herself into quite a frenzy, all the while hearing that steady rumbling noise from the crowds going through the streets. Soon she made it back to Thomas’s shop and went inside. The old man was nowhere to be found so Amelia walked past all of the paintings and into her room.

Aster was there, floating in the air waiting for her when she entered. “How did it go?” He asked.

“Oh, Aster it was excellent!” Amelia said excitedly. “The lion took care of that man who took Thomas, and all these people came and supported us. Then more of the Affiliation came and we took care of them too.”

“What do you mean, took care of them?” Aster asked. “Did you kill them?”

Amelia rolled her eyes, “Not all of them obviously, but some sure. Others we just locked up. I don’t know what they’ll do at the capitol building, but it can’t be any worse than the Affiliation deserves after the awful way they’ve treated everyone for so long now.”

“I suppose not,” Aster said. “Where is Thomas?”

Amelia’s face fell, “I don’t know, he left after everyone scattered. I went to save him, to help him, and he didn’t seem to actually want to be helped.”

“Maybe he wanted help, but not in the way that you brought it.”

Amelia scowled, “Are you still upset about the lion? She may be a cat but she solved a problem they’ve had for years in the span of a few minutes. I think that’s a pretty effective method. At the very least, it’s better than sitting around accepting your fate.”

Aster was quiet for a moment, thinking about what she said. Finally, he replied, “Well, I hope you’re right. What’s the plan now?��

Before Amelia could answer him, another voice, one neither had heard before, spoke from behind her. “The plan is that Amelia will become the new ruler of our little country here, with me at her side.”

They turned and saw the lion walking into the room. She was not the large black beast but now the woman in armor again. Her sword was still on her back, a constant reminder of who this woman was and the strength she possessed.

Aster looked at the woman, and then he too changed forms and soon he was standing before them as a man with orange hair and light, freckled skin. He had no armor, just a pair of blue jeans and a somewhat wrinkled button-down shirt.

“So, you guys can just shapeshift whenever you want, huh?” Amelia asked.

Aster shrugged, “It’s a fantasy novel.”

Amelia didn’t know what he was talking about but decided it didn’t matter. She turned to the woman, “What do you mean I’m in charge? I was born a couple hours ago, I don’t really think I’m qualified to lead a country.”

The woman shrugged, “It’s what the people want. They have kicked the Affiliation out of power and they want the girl who came like a miracle to lead them. With me at your side, we can snuff out every last Adherent until the people can live freely and do what they want. We can bring them peace by destroying those that would harm them.”

Aster walked forward and interrupted, “Amelia you can’t honestly think that’s a good idea. This woman just wants to fight, she has no interest in peace. She’s a lion.”

“And you’re a fish,” the woman shot back, “a fish who holds back in his tank and watches the world from the other side of the glass, never engaging. Amelia knows that if we want something in this world we have to take it.”

“Amelia doesn’t need to take things in this world,” Aster said. “Amelia can create whatever she would need.”

“Then that power should be used to help people, give us weapons and strongholds. Create a castle so huge and powerful that the mere sight of it will be enough to demand loyalty and strike fear into the hearts of those who would do us harm.” The woman was shouting now.

Aster shouted too, “No, give us food and safe homes and schools. If we’re going to run a country, we should make it an inviting place that helps those in need!”

“We can do that by crushing our enemies!”

“No, we can do that by creating a safe place where no one has to be an enemy!”

“ENOUGH!” Amelia shouted. The two looked down at her worked up but they stopped shouting. “Now, first things first,” she turned to the woman, “I am Amelia, that’s Aster. What’s your name?”

The woman furrowed her brow, “I am the lion. I need no name.”

“Okay but that’s gonna get confusing,” Amelia said. “People have to read this.”

The woman rolled her eyes again Amelia thought she could hear a growl. “Fine, call me…um…my name is…”

“Take your time,” Aster said. Amelia tried not to laugh.

The lion glared at the fish, then said, “Ariela. Call me Ariela.”

“Ariela,” Amelia said, “I like that. “Now, Ariela, what do you mean the people want me to lead them? They don’t even really know me.”

The woman shrugged, “You don’t have to take my word for it. Come and see for yourself.”

And with that, Ariela walked out of the room. “She has a bad habit of walking without waiting for me,” Amelia said, mostly to herself.

“I’ve noticed,” Aster said. Amelia did not think these two would be friends.

Even from inside the shop, Amelia could hear the rumbling again, but it was much louder now. When Ariela opened the door she found out why. In front of Thomas’s shop, there were thousands, no, millions of people in the street. There were so many of them that they wrapped around the blocks and in the alleyways so that no matter where Amelia looked she couldn’t see the streets.

When they saw the little girl they cheered and shouted and the noise was deafening. Then they began chanting “Miracle! Miracle! Miracle!”

“People of this world!” Ariela roared, her voice boomed over the noise and the people fell quiet, listening to her. “You have taken your world back into your own hands, and it is now up to you to govern yourselves. The Affiliation is gone, and we will fight until there is not one shred of them left.”

The people roared with applause and cheering. Amelia felt blown back by the amount of sound directed her way. She reached out and grabbed Ariela’s arm without even thinking about it. The woman held firm like she was planted to the ground.

“Now you must choose a leader!” The woman shouted out. “Whom do you choose?”

The people once again began chanting out “Miracle!” Amelia looked at this sea of people, blue eyes as far as she could see. She looked up at the lion, who gazed over the faces, there was a look in her eye that Amelia couldn’t quite identify. Was it hunger?

Aster walked up from behind them and stood on the other side of Amelia, looking at the crowd too. The little girl looked from the woman who was a lion to the man who was a fish. The woman who took action and did the dirty work, who only needed a direction and she would attack. And then the man who held back, anxious to help and create, who took time to come up with a fitting name and who could enjoy a simple swim.

If Amelia had listened to the fish, these people would still be held in bondage by the Affiliation. The lion had been her weapon and had done her job. The lion might be dangerous, but after all, wasn’t that good when you had enemies that should be destroyed?

Amelia made her decision. She stepped forward, in front of both the lion and the fish and raised both hands. The crowd silenced once again. Under her breath, Amelia said quietly, “This is what I have started, so I should finish it. They want me as a leader, so maybe it’s my job to lead them.” She may have been in the middle of a crowd, but Amelia knew that at this moment, she was alone.

Then she spoke for everyone to hear, “If you want a castle that rises to the sky and a leader who fights your enemies; if you want a lion who destroys and a world that stands strong above the rest; if you want a leader who can make these things happen, then I will take the job.” The people cheered but Amelia didn’t wait to listen. She turned back and walked back to her room where she had work to do. Ariela and Aster followed her.

She found the black paint that had been used to paint her lion, and she coated the walls in it. She painted towers and walls that stretched as high as she could reach. She used the stepladder to make them even higher, and as she did she heard the moaning of the earth itself but she took no time to listen.

She painted barbed wire above the walls, fences that were impenetrable. She painted dungeons and moats and battlements. She painted guards and soldiers and lions. The room began to shake back and forth, and jump up and down as she painted, but she did not stop.

