Their three little lanterns of green, yellow and orange shone brightly beneath the dark sky. The moonlight was modest with the rays it cast upon the inhabitants of earth.The three friends jollied and sang their way back home. They giggled and whispered as they strolled into the decent suburban neighborhood.
Each wore a hood that matched the colors of their lantern. Eesha, Zubaidah and Afreen were especially excited about their catch that evening. The girls called themselves the ‘shadow hunter’. Each night, they would walk to the end of the street where the street lights were the brightest. They would go on catching fireflies and lightening bugs. They would put them in their colorful jars and add to their latest collections. “We are going to create the biggest collection of fireflies the world has ever seen”. They would often say this to their parents.
Laughter from opened windows, garages shutting, families having dinner, birds, and insects chattering, it was the atmosphere of a street retiring into the night. Mrs. Fawad looked through her curtains and she gasped. “Oh children. Run along now. Didn't your mothers tell you about the monsters lurking in the shadows?”. The children scurried together and giggled. “Oh this millennial letting their kids loose”. The old woman grumbled. She put her hands in the air, adjusted her hair rollers, and shut her window.
“I have the best collection for tonight. I am going to sleep well and have many beautiful dreams”. Eesha boasted.
“Huh. No, you are going to dream of bed bugs and spiders”. Zubaidah protested pointing her nose upwards. Eesha was the show off of the group but Zubaidah was always there to remind her about modesty. Afreen’s beaming face suddenly became moody. “I'll just count the stars again then fall asleep, count the stars, fall back asleep, count the stars again”. The three girls laughed.
Unlike her two friends. Afreen was the girl who never dreamed. She would envy her friends as they spoke about what beautiful dreams they had. They would speak of unimaginable happy places, creatures and many sorts of utopian tales. She often wondered what it would be like to visit the realm of dreams in her sleep. “Only if it's just one dream”.
That night after retiring to bed. Sleep was far from Afreen’s eyes. She got off her bed and sat beside her window. The night was peaceful and the street was asleep. Across the street from her home, were her friend’s homes. The three girls would flash each other’s windows at night. Afreen got a torch and flashed Eesha’s bedroom window. No light shone back at her. “ I'm sure they are fast asleep now”. She sighed and rolled her eyes.
Leaning on the wall, Afreen closed her eyes and imagined what it would be like to just drift away and dream. She opened her eyes and looked out of her window again. This time, she taught she saw something. Like a moving light of different colors. “A firefly? huh!” Afreen exclaimed. It went through Eesha’s windows, out, through Zubaidah’s and back out. Afreen watched as the little light headed straight for her window. She ducked. The light made its way to her bed and hovered for a second as though it was searching for her.
Just then, Afreen grabbed a her window blind and quickly covered the light. She was as accurate as could be. Gently, she lowered the content of her blind into an empty jar and closed it. She steadied her breath and began to observe what she had caught. “Huh! This isn’t a firefly. A pixie, nymph? oh a fairy!”
The little creature with blue round eyes and grey wings only stared back at Afreen. She had dark shiny hair like silk and her skin was like glass. Smooth and glossy. Afreen was astonished. She studied the little mute creature for hours until she fell asleep with the jar in her arms.
“Wake up now you little miss. Let me go. I've got work to do before sunrise”. The voice conjured Afreen’s consciousness. She opened her eyes cautiously to find the little creature hovering inside the jar.
“Wait, did you just say something? Speak again”. Afreen was amazed. She picked up the jar and began to shake it.
“Stop it already. Listen, open this jar and let me go at once”. The little creature squinted and pouted her lips.
“Oh she does speak. Oh my word. Eesha and Zubaidah would not believe it”.
“No! Your friends cannot know about me. No one should. You should never have seen me. This is a mistake. So let me go. I have exhausted my dream cards. I have to get a refill”.
“What are you and where are you from?”.
“Listen girl. I am Lilly and I administer dreams to children while they sleep. I'll show you where I am from if you promise to let me go”.
Afreen nodded. Gently she opened the jar and let the tiny creature out. Lilly fluttered through the window to the end of the street with Afreen staggering behind. They came to a halt. The path began to look blur. Pink smoke engulfed the atmosphere and the particles began to align. Soon, they started to spiral creating an opening in the middle. Lilly breezed through. Afreen stopped for a second, then she followed. The opening closed and the pink smoke extended to the sky. They had been transported into a realm.
“You dare bring a mortal into the dreaming on your first assignment? Could you be more irresponsible?” A bigger flying creature with even bigger and brighter wings thundered. She was hovering over a very big tree with yellow trunk and silver leaves. The tip of the leaves had photo cards attached to them. The images seemed to be moving. Like motion pictures telling a story. The sky was pink with many yellow clouds. Trees of many colors and sizes swerved to the direction of the cooling breeze. The ground was covered in pink dust. Tiny creatures like Lilly flocked back and forth in their numbers. Some plucked the photo cards and went through the spiralling smoke while others returned.
“You were supposed to make it back here in time for the second batch of dreams. Now we have to crush those dreams. Some of your friends would not be dreaming tonight because of you”. The bigger creature pointed towards some photos and shot both Lilly and Afreen angry looks.
“Are you fairies?” Afreen blurted out in amazement. “Faries! You humor me young mortal. I am dream itself and you have come into my world”. She hoovered around Afreen and then turned to Lilly. “ I will fix this mess now and deal with the dreams later”. She picked up an empty photo card and plastered it on Afreen’s forehead. “You want to dream? Here!”
Afreen later woke up in her bed earlier than usual the next morning. There was a strange feeling in her soul. “Wait. Did I just have a dream?”
She looked at her opened window and the ruffled blinds. There was an opened jar on her bed. Then her eyes fell on her feet. They were stained with pink dust.