#dollcifer

Chapter One: Springtime

Dolly clutched her little woven basket in one hand. She was on her way toward the pearly gates - from the inside. - and her walk was more of a dance than anything, full of the excitement and whimsy only found in the heart of an angel, or a small child. She slid the handle of the basket up her arm to rest in the crook of her elbow, and her hands grasped at the cool gold bars in front of her, delicate fingers wrapping around the metal. 

“Peter!” She called out.

“Huh?” The voice of a startled man sounded, followed by the fluttering of book pages. He’d been napping on the job.

“Peter!” Dolly repeated, sounding more exasperated than excited.

The other blonde angel took a moment to wake up, immediately recognising the girl behind the gate. “Yes, yes, i’m awake. What is it this time, Dolly?”

“The same thing as every year, Peter! I want to go out!”

Her hands let go of the golden bars as the gate began to swing open. she held her empty basket close and skipped barefoot across the soft, fluffy cloud floor, until she was outside the gate.

“Thank you!”

“You’re very welcome.”

He’d barely finished she sentence before she was gone.

The warm sunlight made Dolly’s skin feel tingly and nice. She stood there in the meadow for a while, basket in hand, just letting the sun’s rays kiss her skin. Dolly adored Heaven, but something about Earth made her feel so at peace. Maybe it was the way everything was temporary. There was none of that permanence that Heaven had. Every year when she came to spend a few months on her own on Earth, there was brand new animals to meet, different flowers in different spots, and it was far more interesting to her! Picking flowers in Heaven was lovely, but it could get dull. The same flowers bloomed in the same exact place, all year round. Earth always had a new pattern in the meadows. 

Dolly began picking the most beautiful flowers she could find, gently placing them into her basket. Her soft feet padded on the grass, little tiny flowers popping up with each step. It was like the Earth awaited her presence every year, and began to bloom when she arrived. 

As she picked flowers, she hummed a tune to herself, one she’d heard the choirs singing. 

The flowers this year were perfect. all of them. She was utterly fixated on picking out the best, ignoring everything else around her. Her focus was entirely on the pretty, colourful little plants in front of her. 

After hours of humming, and walking, and picking, piling her basket up high with flowers, she stumbled.

Dolly let out a shriek, her small white wings flapping frantically and failing to save her from her little fall. The poor girl’s pink robe was covered in dirt, and her flower basket was scattered, so she busied herself with fixing the mess, murmuring the most family-friendly curses she could think of. 

The terrain had made a sudden dip into an open area among the bushes and trees she had just been manoeuvring around. A vibrant red colour caught her eye in her peripheral, and she turned her head curiously. Oh!

Somebody had set up an offering? Could it be for her? Her eyes were fixed on the brilliant red roses arranged neatly in a glass vase. She crawled toward it, not bothering to stand up. 

“Hello, beautiful..” She murmured to the roses, wondering if it was okay to take one. It was only then that she realised she’d treaded on some carefully arranged sticks. She sat still on her hands and knees for a moment to look at the symbols she’d almost ruined. A star, surrounded with a circle. a Pentacle?  Or was it upside down? She couldn’t tell, but it made her tummy feel strange, so she stood up.

“Who is this for..? Did i ruin it..?” She turned around in circles, looking for any sign of someone who might be responsible for the setup, who she could apologise to for trampling it. “Hello? Please come back.. I’m sorry…”

She raised her voice a little. 

“Come back please!”

At those words, her sad little basket was once again scattered across the floor by a sudden gust of wind. Wind? Here? Among the trees? 

There was a burst of sparkling red, the same hue as those beautiful roses, and the angel was startled, wings fluttering helplessly once again.