She painted mountains with thick forests on all sides and cliffs that fell hundreds of feet. She painted a sky that couldn’t compete with the height of the towers. There was a ripping, tearing sound, and then the top of her room was no longer a dark void but filled with light as it opened to the sun and stars.

Soon the walls fell out even as she painted them. The room turned inside out and what had been the walls soon pointed downward like a skirt. Still, the girl painted, hanging down off the walls and covering the floors.

She could hear the laughter of Ariela behind her while Aster screamed out “That’s enough Amelia!” The wind blew and a storm gathered, for they were now high above the city.

As Amelia painted, the towers had come to be all around them. The castle now dominated the world and struck out in all directions and in the very center of it all was the largest tower where Amelia’s room had been. The throne that she had started in now stood in view of all, and this wasn’t just any throne. This was her throne.

There was a large spiral staircase that started down in the street and spun around and around the castle until it ended up here at the throne room where Amelia stood. From here she could see everything.

The buildings that had been clustered up around Thomas’s shop hung at odd angles off of the towers, so that it looked like they had been built sideways, like parasites hanging off of a larger animal. Thomas’s shop was no longer attached to the room, it had been ripped from the doorway and fallen to who knew where somewhere inside the castle’s towers.

Amelia finally stopped painting and looked up at what she had made. She could still see the crowds of people lining the streets below her, still hear the rumble of their cheers. But now they were like insects, beneath her. Now she had shown just how powerful she was and how strong a leader she could be.

Ariela walked up to her and put a hand on the little girl’s shoulder laughing. Aster came up on the other side and looked fearfully over the edge of the tower. “I hope you’re sure about this,” the fish said.

Amelia smiled, “I am.”

#Amelia the miracle #chapter 5 #writing

[amelia-the-miracle]

Chapter 4: Imaginary and Real Things

Many people (and, I am told, some plants) believe that some things are imaginary. Fairies, dragons, and a student loan that has been completely paid off are good examples. These folks and flora prefer to think that they understand the world entirely and try to rest securely knowing that the world is small and understandable.

And yet, sometimes the world astounds us and creates something that doesn’t fit into the box that we have tried to build around it. Our tiny brains are then unable to respond, and we end up sitting in our homes angry and bitter and saying that the world is wrong all the while.

It may be true that some things are imaginary, such as the stranger looking over your shoulder right now, but most things exist somewhere you simply haven’t looked yet. When you find yourself face to face with such a truth, you have the ability to either accept it or remain in the dark, limiting your own potential.

The lioness that Amelia was face to face with was not imaginary, or at least if it was then she must be too. Its breath was hot and wet as it breathed onto her forehead and its weight pinned down her arms painfully. In the face of this evidence, Amelia decided to accept the truth that this lion, and the danger it posed, was very real.

As she looked into the eyes of the lion, Amelia didn’t know what to do. She had only just created this powerful beast, and it had turned against her, she didn’t understand it. She looked into the black voids that were the lioness’s eyes and then shouted, with all the force that her small frame could produce, “Hey dummy, you’re not supposed to fight me. You’re supposed to fight him!”

She wrestled her arm from underneath one of the massive paws and pointed over at the man with the rat nose. The lion looked over at the man, who screamed and hid behind a nearby statue. Amelia thought for a moment that the giant cat would leave, but then she whirled back on the little girl and roared again.

At that moment Thomas, despite his age, barreled into the lioness, knocking her off of Amelia. The cat yelped and tumbled with the old man, but before he could be pinned Thomas jumped to his feet and ran away as fast as he could. The crowd that had gathered screamed and scattered anytime the lioness so much as looked in their direction, but the cat ignored them all.

Amelia scrambled to her feet as the beast did the same. The two looked at one another and then Thomas and the Adherent in a four-way standoff. Amelia slowly reached behind her into her backpack and pulled out a paintbrush. She brought it up carefully and slowly to the gasps of the crowd behind her.

“Is that a paintbrush?”

“Those are illegal!”

“She can’t paint!”

“Lock her up!!”

The last comment came from the rat-nosed man, and it attracted the attention of the lioness, who immediately tore after the man, causing them to run around the tight circle. The cat was clearly no more than playing with the man though, and soon the man fell to the ground in exhaustion and the lioness left him be.

And instead, turned back to Amelia, growling again.

The girl held up her brush in front of her and said, “Listen, you see this? Don’t you remember me? I painted you, just a moment ago. Remember who I am.”

The lioness sauntered up to the girl, looking at the brush and at her face. The beast’s gaze went back and forth as Amelia drew the brush into an arc, moving carefully. Then, as one hand moved the brush, the other reached into her backpack for the other item she had created before leaving her room.

The lioness didn’t notice her subtle movement, and soon Amelia held a small sketchbook in her other hand. The crowd behind her started murmuring and she knew that they had seen it too. She silently hoped that the lion wouldn’t notice their noise.

Now the girl put her hands up slowly and sat on the ground in front of the lion. As she did the lion sat as well, looking curious as to what it was she was doing.

She took out a bottle of black paint from her bag, then looked at the rat-man square in the eye. She started painting him, keeping his features as accurate as she could until she got to his nose. She made that look even more like that of a rat, then made his ears large and round and pink, and with a stroke of the brush, a long pink tail burst out of his pants as he screamed.

Everyone in the courtyard, including the rat man himself, was looking at him. The lioness almost seemed to laugh but the Adherent wasn’t amused. He screamed out, “What’s going on? Are you painting? Is that creating this? That’s impossible!”

The little girl just smiled, “Just because you’ve always thought the world was one way doesn’t mean you can’t believe it when you see the evidence right in front of your eyes. That’s just silly.”

The crowd that had gathered though was equal parts laughing and shocked. Many of them couldn’t believe what they were seeing either, but Amelia had no time to worry about what they thought. Her attention as taken by the lion instead.

Seeing that her former target had now become a rodent, she sprung into action again and pounced. Before the man could so much as shout the cat had swallowed up the rat entirely. If Amelia hadn’t seen it herself, she might not have believed it at all.

The crowd was silent now, no one willing to so much as breathe just in case they would be marked as the next target. It was so fast that no one properly had time to process what had just happened.

The lioness meanwhile merely sat and began grooming herself, licking her fur into shape. Amelia remembered what Aster had said about how cats can destroy without a second thought. Then, as the little girl watched, the lioness completely morphed, growing smaller and smaller until she was the size and shape of a woman.

The woman wore silver and black armor over dark skin that glistened. Her hair was short and fell in red curls. There was a large sword attached to her back that stood nearly as tall as she herself did. Wherever the rat man had gone, there was no sign of him now. The woman before them was relatively small in frame under the armor.

The woman walked over to Amelia and Thomas, nodding to them both. As she came closer, Amelia saw that her eyes were still the same, black voids without any color or light. “Your rat is dead,” she said simply.

Amelia nodded solemnly, then turned to Thomas, “So what do we do now?”

