A child in time  slipped down a creaking stairs.
Isn’t there something about the pivotal role of a stairways, stairwell in plot.
Impish demeanor at the thought of nocturnal ventures with Renee the deer.
Every illustrators dream scheme.
Indeed, one could say dream team maybe even dream theme,
This predictable wide mischief grin seemed to widen with every daring step taken.
Aretha hoped she wouldn’t wake her parents.
She, Aretha hadn’t ever in the past which is peculiar.
They both claimed to be light sleepers.
One of Aretlha’s many mystical traits was that she often had these little conversations with herself.
Not out of loneliness or alienation but as that absent minded prodigy her teachers felt she might one day be.
Aretha could also in her enthusiasm mix up dates even obvious one’s in her general zest.
She was old enough not to make too much noise.
It was her nightly date with a deer in the neighbouring park.
Renee the deer.
The tamed, subdued deer that is and her parents would sometimes bring their daughter to play with Renee during daylight hours.
Brazenly under a silver star and moon mosaic sky later on that day.
“Oooh … I sense my pet deer Renee’s presence.”
Little Aretha had this ritual.
Of late Aretha had become aware of a strange,peculiar feeling when in Renee’s company.
She couldn’t phrase it but at this point it didn’t concern her unduly.
This genius of a child with ocean blue eyes had this hyper awareness.
“How come my parents don’t know or seem to  know what I’m up to?”
Aretha pondered.
“Maybe they know how much I love the world …: Earth.
Everything it has.
City magic day or night.”
This child and her scintillating antennae of wonder.
“Inheritance…. oh that huge word.
Well, for a child.
I’d love to inherit it.”
Aretha was running along a shortcut to the green expanse near the hazy street lights.
The usual cobblestones pathways of intrigue, shadowy shaped thespians of the after midnight cliqueish sonorous bell.
Cars that sound horns at spurious ghosts that were but phantoms of the mind.
Well, someone’s mind if not the drivers.
“My parents, maybe they do know about my longing  for night and  day things.”
She, Aretha mused.
“One day you’ll INHERIT the earth … you are so wonderful.”
Aretta’s father once said to her.
So that would be another dream of Aretha’s fulfilled.
Her mother chirped in too.
“Maybe one day indeed.”
Aretha’s poignant sigh.
Those thoughts started to circulate  in the child’s head as the late
December city had this Christmas feel.
Aretha loved her all year round visits to Renee the deer.
But especially at Christmas.
Everything about Christmas appealed to this inspirational child.
The usual Christmas things.
Gifts, surprises,visits from close friends,
Samuel the  local Santa.
Such an enigmatic man whose aura was embedded
mystery.
As a local Santa Samuel was known at times as a lonely figure in the shadow.
Irrespective of his shy reclusiveness he’d be seen fairly often.
Aretha felt oddly enough quite comfortable with him whenever they met.
The child suspected a  common ground of some kind.
Despite the speed at which she ran, Aretha was most observant.
Very few people knew about her wee small hour exploits.
Bar some friends at school who were  sworn to secrecy.
About 3 trusted friends were informed about
this otherworldly visit.
Aretha’s slim figure formed an angel like figure under watchful moonlight.
“Mmmm … am I being followed?”
Even while I dash.
There seems to be this haunting presence that surrounded Aretha.
Her vocabulary though quaint, a magnetic lure, Druid like might still crave that extra dimension which should become apparent later on.
“Beam, I’m beaming, at the moon. Oh do I hear that rustle.
I’ll  beam at Reinee.”
Aretha with an amplified  anticipation that could not have a rein in.
“Squawk, squawk… a darker than dark.
So high-pitched now still.
Now at rest on a creaky branch.”
Aretha somehow gets this kick out of the bizarre precursor to that date.
“Still think there’s someone about.”
But who could it be?
Suddenly the rustling, the trot along this quarter which made Aretha shiver and shimmer in one fell swoop.
“It’s a thought that floats.
It’s that time again. where late night things are real spooky.”
The deer is now making that scratch, that signature sound with the intense  zeal  of excitement for Renee.
Convention  is such a part of this ritual of that out of this world  creatures.
Renee’s coat has this splash of silver.
Her colour is an addition to an already
fascinating hue  scheme.

