The Girl With the Lotus Tattoo

As the sun began to peak out from the top of her house her toes started to warm and she felt a light gust of air hit her face. Feeling too groggy to move she attempted to go back to her dream. Dream? Did she even remember the motion picture that her mind had just played for her. What was that small gust from anyway? As her brain began to wonder her body started to come to as well. Now I know am not Princess and the Pea but I think I am lying on the gravel outside. She thought. Her eyes began to flutter open as she wondered how the thief of the night had brought her here. Finally, eyes squinted yet open, she makes eye-contact with the creature that disturbed her backyard lullaby.

"Beth? Do you know what year it is?" A voice that may as well have been whisper said. "Uh, 2015?" God who is asking me such a question? "Awesome. Do you know where you are?" Considering I recently thought I was lying on a bed of rocks I guess not. "No" I slurred. "That's okay honey. You are in Saint Lukes hospital with a concussion..." "Beth, you're awake!" Darn it, she found me. How? How does she always seem to do that? The last time she did she called every police department in the metro area if not further and found the station I was being held in. Brain tornado. You could tell she had just been crying, probably all night in-between calls to hospitals and. "Are you okay? How are you feeling." How did I get here? "Uh, good I guess?" I mean I AM alive. My mom wasn't the best at knowing what to say when.. Especially in sensitive situations, sensitive to her that is.. So I closed my eyes and pretended to go back to sleep.

It hadn't always been that bad, she used to sneak out back only to get a breath of fresh air. She used to enjoy the little things and then everything got big at once. Not actually though, just in her mind. She realized she was nearing 21 and still hadn't made a life altering decision for her future. Instead she drastically put herself into multiple life altering decisions in the worst ways. When everyone else had proposals, college and apprenticeships on their plate she had jail holds, hospital stays, ride home with strangers; the works. Except it DIDN'T work. It did quite the opposite in fact. She kept going despite her faults. She had quite the positive outlook on life which helped her through those few years stuck in a loop. until she realized she had to get out or she would be stuck there forever.

The first sip of coffee is always the best sip.. It was her 28th birthday and she sat there at her patio table, eyes closed, at her home that she owned with her family listening to the morning wrens sing and play in the marble bird bath her her grandma had given her as house-warming gift. She had no idea how good it felt to have something as simple as her own home on a few acres. A bee hive, that she had dreamed of for years before, close to a garden with a waterfall. Everything she had dreamed of for years but felt so far away at the time she finally had. She glanced down at her lotus tattoo and felt a wave of bliss wash over her whole body. A better feeling than any man-made foreign sensation she had ever chose to have. She opened her eyes in time to see her old friend perched on her fence post not 10 feet away. The beautiful creature wasn't a dream 8 years ago after all. She never knew the important role he had played back when. She took a second sip out of her favorite coffee mug, got cozy into her chair, smiled and closed her eyes. She felt a small gust of air as that old barn own flew off to finally go get some sleep.