The man looked flustered, “Do? Do? Just sit here and wait and within minutes dozens more Adherents should be here to arrest us all. We can’t destroy them, they are in control of everything. You don’t understand the enemies you have just made.”

“I’m not afraid of men who hide in dark coats and stone buildings,” Amelia said. She looked at the lioness and the long sword at her back. “Something tells me we have a stronger weapon.”

Their conversation was cut short by the sound of sirens that came through the streets. The crowds parted and four black, windowless vans pulled into the square. Seven or eight Adherents spilled from each van and surrounded the trio at the center. A voice over a loudspeaker announced, “We are representatives of the Affiliation. Put down your sword and give up this fight or you will be taken into custody and face prosecution for your crimes. You will not be given this chance a second time.”

The lioness looked to Amelia for direction patiently. The little girl didn’t have to think long before she took her brush and painted several boxes that fell out of the sky next to one of the vans. She used these like stairs and ran up onto the closest van. Then she looked out at the crowd of expectant and afraid people that had crowded around.

“Listen to me, everyone! I’m not here to hurt you, but the Affiliation can’t say that! They took your art, they took your music, they’ve taken everything from you that allows you to be whoever you want to be. They’ve taken your friends and family just for expressing themselves, and while you weren’t looking they took over your lives and your country.”

She held up her sketchbook, “But you see that there is power in creativity. When we stand together and make our voices heard things change! There are more of you than them, you can fight back. This is your fight to fight, but I will fight with you with my paintbrush and my lion. Join us and take back your own lives!”

The loudspeaker called out again, “Get down from the van’s roof and hand over all of your paints. This is your final warning.”

And then Amelia waited. She hoped that everything Thomas had told her hadn’t given her a false sense of what all of these people wanted and that they would fight for her. If not, then her very miraculous life might be very, very short.

Nobody moved. Not the Adherents, not the crowd, not Thomas, and not the lioness. Everyone just stood and waited for someone else to make the first move.

“This is your final warning. Step down from the van by the count of three.”

“One…”

“Two…”

“Th-“

But before the man could finish a woman from the crowd shouted and ran forward, tackling the closest Adherent. This spark lit an explosion of others in the crowd following suit and soon dozens of the dark-clothed men were struggling with the crowd, but they were overwhelmed with the sheer numbers they faced. There was no way for them to fend off everyone when the number were ten or twenty to one.

The lioness pulled out her sword and as she did she transformed back into the giant lion. She jumped back and forth, pouncing on the vans and flinging them across the square in her jaws. Any Adherent unlucky enough to be caught in her path was gobbled up like a child who has found a secret stash of Halloween candy in her parent’s closet.

Amelia meanwhile had jumped down from the van and run over to one of the statues in the courtyard. The world was chaos all around her, but it was the chaos of people taking back their lives, revolting against the powers that had taken everything from them. And she was there to see it happen.

The chaos continued for several minutes. People were shouting, fighting, and tumbling about. Soon the crowd held all of the Adherents and had chained them up in their own handcuffs and loaded them back into their own vans. But now they were the prisoners and the people were in control. The lion ran around, taking care of Adherents in her own way and the crowd cheered as each black-coated Adherent was taken out by the black-coated cat.

After a few moments things calmed down again and the crowd gathered around Amelia.

“What do we do now?”

“We can’t stop until all of the Affiliation is taken down!”

“Sic the lion on them, that’ll show ‘em!”

Amelia put out her hands trying to quiet the people, “Listen, you need the help of everyone. Go out to every person, your friends, your family, your neighbors, and get them to join us. We’ll march on the capitol today! This is the day you find freedom for your world.”

The lioness came up, back in her human form, and stood beside Amelia. Then she took one of Amelia’s hands and raised it high in the air as the people cheered.

“For Amelia!” The lioness shouted, and the people shouted back at her. Amelia felt something in her chest, it was pride and excitement, but also something darker. These people listened to her, she could control them. The lion fought for her. She had power.

“Go now! Fight until every last Adherent has paid for their crimes. Today they are the ones being punished.”

The crowd cheered again and then scattered into the streets. The movement had begun, and it wouldn’t stop until justice had been accomplished. The lion ran off too, looking for her next fight.

Soon the only people left in the courtyard were Amelia and Thomas. The old man looked around at the havoc that the square had fallen into. He looked afraid and the little girl walked over to him. “Don’t be afraid Thomas, we’ve saved your home. Now you can keep all the paintings you want and no one will try to stop you. Isn’t that great? Peace is coming!”

At first, he didn’t look at her, but then he slowly turned and looked her in the eye. But even though he was right in front of her, it was like he was looking from miles away.

“No Amelia,” he said slowly, “this ‘peace,’ your peace…it’s just imaginary.”

Then the old man turned and walked away, and Amelia didn’t know where he was going.

#Chapter 4 #Amelia the miracle

[amelia-the-miracle]

Chapter 3 is up! Read it here on tumblr, Booksie, or Wattpad, and if you really like the story, consider contributing to our Patreon or sharing the story with your friends!

[amelia-the-miracle]

Chapter 3: Nobody Has an English Degree

Many people have English degrees. These are highly expensive pieces of paper with long words printed with fancy inks that make someone feel they are better at reading this book than I am at writing it. Obtaining such a piece of paper usually involves agreeing to several years of indentured servitude and several dollars in order to pay off your owners.

If you are a plant, a child, or a robot, then odds are good that you most likely do not have an English degree. No need to worry, I’m going to take this opportunity to teach you a valuable lesson that you might have obtained had you gained the degree before reading this book. This is a lesson about something called a plot device, which is a fancy way of saying that I’ll be telling the story in an odd way for the purposes of building suspense.

In this particular instance, we will be using the plot device known as “in media res,” but you could just call it a flashback. We’re going to pick up the story at the end of this chapter, and then keep jumping back to the beginning until we’ve filled in all the spaces between. Think of it like eating dessert first and then going back for your mashed steak and grilled potatoes and all the while leaving the peas lonelier than a person in their mid-twenties.

And with that introduction, back to the story.

Amelia found herself on her back in the middle of a large, dark stoned street. Her heartbeats seemed to take hours, everything was slow, as though frozen for just a moment in time. Water dripping took ages before it connected with the ground. Leaves caught in the wind halted their flight in the air. It was as though everything was working to expose just how much danger she was in.

And she certainly was in it. For standing over her, pinning her down and looking deeply into her eyes while snarling was a very large, imposing lion.

A man with a nose like a rat’s stood off to the side, out of the girl’s sight behind the lion. She could hear his quivering voice, “K…kill her…” It was more of a question than a command. She knew that the man was just as terrified that the lion would turn on him as follow his orders.

Amelia found herself quite frustrated, which is an understandable emotion if you are staring down a large imposing beast that has the ability to gulp you up in one large bite. She could hear Aster’s voice in her head. Not actually there, but in a memory.

“You shouldn’t trust a cat…” Aster had said. “They’re slippery creatures. One minute they're bringing you a dead mouse and the next day you're the mouse.”

“You’re just saying that because you’re a fish,” Amelia had responded. “If you could fight I’d take you with me, but you don’t have claws or teeth.”

