This is something I wrote for a writing contest. I won! YAY! But, I want your input on it. Thank you! ^_^
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Skyla, wake up, little one." Whispered the gentle voice of Grandma Cathy as she tried to arousen the young thirteen-year-old girl. Ivory eyelids snapped open to reveal two beautiful sky blue eyes as a smile drew itself across the child's face. Sitting up in the soft white bed, Skyla painted the words "Good morning" with her small hands and Grandma said the same in response before Skyla Marie Anderson got up out of bed, only to then come face-to-face with her twin sister, Star Michelle Anderson, and she seemed to be in happy spirits today.
"Good morning, Skyla, how are you feeling?" She asked in a hushed tone before her sister once again began to paint in the air with the phrase, "I'm fine, and you?"
"Marvelous, as always, let's go." And with that said, the two exited the small ragged cottage that served as their home, dressed in their nightgowns and heading to the waterfall to wash up. Grandma Cathy stood in the doorway of the home and smiled at seeing the girls in such a better mood than how they once were when they lived in London, England.
You see, everyone is different in their own way. Some people are tall, and others are short; there are slim people, and then there are the stout ones; also, we have the people with long hair while others have either short or medium length hair. But Skyla and Star weren't exactly your typical different duo. Instead, Star was born without the ability to hear, and her sister Skyla was unfortunately born without being able to speak.
Before their birth's, there mother, Elizabeth Anderson, had developed an odd desease that impared her hearing in her left ear and it hurt terribly for her to speak. And it only seemed to get worse as the days got closer to the girls' birth. But finally, when the day did come, it was a complete nightmare.
Nothing seemed to be going right that day for Elizabeth. Star and Skyla were past due, and yet, it still wasn't time for either of them; so everyone, William Anderson, Cathy Suttles, and William's father, Timothy Anderson, waited. Elizabeth was in agonizing pain and everyone began to worry if everything was going to go all right. But, nevertheless, they waited. They waited an extra week, another week, and one more week before Elizabeth decided she coldn't take it anymore. Pain began to swarm throughout Elizabeth's entire body in a merciless wave until she was desperately gasping for breath. Her face was as pale as chalk, she was sweating uncontrollably, her body began to shake violently, she had lost comepletely all hearing in her left ear and her throat was burning like fire.And that's when the clock striked 10:00AM and the first girl was born. She had dazzling crystal blue eyes, full pink lips, and beautiful soft bleach blonde hair. Her radiant appearance reminded Elizabeth of the sky, so, she named her Skyla Marie Anderson. As newborn normally wale at the top of their lungs as they enter the new world, but as Skyla opened her small mouth to cry out, but there was no sound. Somehow, Elizabeth's illness had effected the baby, causing Skyla to lose one of her senses: her voice.
Normally, you hear that once one identical twin is born, the other comes in about two or three minutes. But that wasn't the case for the Andersons. Instead of being born at around 10:02AM or so, the other twin wasn't born until 10:00PM, a total of twelve hours later. No one understood why though, but nevertheless, Elizabeth especially, was happy once the baby was born. Although no one in the whole Anderson family had any other eye color trait other than the colors brown, green, and blue, for some reason, the second child was born with grey eyes. They glistened in the light as Elizabeth slid her fingers through her jet black hair. The young one seemed to remind her mother a little of the night sky when it's clear out and you can see the stars come out to play, so that's what she was named, Star Michelle Anderson. And just like Skyla, she had the unfortunance of losing one of her senses as well, she lost all of her hearing in both ears, but this was not discovered until later.
As the years moved on and the girls grew older, they were treated differently. People would give them pity, and sympathetic glances were cast their way. The children at their school felt bad for them and treated them as though they were helpless, and this upsetted the Anderson twins tremendously. Everyone likes to be treated the same and with the upmost respect; no one wants pity offers or uneeded sympathy when they know that they're strong individuals who can take care of themselves. It's nice to know that there isn't anyone laughing at you, but it still hurts when there are people around you who think that you're so disabled that you can't do anything! Because Skyla had the worst disadvantage of not being able to speak, the bulk of the sympathy was for her, and it tore her up inside. The two girls lived like this in London, England for the first seven years of their lives before their parents finally decided that they should live somewhere else where they could live like average little girls, they decided to go live with their Grandma Cathy in a cottage that was located in the Windcrest Forest, a small old village where very few people live; and they've been happy ever since.
