Amanda and the Big World

There is a Greek saying that adversity creates unexpected alliances. That is the law of the nature… adapt or die. But very seldom some creatures fall out of the decorated line and stumble throughout life making their own way, all the way. Such is a girl named Amanda.

The green daylight and the summer fairy tale always bored her. Instead she looked for the dense lightless forest trees, the brown around her fascinated her like the pretty Barbie eyes does to others. Her left hand was slight faster than her right, she could slay anybody within seconds even in her sleep. Sharpening the axe time to time filled her with confidence. Though she never intended to hurt a fly but she always liked to have to a great defense up her sleeve.

One day, she left the city to sail away in a faraway land. Months later she found herself in a place called the big world. At first, Amanda felt the invisible hands around her neck all the time trying to drown her in the water. A few times she almost drowned, but she never actually did. It took some time but she understood that the only way to stop those hands is to get her hands dirty. She hesitated but then one day reached out for the neck of somebody. Strange enough for her, she found no one pushing her that day. But she knew she didn’t have it in her to hurt somebody unless it is a matter of life and death.

But one day, one not so fine day, she found herself in the attack of a tiger, a major player in the big world. She couldn’t understand what made the tiger come after her. But she knew she had to fight anyway. Another thing that she couldn’t make sense of was that the crowd around her didn’t even flinch an eye when all this was happening. However, since survival was the only option for her, it was destined that she will fight the tiger….and boy! She did fight like the jumbo fighter she trained herself all her life to be. In the end, she came out like true champion, though wounded all over, but the wounds did not matter, the survival did.

Everything settled for better half of the year. But little did Amanda knew that her survival did not go well with the Old Shepherd and his trusted clerk. The fighting spirit of Amanda was correctly identified and a cue was well under the rugs. “Walls have ears”, said the trusted clerk, “We have to be very careful”; the Old Shepherd nodded in compliance.

Next Fall, began the monitoring and crude screenings of a selected few from the big world. Needless to say,  Amanda was one of them. After all this time, time has waived her naivety from Amanda and she was no little girl. She breathed fire every nook and corner of the wrong doings of the people of the Old Shepherd. She gathered people and tried to reason with them. She met the trusted clerk on multiple occasions, she put everything she had on the table for them to see, for them to understand she was no threat, her intentions were never to harm anyone. The only thing she failed to understand was that the decision has already been made. The preposterous trusted clerk saw Amanda for exactly what she was. A bright, independent girl who doesn’t like to keep up with the fancy lids of the big world. The masks confuse her, she likes to grab away the masks, both meant for her and for others.

Bloodless, but brutal brawls filled the next few weeks.  Amanda knew what she was fighting for. So one fine day when the battle was almost over and everything was finally settling in her favor, when her alliances were finally feeling comfortable taking out their swords in her allegiance, she knew her work here is done.

The hawkish ceremony of the trusted clerk who no longer mattered to Amanda has now been dusted away by the truth bucket. Yes, the truth bucket. All this time knowingly or unknowingly Amanda was looking for this bucket. It was buried right in the heart of the city, underneath the ground that holds the sacred big world upright.

As the green winds blew that day, it consumed the bucket and the truth spilled all over the city trickling down to each and every corner, touching all the walls of the castle of the Old Shepherd and the treachery chamber of the trusted clerk.

Amanda boarded the next ship out of the big world. Her farewell tears were made of cure and assistance that she left behind, of solace and satisfaction that she was feeling, and of memories and madness that was her prized possession now.

The anchors were released and the ship sailed away taking Amanda to her next big adventure.