After Thomas had been taken the little girl immediately went to her paints and brushes and dragged them over to the wall. The first thing she had created was a purple backpack that was large enough to carry small bottles of paint and all of the brushes in a special pocket on the side.

Back on the street, that very backpack was now pinned under her, making her back arch painfully over it. She hoped that none of the jars would be broken, that would be quite messy. The last thing one wants to do after surviving a lion attack is clean your laundry because paints have been splattered all over it.

That was, of course, assuming that Amelia did, in fact, survive. She wasn’t yet sure of that eventuality. Unfortunately for Amelia, it is very difficult to obtain an English degree if you have only been alive for about an hour. Very few people have ever managed it.

If she did have an English degree, she might be better at understanding the nature of this story and therefore be able to deduce that she would probably survive, since this is still very early in the story and she is the main character.

If she did have an English degree, she might understand the mechanics of a plot device such as in media res and therefore be able to jump around a bit in the timeline herself and see just what her outcome might be.

If she did have an English degree, then maybe she would be the one reading this book rather than the subject of its tale, and therefore not have to worry whether she would survive or not. She could simply put the book down, go make herself a cup of tea, and never bother about it again.

But Amelia did not have an English degree, and so she was unsure whether she would ever taste the tea at all.

“Where are you going?” Aster had asked when she put the backpack on for the first time.

“I’m going to go save Thomas,” she said.

“And how do you plan on doing that?”

Here Amelia had paused, she wasn’t entirely sure. She knew that she had to go after Thomas and the Adherent who had taken him away. If making art was a crime, then she was just as much a criminal as Thomas and like he had said, maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing.

The voice of the Adherent had made her skin crawl. It had sounded like dead cockroaches underneath your sofa, like a block of cheese left in a hot car in the middle of August, like the sort of person who burned books.

Because that was the sort of man he must have been. The sort to burn books and tear up paintings. They didn’t believe in free thought, in creativity. Amelia decided she might just give them a taste of that creativity, and that’s what her brushes were for.

But she needed something more. She needed something she could fight with. She thought about a sword or a gun, but she wanted something more powerful, something that could really send a message.

And then she had it.

She had caught a glance of it when she had first walked into Thomas’s shop. She ran in again now. She tried not to look at the paintings that have been torn apart by the man who took Thomas, even the thought of them being destroyed made her sad.

She ran through the easels until she came across the one she was looking for. The creature that made up the subject of the painting was a large, golden beast that stood proudly in the middle of a savanna. It was a lion, with a mane that was long and bushy and radiant. It was a queen who could fight for her pride.

It was exactly what the girl needed.

Back in the present, Amelia looked into the eyes of the lion as she snarled over her. They were black. Entirely black. Her fur was black too, with dark purple streaks that were nearly invisible right now. The color seemed to pulse through the fur, like an energy wave that reaffirmed the darkness a little more each time.

“What kind of a creature is that?” Aster had asked her as she painted furiously, desperate to be off.

“It’s called a lion,” Amelia said. It’s a kind of huge cat. I saw a painting of one.

As Amelia painted, she gave the lion a dark fur by taking the darkest purple she could and then mixing even more black into it so that the purple hardly even showed. She had liked the golden color of the lion she had seen, but she didn’t want the sort of creature that would be so easily spotted as the beautiful golden lion, she needed something more stealthy, something that could blend into the shadows.

Amelia didn’t know where they had taken Thomas or what would be needed to get him back, so she wanted to be covert. If you do not have an English degree, then you may not know what covert means. It means to be sneaky, better at hiding and lying than running forward and fighting.

Spies are covert.

Cats are covert.

And Amelia was going to be covert.

She got to the eyes and rather than paint an iris and a white, she made the entire eye a steady, calm black. This was her weapon.

She ignored Aster’s warnings about cats. She didn’t need to take the time to debate him. She didn’t need to worry about painting flowers or trees. She needed to save Thomas. She needed to teach a lesson to this Affiliation that thought it was better than the people it was supposed to serve.

She didn’t need a fish, however polite he was. She needed a lion.

Now she was looking into those eyes and she realized that they did not care for the creation or preservation of anything. These were eyes that belonged to someone who didn’t kill out of anger or hatred but out of the spirit of destruction itself.

When she had finished painting the lion she blinked and then felt a warm breath of air on her neck. She turned around and came face to face with her lion. She was even larger than Amelia had imagined. She stood at least 6 feet tall and had a large barrel of a chest that was powerful even as it merely breathed. Her feet bore the same claws that Amelia recognized from the throne that made up the center of the room.

And that was when she was convinced. This throne had been where she started. She was meant to fight back with the force of a lion.

She raised her hand cautiously and placed it on the lion’s head. She pushed back into the little girl’s hand, then turned to leave the room. Amelia had to hurry to keep up. This lion seemed to be in charge now.

“Be careful Amelia!” Aster called after her. “Don’t walk blindly into destroying things. You’re an artist, not a soldier!”

But Amelia just waved him away. Aster didn’t have an English degree, he didn’t know what he was talking about. She needed to save Thomas. She needed to save all of these people who were being treated so cruelly by the affiliation. This wasn’t a time to hold back.

And so she followed the lion.

They walked through the shop and the cat didn’t so much as glance at the paintings, she simply continued to walk through straight to the door. Amelia stopped though when she saw again the large blank canvas. Thomas had never told her what it was for, what it meant. It still stood there, challenging her.

She had her paints and brushes, she could add something, anything. But the lion was walking on, with or without her, and she couldn’t bear the thought of being left behind. Painting took time, and she had already used up enough of that.

They left the shop and Amelia’s jaw dropped. She had thought that Thomas’s little room was the entire world, but it turned out that the world was a much larger place after all when you went to take a look at it. There were buildings that stretched up into the sky, streets that wove in and out of these buildings for as far as she could see. There were people all milling about, pointing and looking away from her.

Before any of these people could turn and see that there was a very large jungle cat causally wandering through their town, the lion jumped into the shadows of a narrow alley between two buildings. The black fur of her coat immediately made her disappear and if Amelia hadn’t been looking directly at the lion she wouldn’t have noticed her at all.

They wove in and out of the walkways, never being noticed by any of the people. After several minutes of this, the little girl began to wonder whether she was crazy for trusting a cat that had only just come into existence to bring her to the right place. “How do you know where we’re going?” She asked.

The lion did not respond.

And so they walked on until Amelia saw a dark grey building with a dome that stood out prominently among a city of buildings that mostly just went up and up and up. Atop the dome there was a tall spire that looked like a nail jutting out, holding the sky in place. In front of the building, the streets widened out and formed a courtyard where all the streets poured into.

And in the center of this courtyard, there was a man in a long dark coat that was holding a smaller man, dragging him up the steps to the central building. Amelia recognized the smaller man as Thomas and assumed the other man must be the Adherent who broke into the shop.

The lion looked at her and waited. She nodded, and that was all that was needed.

