Pretty Yellow Flower

She was asleep. Well she was supposed to be, if her parents knew she was awake they would have told her to. 

If only they checked on her, but her mama was tired from taking care of the chickens and her papa was tired from preparing for the upcoming winter. The adults in their small village town were saying how the winter was going to be much more different than the last. So the whole family had to work extra hard this season.

If only they checked on her, they would have noticed that she left her window open. She was the second born out of 7 children and was slowly blossoming into a young woman. 

However, one thing that always remained was her ever growing curiosity. Her mother used to say that she would have grown wings and flew away like the birds or turned herself into one of those pretty yellow flowers by the creek if she could. 

Which is  why the window was open, so she could not only see the pretty yellow flowers, but also feel the cold, crisp air that lightly touched her cheeks and made her quietly giggle.

Oooohhhhooooohhh toooottllle lloooo tooootlle looooo

It repeated. At first, she thought sleep was overcoming her, but then she heard it again, louder this time

OOOoooohhh Ttttooooottllle llloooo

Her curiosity grew. It was the most beautiful thing that she ever heard. Her eyes combed across to the trees, the fields, the barn, but she couldn’t see anything until her eyes traveled back to the small creek.

She felt drawn to it and it almost sounded like it told her to come and play. She wrapped her shawl over her white nightdress, put on her slippers and quiet like a mouse, went down stairs.

She paused, when she heard her parents snoring, but they were in a deep sleep, they wouldn’t have heard. But what if they did, she got nervous as she reached for the door, What if this was a bad idea? But what if the music was coming from the creek? What if there was a frog that would turn into a prince and bring her to a beautiful castle? She had to go, so she did.

“Hello,” she said. But there was no answer. “Hello!!” she said louder this time. She started to turn away. When she heard it. 

Cccccooommmeeee, ppllaayy,

Oooohhhh ttooootllle lllooo

“I’ll play with you.” she answered. Her eyes widened, when the pretty yellow flowers started to glow.

“Darling, wake up.” Mama said. “Did you see that bright light? What if winter came early?” They both got up, papa put on his coat and mama her shawl. As they walked out the noticed the front door open. “Go check on the children.” papa said. 

Mama went upstairs, to the first room where the boys slept, they were sound asleep. However, as she went to the girl’s room, one of the beds was flat. Quickly, she ran downstairs and outside, where she saw her husband, kneeling down by the creek. He had something in hands.

He turned when he heard his wife and just as she was about to tell him that their daughter was missing, she saw her daughter's nightdress and shawl in his hands.

“I don’t know where she went” She ran closer to him and they hugged each other for a while before going inside. 

As they walked inside, they forgot to check the creek that now had a new pretty yellow flower and it sang.

Ooooohhhohhhh tttttoooootttllle lllloooooo