“Something fell. What was that?
A thud.  Like someone that let something fall.
Is it a person or thing
wanting someone to see them?
Beguiling trickles of water with that apparently hushed dynamic seemed to compliment the tentative maneuvers that were now about to unfold.

“Strange feelings I have … but they fill up with everything that can happen.”
Aretha thinking it’s this build up, the winter gusts without the squall, hidden things going on in the black of night.
“Some hair-raising  stuff.
Heard a screech of laughter. Voices have  a kind of spark in nearby street.”
The taut air punctuated by this brash sound of traffic, they jump lights in defiance.
“Christmas toons.
Well, it’s that time.
Won’t be long before things get …. boisterous. I mastered that big word.
Oops like inheritance.”
Mmm said Aretha while putting a stifle on her voice?
Oh heavens you are, Renee before me.”
Aretha, know begins to start her thread with Renee.
“Ah, friend Renee you have this Christmas Eve look.
Let me see. Oh I think it’s safe to pet you.
Have’nt had any problems before.
After all, you're the tamed creation.
This trusting child oozed.
“Renee, you are sighing.”
Yes, Renee had this sigh that was barely audible.
But still Aretha would hear it.
And the silver gleam doe was privy to Aretha’s under breath muffles.
“Now,now, I have eyes like the moon.
Don’t stress.”
A favourite saying of Aretha’s when playing with Renee.
Their bond had grown strong since the deer and Aretha had this puzzling yet unusual  nightly meet up over two years.
Aretha’s parents about the same time had this chance encounter with the person who tamed and trained the deer.
It’s how Aretha got to know about Renee’s routines.
Back to the present moment.
“Birds on  watch, Renee.
A flutter
They are super aware.
Oh you’d like another nuzzle.
Can I whisper some stuff in your ear.”
Renee’s eyes moistened considerably.
“Don’t want to worry my folks. You understand.
Hard to believe they are not that aware of what we’re doing.”
An intense twinkling starlit sky zoomed as Aretha whispered in velvet hush tones to Renee.
Aretha had to switch from one ear to the other.
From Renee’s demeanour she was even prone to a little cavorting.
Then suddenly Aretha had this discomfort.
Renee was either not herself or?
At first glance tonight a curious inkling descended on this child.
“Eye to eye, this is not
Renee. It sure looks like her. 
No, the deer senses what is going on inside.
Oh there’s a spot on this deer.”
The moon at this point glided over as Aretha patted the deer in front and dashed off.
Little Aretha sobbed, gulped, even shrieked.
Her home which had always been so close was now light years away.
The paths, passages, and alleys were so impossible an obstacle.
A canopy of blue cheese moon haze and street light strafe now less familiar to her.
The palpitations, the fret and anxiety.
Aretha momentarily got lost but managed to dart back to a dwelling and a situation with a secret.
Much to her surprise her parents appear as odd figures in the window.
They were awake.
What next she wondered.
As there was a light dust layer of snow she might hazard a guess.
“Aretha, what’s wrong?
It’s midnight. We love you.
I think we know.
It’s just your father and I didn’t want to hurt your feelings.”
Aretha’s mother said.
“Renee has been dead for quite some time.
She had a twin sister.
That’s the one you have been seeing of late.”
It was the father’s turn.
“Have you forgotten it’s Christmas Eve?
We have something outside … I hear a noise.”
It’s the Samuel
local Santa.
Aretha gasped and entered the sleigh.
“I just don’t believe it.
It’s a dream come true.”
As they ascended in the air Samuel whispered to Aretha.
“Now, now. You have eyes like the moon.
Don’t stress!
Samual said.
“I learnt that from one of your close friends, my son.
Your parents and I asked my son to watch over you at night when you were in the park.
They knew where you were.”
Samual continued.
The sleigh ascended  and Aretha wept as she waved at her parents.
Perhaps she will inherit something different at this special time her parents opined.
“We’ll  know when she returns … if she ever does.” They guffawed.
And then they walked slowly up the stairway in their house.
It had a deep  symbolic meaning.
Instantaneously the sleigh passed over the park where Aretha and Renee used to play.
Renee’s twin had tears in her eyes as Aretha blinked at her!!!

2024
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