In one huge leap, the cat closed the distance from their shadowy hiding place to the man and knocked him over. Thomas rolled down the steps and got up to his feet, dusting himself off. He looked at the lion and nearly fainted.

The man in the dark coat was not so lucky though. He was wrestling with the giant beast and doing very poorly for it. The two tumbled about and Amelia realized that the lion was playing with the man, like a cat with a new toy. The man repeatedly tried to escape but the beast boxed him in, always one step ahead.

Finally, the lion got bored and grabbed the man’s coat with her massive jaws. She whipped the man and his coat slipped off, leaving him tumbling down the steps near Thomas. Amelia saw now that he was a very strange man.

His nose was very long and pointed outward and down. His ears were very high on his head and stuck out at an odd angle. His hair was dark and matted. Altogether, he looked very much like a rat.

If Amelia had to guess, she would say that this man probably did not have an English degree. He probably wouldn’t have any idea what in media res meant at all.

The girl now left the shadows as well. She ran out to Thomas, shouting “Are you alright?”

The man looked astounded to see her. “Amelia? Did you follow us? Wh-“

But whatever he was going to ask her was cut off by the rat man pointing up at her and saying, “Will someone arrest these two? They are enemies of the Affiliation. There can be no enemies of the Affiliation if we want to maintain the peace!”

Amelia stepped up to the man and looked down at him. “I think that’s enough out of you.” She looked up to tell the lion to dispose of the man but was suddenly confronted with the image of the very same lion pouncing, not at the man, but at her.

She was pinned down on the street while the rat man stood, scared but excited not to be targeted. The lion let out a long, low growl inches from Amelia’s face.

To Amelia, everything seemed to slow, as though frozen for just a moment in time. Water dripping took ages before it connected with the ground. Leaves caught in the wind halted their flight in the air. It was as though everything was working to expose just how much danger she was in.

And she certainly was in it. Standing over her, pinning her down and looking deeply into her eyes while snarling was her very large, imposing lion.

The man with a nose like a rat’s got up and stood off to the side, out of the girl’s sight behind the lion. She could hear his quivering voice, “K…kill her…” It was more of a question than a command. She knew that the man was just as terrified that the lion would turn on him as follow his orders.

And that is the end of our use of the plot device in media res.

#amelia the miracle #chapter 3

[amelia-the-miracle]

Chapter 2 is now up!

You can find it here on this blog, Wattpad, or Booksie. Thanks for reading and sharing the story!

Haven’t read Chapter 1 yet? No worries, you can find that on all of the above places as well

[amelia-the-miracle]

Chapter 2

A Few Lessons on Etiquette

On the other side of the door, Amelia found the world. She was surprised to find that the world was very small, much smaller than the room she had just come from. It was full of canvases mounted on wooden easels or leaning against the walls or stacked on top of one another.

All of the canvases had paintings of one kind of another. Near her, there was a beautiful painting of yellow flowers in a vase. Across the room, there was another painting of some kind of red building. Another canvas showed a group of fish, including one orange one that reminded her of Aster.

Amelia wandered through the room, admiring the artwork. It was all much more detailed and beautiful than her paintings, but she felt certain that if she tried hard enough she could recreate them. She didn’t know what all the images were meant to portray, but all of them made her feel complex emotions that were hard to describe.

At the end of the room, she found a particularly large canvas that was mounted on the wall itself. It was immense. Imagine, if you can, the largest painting that you have ever seen in your life. Now imagine it being about 8 and a half inches longer and then you’ll begin to have a sense of just how large this particular canvas was.

Amelia was struck by the canvas more than any of the hundreds of others in the room. The others all had bright colors and vibrant pictures that captured very specific emotions and environments, but this one captured something else entirely. It made her sad and filled her with the desire to do something.

This painting was no painting at all.

This canvas was completely blank.

Even though she was from a world that was just one large blank canvas, she felt that this was different. This canvas had been made for the express purpose of being expressed upon. It was made to be painted, and it was just sitting in the back of the world forgotten among hundreds of other paintings. It’s emptiness made the world feel empty.

As Amelia looked sadly at this blank canvas she realized that she still had the brush in her hand that she’d used to create the door. It even still had some of the gold paint on it.

She smiled. This canvas had been made to be painted on and she seemed to be in a position to fill the need.

This seems like an appropriate time to step back into the story and give a brief message to you, the reader. You will remember that Amelia had only been alive for something along the lines of twenty minutes at this point and that she had come from a world altogether separate from our own. We could easily forgive Amelia for not knowing all of the complexities of etiquette, which most adults who have been alive for decades and decades cannot even seem to grasp.

For instance, if Amelia was to attend a very fancy party-the sort where esteemed gentleman wear their best string of pearls and the ladies all sport exceptionally well-fitting tuxedoes-we would not be at all surprised to find that she didn’t know which of the forks was meant to be used for her soup of which napkin was meant to be worn as a hat. She might try to use a spoon for her clam chowder and then the entire party would giggle gleefully at her expense because manners are the greatest mystery mankind has ever penned and no one can understand them.

Especially not when they are only twenty minutes old.

However, even Amelia, in her infancy, was pretty sure that it is considered fairly rude to tackle other people. Unless you’re engaging in certain warlike athletic events that are built on churning up violence akin to the that of Vikings, tackling is usually not appreciated.

In fact, if you were to go out and tackle the first person you saw on the street, the overwhelming likelihood is that they would introduce you to their friend who is actually a police officer, and then you’ll be forced to write your stories from within a jail cell as a rather seedy fellow who goes by the name of Whiskers tries to nick the sealed envelope that you always keep in your back left pocket.

And then where would you be?

So, it was with a great deal of surprise to Amelia that as she lifted her brush to paint the canvas she was suddenly met with another human barreling into her, tackling her and pinning her to the ground. Her paintbrush fell out of her hand and bounced onto the floor a few feet away.

The little girl was now face-to-face with her attacker. He was very old, the oldest human she had ever seen in her life. If she had to guess at an age she would say that he was at least older than 11. He had thin gray hair that held wispily to a shiny head and large glasses that sat on crookedly on a large round nose. He was wearing a patchy tweed coat with stains left by paint that had never been properly cleaned out.

“What do you think you’re doing? Who are you? How did you get in here? Why were you painting my canvas? What’s your name?” The man asked all of these questions back to back without giving Amelia a chance to respond or answer any of them. While she was still very young, Amelia was fairly certain that asking questions without giving someone the chance to answer like this was yet another breach in etiquette.

“Sir,” she said calmly, “I am fairly certain that asking questions without giving someone the chance to answer like this is a breach of etiquette.”

The man frowned, “Well, you’re still very young.”

“That’s true,” she said. Then they both stayed there, waiting silently for the other to speak since neither wanted to be impolite anymore than they already had. After all, one of them was now a home invader and the other was a violent tackler who didn’t wait for a response to his questions. Finally, Amelia spoke up, saying “Could we get up now?” The man nodded sheepishly and helped her up. Amelia noted that he was much taller when he stood.

Amelia extended her hand, “Hello, my name is Amelia.”