"Grandma Cathy! Grandma Cathy! Look what Skyla found, Grandma!" Cried the excited voice of Star as the thirteen-year-old raced over to her elder, still dressed in her cotton white nightgown, and grasped her tightly by her wrinkled hand before leading her down a dusty path where they met Skyla, examining a tall stone fountain. And Grandma Cathy smiled in delight.
"I see you've found it." Grandma stated to Skyla and the younger simply quirked an eyebrow in confusion before spelling out, "What do you mean? It's just a fountain." Cathy chuckled.
"Just a fountain? My child, you have no idea what this is, do you?" And Skyla shook her head 'no'. "Well, it's the Windcrest Wishing Fountain that let's you have whatever you wish for if you ask it." She explained while taking in the large scupltures appearance. It was a large stone dove that sprouted water from its short beak and it puddled into the large pool at the bottom where it rippled and caused her reflection to ripple as well. "Many, many people for years and years on end have tried so desperately to get this thing to work but no one has yet succeeded. They've begged and pleaded, but it did nothing and soon people just gave up on it...including me." Skyla just stood there, staring at her grandmother before thinking long and hard as to why the fountain has never worked before. You ask for something and it gives you whatever you want; Grandma said that this has been here for years and no one has yet gotten what they wished for, unless...
After a while of standing there, Grandma gave a defeated sigh and headed back to the small cottage with Star right at her heels. They were almost to the end of the path, when all of a sudden the ground shook and a bubbling sound echoed throughout the air. Grandma and Star turned around, and the sight that they saw made Grandma Cathy's mouth practically fell to the ground. The large fountain that once just sat there peacefully spouting water was now shaking. The water that it once sprouted was no longer coming out of the the beak and the water that once simply rippled in the pool below was now bubbling and gurgling as it began to change color. Changing from clear to leaf green, then to bubble gum pink, rosy red came next, and it finally changed to a sunshine yellow before changing back to clear and coming to a complete stop. Once it was over, Skyla's body was jerked backwards until she fell to the ground and gasped. "Ow! That hurt!" She shouted and then practically fainted at hearing her own voice. "W-was that...me?" And she gasped again at hearing the same voice again.
Grandma raced over to Skyla and knelt down at her side. "Skyla, are you all right?" And the younger nodded. "H-how did you do that?" Skyla paused for a moment to remember what she actually did do before realization struck her like a bolt of lightning and she gazed up into her grandmother's brown eyes and gasped once more. "I stood at the fountain and held onto the sides tightly; I pleaded with my eyes, stared intently at the water in the little pool thingy, and wished that I could speak." Grandma stared at her in disbelief. Once she recovered, she stood up slowly and said, "That makes sense. Over the years, people have been actually saying what they wished for. Have you ever heard of the saying "actions speak louder than words?" The girls nodded. "Well, I guess the fountain couldn't hear when people were talking, Skyla didn't say what she wanted with her words, the fountain must have heard her when she spoke with her heart, therefore, it heard her and granted her wish." Star and Grandma stared down at Skyla who just sat there on the ground in utter shock.
"I-I can't believe it. All my life, I've always wanted to be able to speak like everyone else with actual words, and now I can. I-I don't know what to say." Grandma was the first to recover and took her grandaughter by the hand and helped her to her feet. "How about we go home and explore this further, shall we?" She smiled, and Skyla smiled back. "We shall." And with that said, they informed Star of everything that just happened, since she couldn't hear a thing and hadn't a clue as to what was going on. They all walked back up the path, headed towards there home, and stayed inside for the remainder of the evening.
This was definately going to be something that they would never forget, especially little Miss Skyla Marie Anderson. Who would have guessed that the Windcrest Wishing Fountain would grant it's first wish ever; and to a girl who couldn't even speak?
