Blackvspurple

There was a girl once, who had a smile on her face and was always trying to please others, yet always hiding the pain she felt inside. She thought that pain was hers alone to bear and that there was no reason why someone else should feel what she felt. So this pain remained deep in her heart as she continued smiling and pleasing others.

There were nights when the pain got so unbearable. In the silence of the night, all she could do was roll herself up into a ball before she went to bed. As the days turned into weeks and the weeks turned into months and the months turned into years, every other night the girl turned into a ball. Throughout the years, she got lighter and lighter until eventually; she became a balloon every other night.

As a balloon, she had no worries – her pain contained inside her rubbery purple shell, hidden again from the world. Children look up into the sky at night bet awed by her brightness and free nature, not knowing the pain that caused her to become such a free spirit. All night long she floated around, feeling free yet bounded at the same time.

When light came, she returned to her human self, ready to take on her smiling façade once again. She passed through everyone’s life, just smiling, not making huge differences in anyone’s life. Just wishing someone would care enough to see beyond the smiles and superficial happiness and spot the moment when the pain flashes through her eyes.

She loves her daily life day by day trying to find joy in nature, staring in awe at ants so determined to find food, staring in awe at the way cats can lie around and do nothing and yet not be bored. Maybe that’s their façade, looking like they need nothing except fine weather to lie around. Maybe at night cats become balloons too and floated into the sky.

One night, her pain grew too much. She could not contain it within her anyone so she had became big and round, bigger than ever.

She flew out her window, into the dark starry night. It started to pour heavily. Lightning came out of nowhere. Usually when this happens, she was small enough to evade being hit but this time she was too big. Lightning struck her right in the middle. She burst into a thousand little rubbery pieces.

The children looked at the sky, shocked at what had happened. But the moment all the purple rubbery pieces hit the ground, the children looked away, oblivious to the truth.

(Inspired by The balloon on a broken string by The Boy Least Likely To, Inspired by a certain amount of sadness.)