The man looked suspiciously at the hand for a moment before taking it. “I’m Thomas. This is my home. How did you get here?”

“I went through the door,” she said, pointing back to the green door. Thomas peered through his large, dusty glasses at the door, his eyebrows shooting high onto his skull.

“W-where did that door come from?”

“Well,” Amelia said thoughtfully, “I’m a bit iffy on the details, but I think they’re made of wood. I’m very young though, and I could easily be mistaken.”

Thomas walked over to the door and gently touched it. He ran his hand along the grain, feeling every rise and fall in the surface. He said nothing at first, but Amelia noted that he looked very nervous, maybe even scared.

He looked over his shoulder at the little girl. “Just who…or what are you?”

The girl smiled, “I told you, my name is Amelia. Amelia White. And I came through that door.”

Thomas walked over and bent down to look at her at eye level. His nose was no more than an inch from hers and he looked fiercely into her eyes through his glasses, which made his eyes look like Aster’s. Amelia tried not to giggle.

“You have brown eyes,” Thomas said darkly.

Now Amelia was beginning to feel nervous. “I do?” she asked, “I haven’t seen them before. You have blue eyes.”

Thomas squinted, “Of course I have blue eyes. I am a loyal Adherent.”

“Adherent?” Amelia asked, trying to form her tongue around the difficult word. “What is that?”

Thomas squinted again from behind his glasses. “Is this some kind of game or test? Do you think you’ll trap me?”

Amelia was beginning to be tired of this conversation. Thomas seemed to be completely unaware of even basic etiquette and she didn’t appreciate being accused so many times. “I think I’ve seen enough of the world,” she said. “I’ll be going now.”

And with that, she turned around and walked back to the green door. She ignored Thomas’s startled cries as she turned the knob and went through. She didn’t realize though that Thomas had also followed her and now stood in the doorway, looking into the large white room she was from.

“What is this place? Where did it come from?” Thomas asked, astonished.

“Excuse me, sir,” Amelia said, now quite annoyed, “it’s very rude to barge into someone’s home like this without any invitation.”

Now the man looked down at her and furrowed his brow, “You mean like you barged into mine?”

The little girl opened her mouth to speak but realized he was right and that it didn’t matter anyway. “This is my home. I woke up here.”

Thomas looked baffled and perhaps a little afraid as he looked around. He saw the painting of the fish on the wall, the waters that moved around in Aster’s pool, and finally, his eyes fell to the grand throne that stood like a central pillar in the room. He walked slowly over to the paints, then looked up at the fish painting again. He touched it gently like it was a sacred object.

“This room has never existed before. There has never been a door like that in my home before…Your eyes, and this room. You’re not an Adherent at all are you?”

“I don’t think so,” Amelia said, “but I still don’t know what that is. So, I might be one after all.”

Thomas walked back to the girl and sat down on the ground. She joined him, deciding it was the polite thing to do. “Amelia,” Thomas said slowly, “I’m going to trust you. I’m choosing to believe that you’re not actually a member of the Affiliation and actually don’t want to hurt me.”

Amelia furrowed her brow, “Of course I don’t want to hurt you, why would I want to do that?”

The older man looked at her seriously, “Because I am a criminal Amelia.”

Most people, when told that they are sitting across from a criminal, would understandably become very tense at the prospect of their own personal safety. They may start to look for the exits, or subtly bring up their phone to call the police, or merely run around screaming for help. This would be the response of most people.

But Amelia, you may remember, was not most people. Amelia was a miracle.

Then again, even miracles have their limits.

The little girl jumped to her feet and began walking back nervously. “A criminal? What did you do?” Her thoughts suddenly turned to images of robbery, tax evasion, or even jaywalking.

Thomas jumped to his feet as well and raised his hands, trying to calm her down. “It’s really alright! I promise, I’m not dangerous, I’m not even a bad person.”

“Then how can you be a criminal?” Amelia demanded. “What did you do?”

Thomas looked sad, “I’m an artist. That is my crime.”

Now Amelia was just confused. “What?”

Thomas took off his glasses and polished them with his shirt, looking down at the ground. “When the laws are wrong, it is the responsibility of good men to become criminals.” He looked up at her, “Please, sit down. I won’t hurt you. I’ll tell you everything.”

After a moment’s hesitation, Amelia walked back cautiously and sat beside him again. The man sighed and began.

“My world is a very dark place, in a particularly sad place right now. Decades ago, a group known as the Affiliation came into power. They moved in under the guise of bringing change and prosperity to the world, and we all, fools that we were, gave them the power to do so.

“It started simply, a new cut here, a new program there, a serially implemented new stimulus package.”

“I don’t know what that is,” Amelia said.

“Neither does anyone else,” Thomas replied. “But soon the more serious changes began to start. The Affiliation convinced us that we needed to be protected from those who would do us harm. They started a register so that we could clearly see who was an Adherent - a follower of the Affiliation.”

Thomas took off his glasses and held open one of his eyes. “We underwent surgery to have our eye color changed. Now everyone has blue eyes or they’re immediately taken in for questioning, and that was only the beginning. The Affiliation took over all of the schools, saying that only they could be trusted to teach our children without the risk of them learning from our enemies. We didn’t think that we had any enemies, but we trusted the powers we’d put in place.

“Then they took our books, then our plays, and eventually even paintings and sculptures. They said that art was like a faucet dripping on a brick wall. Leave it unchecked and the entire wall will fall. ‘Our walls never fall,’ they told us, and we accepted it.

“It’s illegal to create or possess art of any kind in my world. They were too afraid that the art could speak negatively against the Affiliation, and we wanted so badly to believe that those in power wanted the best for us. Because if you can’t trust your leaders to protect you, then what can you do?”

“The Affiliation doesn’t sound like it cares about you at all,” Amelia said.

Thomas smiled sadly, “If only we had believed that when we had a chance to stop them. They control everything now, and their punishment for breaking the rules is not light.”

“But you have so much art?” Amelia said, thinking of the hundreds of paintings she had seen.

“Oh yes,” Thomas said, putting his glasses back on, “I painted some of those myself, others I rescued and hid before they could be destroyed. I protect as many as I can but they’re growing stronger every day and soon they’ll find me too. And then they’ll destroy my art and it will all be ruined.”

Amelia thought for just one second before she rose to her feet. “Right, so we have to stop the Affiliation.”

Thomas laughed, he didn’t even stand up. “You can’t stop the Affiliation, Amelia. They’re the most powerful force on earth.”

Amelia smiled, as you may be smiling, knowing that Amelia had a certain power of her own. “I’m not sure that’s true,” she said. “What would we need?”

Now Thomas did stand, laughing. “Oh gee I don’t know, it certainly wouldn’t hurt to have a-“

But whatever Thomas was going to recommend was cut off as they both heard a sound coming from the other side of the door in Thomas’s world. It was the sound of hinges creaking, and footsteps walking in. The blood drained from Thomas’s face. He turned to Amelia and raised an index finger to his lips, telling her to be quiet, then he walked through the door and closed it behind him.

As soon as the door was closed Amelia rushed over and listened. At this point, Aster, who had been in his pool this entire time, swam through the air over to her. “What are you doing?” He asked.

“Shh! I’m trying to hear what’s going on.”

“It seems like poor etiquette to listen at doorways,” Aster said.

“Today has been a day for poor etiquette it would seem,” Amelia replied.

Aster took her word for it, then leaned against the door himself, trying to listen. The two of them heard Thomas saying, “Hello gentlemen, how can I help you?”

“Who is that?” Aster asked quietly.

“It’s my new friend Thomas, he lives on the other side of this door.”

Aster nodded, and they listened again. Now they heard another voice speaking. This voice sounded like grease fires and infestations and rotting wood. “Thomas, it seems like you haven’t been a very good Adherent lately, have you?”

“Who is that?” Aster asked.

“It’s one of the Affiliation,” Amelia said solemnly. “Now shh, I’m trying to hear.”

Aster got quiet, but he muttered under his breath that it’s very rude to shush people. From the other side of the door, Thomas sounded desperate, “No, no I’ve been very good. What do you mean? Please don’t touch th-“

Then they heard a long tearing sound and Thomas cried out, “That was a masterpiece! It had been saved for centuries!”

“And now it has been destroyed,” the other man said. “And soon, you will be too. Come, Thomas, we have a few questions for you. We’ll deal with your little collection later.”

There was a scuffle where it sounded like everyone was moving at once. Thomas cried out but his cry was cut short, then the sound of many feet walking away. There was silence for a few seconds, then Amelia and Aster heard another long tear, and then another, and one more. There was a crash like a shelf had been knocked over, and then the sound of the last person walking away.

Amelia stood, determined now to go. Aster looked worried, “Amelia stop, that man sounds dangerous. You could get hurt.”

The little girl turned to the fish, “It would be very poor etiquette to leave Thomas alone.” she picked up a paintbrush and held it in her fist. “And I am a very polite girl.”

#chapter 2 #Amelia the Miracle #Let me know what you all think!

[amelia-the-miracle]

Yesterday we released Chapter 1 of Amelia the Miracle, here’s what people are saying*:

“I mean, at least it’s not 50 Shades of Grey.” - Stephen King

“It’s definitely not the worst thing I’ve ever read.” - George R. R. Martin

“I’m sorry, what is this for?” - Former President Barack Obama

“No guys I’m telling you, he was definitely gay the whole time. No, I’m not just saying this 15 years later with no actual representation purely to pander. Listen if you want-”  - J.K. Rowling

“Hellø I’m Seth Everman” - @setheverman

See what everyone’s talking about! You can read chapter 1 of Amelia the Miracle here on our blog, or on our Wattpad or Booksie

#*def what they said you can look it up #Amelia the Miracle

[amelia-the-miracle]

Good morning to any of you who are not robots (and great morning to those of you who are), the first chapter of Amelia the Miracle is now up!

You can find the first installment of this continuing story here on Tumblr, as well as Wattpad and Booksie if you prefer. We’d love it if you could read the chapter and share it with your friends, acquaintances, your third uncle on your mom’s side, and your local magistrates. 

If you like the story, why not consider supporting us on Patreon? It would go a long way toward helping this project continue.

Thank you, and happy reading!

#Amelia the Miracle

[amelia-the-miracle]

Chapter 1

In Which a Miracle Comes to Life

Amelia White was a little girl like any other. She went to school, liked blueberry muffins, and could ride a bike. Looking at her, you would not think that she was anything particularly special. She was very good at blending into a crowd.

And yet, Amelia White was a little girl unlike any other. Most children, you may one day discover, are born. There is a fairly long process in which they lounge about within their mothers’ bellies, growing features such as noses and opposable thumbs, all the while dreaming of what it may one day be like to see the world outside. Eventually, of course, they grapple out of their fleshy, dark hovels, usually while screaming and kicking and begin a life in the light.

Of course, I don’t need to tell you this. You were yourself most likely born at one point far in your past, I’m sure you remember. Unless you were not born. Perhaps you are a robot who was cleverly designed to read literature that decided this particular little story looked interesting and charming and thought that you might give it a go. Or maybe you’re from an alien planet where people are not born but merely pop up out of the ground like plants. Or maybe you’re a plant.

Hello plant, I don’t think that I’ve ever told a story to a plant before. You would be the first. I hope you like this story.

Amelia White was not a plant, nor an alien, nor even a robot. She was something very peculiar, something rare. She was the sort of thing many people hear about but seldom believe. The sort of sight you see without seeming to see anything at all.

Amelia White was a miracle.

Now, miracles are hardly as rare as certain old, stuffy people would have you believe, but even among miracles, Amelia was something special.

For you see, Amelia was not born. Her life did not start in a brightly lit hospital room with a team of doctors running around all shouting at one another for tools that only doctors would think to use. Her life started in a very dark place. More specifically it was a room, a room that was dark, a dark room.

She opened her eyes for the first time but did not register that anything had happened, for it was just as dark with eyes open as with them closed. She looked around, but there was nothing to see.

She realized that she was in a chair, and so she got up. Her head then came into contact with something metal dangling in front of her. It was a pull cord, which is the sort of cord that is meant to be pulled.

So she pulled it.

Light suddenly filled the dark room.

It was no longer dark.

The room she was in was immense, and the entire thing was shaped like a circle with walls that went up very high. It was mostly empty, but there were a few objects here and there. There was the light she’d just turned on, a single lightbulb dangling from somewhere out of sight that lit the entire room. Off to her right, there was a wooden stepladder next to a few cans of what looked like paint. Behind her, there was the chair she had been sitting in.

The chair was very fancy. It had a high back that stretched up and out in an imposing silhouette. The seat was made from a deep red leather and there were gold pins that held it all in place. The legs of the chair were dark and wooden and carved to look like lion’s feet. This was no mere chair, it was a throne.

Amelia tilted her head to one side. Why would someone put a throne in an empty room? An empty room with walls and a floor that were all completely blank and white. It seemed like a waste of such a beautiful chair to be in so un-beautiful of a place.

While she was thinking about it, Amelia suddenly wondered how she had gotten there, and who she was. She thought about this for a bit, trying to remember anything about where she had come from or whether she knew anyone that might have placed her there.

She came to only two solid things that she knew.

The first thing she knew was that her name was Amelia White. She didn’t know how she knew this, she just did.

The second thing she knew was that she didn’t know anything else.

She decided it didn’t matter how much she knew or where she had come from, all that mattered was that she was here now and she wanted something to do. She walked over to the paints and found that there were some brushes here as well.

Now, you are probably a very well behaved child (assuming again that you are a child and not, as previously considered, a plant) and you know better than to ever draw or paint on the walls. If you do, you will almost certainly find that you will run out of paint long before you could ever fill a fraction of the wall. Nobody likes a half-finished painting, so you will be left with a soul that is perpetually unsatisfied, feeling lost without purpose. That is a fate best left to middle-aged adults, and not creative children.

So you should never paint on the walls.

Amelia, however, had only been alive for about a quarter past two minutes, and there was still much that she had to learn. She took those paints and found a nice orange color that she thought looked pretty. Then she walked over to the wall and began to paint. She wanted to make the room look prettier to match the beauty of the throne. She wanted to take something within herself to make this little world a little nicer, and so she painted on the walls.

She painted a fish. She didn’t know how she knew what a fish looked like, but it was a very nice fish. It was large and round and had scales that were orange and golden and auburn and all the colors one can find in a sunset, all seeming to twinkle out at once. It had large, flowing fins that almost seemed to dance on the walls. Amelia took a few minutes to work on the painting, then she took a step back and admired it.

She was proud of her handiwork. It was the best fish she had ever seen in the ten minutes she had been alive.

Then she felt a bump on her back. She turned and was filled with a mix of fear and delight. There, swimming in the air in front of her was a giant, orange fish. It was the very fish that she had just painted, now here in the flesh.

Amelia smiled up at the fish, then reached forward and gently touched his nose. The fish pushed into her hand like a cat wanting to be pet. The little girl laughed and asked, “What is your name?”

Then she jumped in surprise as the fish responded. “Name?” The fish did not speak so much as the sound reverberated all around them throughout the room and in Amelia’s mind. Her whole body shook with the sound, but there wasn’t really any sound at all.

“What is a name?” The fish asked.

“A name is what you’re known as. It’s who you choose to be to others.” The girl pointed at herself, “My name is Amelia.”

“Oh, hello Amelia,” the fish said, smiling. “I don’t think I have a name.”

“Hmm,” Amelia said, thinking to herself. “Well, if you don’t have one yet, maybe you could just make one up for yourself. Who you are to yourself is more important anyway. What would you like your name to be?”

“What about Amelia?” the fish asked.

“I think that’s a nice name, but it might get confusing if we both have the same name. We might accidentally book a dinner party for the other person, or read each other’s mail.”

“Oh,” the fish responded, “I hadn’t thought of that. Well, suppose I think about it a while before I come to a decision. Would that be alright?”

“I think it’s a splendid idea,” Amelia smiled. “But in the meantime is it alright if I just call you Mr. Fish?”

“Absolutely,” Mr. Fish said, “I don’t mind at all.” Then he noticed the painting on the wall behind Amelia. “What is that?”

The little girl looked from the painting of the fish to the fish himself. “Well, I guess it’s you. I painted it, and then you showed up. Where did you come from?”

Mr. Fish looked at the painting and blinked a few times. “You know, it’s the funniest thing, but I have no idea. I should know, shouldn’t I? That seems very odd. But, I could swear that I simply wasn’t anywhere before, but then I opened my eyes and here I was with you.”

“That sounds very familiar,” Amelia said. “I had a similar experience right in that chair over there. I just opened my eyes and there I was.”

The fish looked the girl up and down, inspecting her. “We are very different, you and I. It seems even odder that we should be similar while still so different.”

“That’s true,” Amelia responded. “You are a fish, and I am a little girl. I guess people come in all shapes and sorts. But then, when you get right down to it, we’re just not that different.”

“I suppose not,” Mr. Fish said. “Tell me, if you painted me and then I appeared, do you think that you could paint other things and they would also appear?”

“I don’t know,” Amelia said, her mouth twisting as she considered the possibility. “I could try! Do you have any ideas for something you’d like?” “Well, I’m embarrassed to even ask but…” Mr. Fish said, hesitatingly.

“What is it?” Amelia asked.

“Well, I don’t know why is it, but I’m very thirsty, and I would love to swim around a bit in some water. Perhaps we could have a small pool?”

Amelia nodded, “Right, let’s get to work.” She got a few nice blues from the paint cans and painted a blue circle just in front of the painting of the fish. Using the different shades she made waves in the water until it looked like it was actually moving. And then, in the time it for her to blink she realized that it was moving.

What had just been a blue circle of paint was now the entrance to a pool that went down down down past where she could see. It went out, underneath the floor so that there was no way to see just how big it was.

“Oh thank you! Thank you!” Mr. Fish said cheerfully, then he dove into the water, splashing Amelia. She just laughed and watched his golden-orange scales underneath the water.

The little girl looked all around the room. What had before just been a bland, empty room that seemed unappealing was now an open opportunity for the potential to create anything she could paint. She may not know where she was or who she was or where she’d come from, but she recognized that she had an ability that was truly miraculous. She could put things into the world to make them better. Somehow she had known what a fish was enough to create one. She wondered what held she held within herself that could be used to make the world better.

She immediately wanted to take all the brushes and paints and line all the walls and floor with images of every kind. She could imagine patterns and designs and animals of all kinds filling the walls and it was all she could do to calm down and decide what it was that she wanted to paint first.

But then she realized with shocking disappointment that she didn’t know what any of those things looked like. She didn’t understand why she knew some things, like what a fish looks like, while other things were just words in her mind without forms.

“Amelia!” The fish called, jarring her from her thoughts. She turned to look back at the pool. “Amelia! Amelia, I’ve just discovered what my name is. It’s just come to me, and it feels right.”

Amelia knelt down at the edge of the pool. “And what name is that Mr. Fish?”

“Aster, call me Aster.”

The girl smiled, “Alright Aster, it’s very nice to meet you.”

“Likewise, so what will you paint next?” Aster asked.

“Well, I don’t know what to paint next. I haven’t been here for very long and I don’t know what things look like. I hate to ask again, but do you have any ideas?” They were both silent for a moment thinking. Then, Aster spoke up, “Well, if you need to learn what things look like, maybe you should go out into the world."

“But what is the world? And where is it? And how do you get there?” Amelia asked.

“I haven’t been alive very long myself,” Aster said, “but I know that I belong in the water. You can’t get to the water unless you jump into it. Maybe you need to figure out how little girls jump into their own pools of water. Some kind of entrance into it.”

“You mean like a door?” Amelia asked, not even entirely sure where the word had come from. “Well...it’s worth a shot. Though, I’m not sure I know very much about doors or how they’re meant to look.”

“Never hurts to try,” Aster said. “You already don’t have a door, so at worst you’ll just be in the same predicament. But at best, you’ll have made the world better and a little more useful.”

The little girl agreed with the fish and walking over to the paints she looked at her options. Her eyes were drawn to the cans of a deep emerald green, so she picked that up. She washed her brush in the pool of water as Aster helped by stirring it all up. Then she walked a little way over and painted a large, green rectangle.

She added more details to this rectangle, painting long stripes from side to side that looked almost like wood grain. Then, when she had filled it completely, she went back and got the same gold paint she’d used for Aster’s scales, and painted a small circle that looked almost like a knob.

“What do you think?” Amelia asked, looking back at Aster. When she turned back, the flat painting had become a large wooden door with a shiny brass knob.

“I think that looks very nice,” the fish said.

“Thank you,” the little girl responded. “And now, all that remains is to see what is on the other side of it.”

And with that, she turned the knob and opened the door to a world outside.

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Amelia the Miracle, ready with her paints and a brush. Read her story here. New chapter every Tuesday starting April 24!

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