Smoke‘s dream about the dusky sky | Teen Ink

Smoke‘s dream about the dusky sky

May 10, 2022
By RickyB12, Beijing, Other
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RickyB12, Beijing, Other
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Author's note:

This article is inspired by "The Princess And The Pea". I think The setting of a princess with too delicate skin does not conform to realistic logic, so I change it to a girl with brittle bone disease. Brittle bone disease can be roughly equal to "too delicate skin". I think the prince's requirement that his mate be a girl with delicate skin is too eccentric, and I think his personality is extreme, so FOR this article I've changed the image of the prince to that of a grown man who imagines himself to be a prince.

For theme, I want to show is one of the patients with special diseases is how to challenge their own disease, too safe to breakthrough oneself peacetime life feel collapse and repressed, but, when he really jumped out of the comfort zone, but because the injustice of the society, can't really let yourself be free. As a result, she suffered more damage.

Second, I also want to show some feminism. From the protagonist Bone, we can see that she is young and enthusiastic, but her life may be ruined because of social neglect and men's disrespect.

For image, the most important image in this paper is smoke. I've set up two layers here. The first layer is the shape of smoke flying upward. I think smoke yearns for freedom. Therefore, smoke means Bone's desire to pursue his ideal, while the sky means ideal. The second layer, smoke is also fragile, it has no way to protect itself, can only slowly melt into the sky, just like a dream about the sky. Therefore, smoke symbolizes the lack of strength and the inability to protect Bone, while Sky at this time means the injustice in the society and the disrespect to women led by male power


She awakened from a dream that suffered from paralysis, twisting and forcing her body so as to release from the helpless darkness. The mild wind was the scratches on her face; bare feet uncovered was her fountain to fear. Beads of sweat that seemed to overwhelm her, she was lying on bed by herself. Suffering, obviously, went through and through.
Outside the window, there was a thin layer of fog in the sky. The girl knew that it was only early in the morning and that the smoke would dissipate before she noticed the change in the sky, which would turn blue again.
People in the village compared the girl's body to clouds and smoke, saying that she was weak and had strange diseases. She did not understand what she had in common with clouds and smoke, but she knew that clouds and smoke were distant and helpless. Unable to protect themselves, they are blown away and dissipated; Or just melt into the sky and drift farther away...
At the bottom of the window she could see a curl of white smoke. "That must be Aunt Anna baking peas," she thought, as the white smoke melted into the air. She decided to get up. She loved baked peas.
She went toward the window and ran her forefinger along the sash, then flattened his palm against the pane. Both were warm and dry. It’s March again.To Bone, however, it was no more than a normal day. She spent most of her four seasons in this house.
The silence was broken by a loud voice: "Wake up! Bones! ",cried a girl who ran into the room, “Will you come and play with me this spring?”
Bone stood next to the window, she came close to the girl and whispered,
“I told you I can’t, Sarah.”
Her voice was like the sound of mosses grown on bare stone walls—— being tortured by the wind and trembled when it’s cold.
“But you told me that you can from last summer, didn’t you remember?” Sarah said with
tears seemed to roll in her eyes. Bone could feel how the girl is upset about what she said.
She and Sarah are not biological sisters; Sarah is the child of her stepmother, Mrs. Smith. Mrs. Smith was very kind to her and never criticized her for her health.
"Don't ask people to do what you want, Sarah." Mrs. Smith's voice came from downstairs.
Sarah looked up at the top of the stairs, turned to Bones and whispered, "Can you come..." Her eyes twinkled as she begged bones to go out. "We can go to the forest and find some mushrooms, collect some flowers, and look at the butterflies. There are so many things you've never done!"
Bones remembered many things she had forgotten in her long, boring life. She was not in the habit of recording anything new that she could see outside the window, so she quietly told herself to remember it, such as a certain rain, a bird song that became clearer when she opened the window, and the smell of earth in the air.
But these feelings were only vague, untouchable, unimaginable, and all that she could see was only in that square frame -- the window.
She nodded slightly. Sarah smiled at her, then took her hand and led her downstairs.
Mrs. Smith frowned slightly as Sarah finished talking about her plan, "But your father specifically told me not to let Bone go out."
"She never leaves the house once, so that the butterflies are gone and the flowers have withered and she can't see them!" Sarah says loudly nearby.
"That's no good either. It's too dangerous for two little girls to go out together, Bone. They say children go missing all the time in town these days...”
"Mom! Well, ask Bone if she wants to go out! "Sarah called.
Bone is sitting obediently in her chair. When Sarah says this, she quietly looks up at Mrs. Smith and nods her head slightly.
"No, we can't discuss this. I have to go to work in the pastry shop later. Aunt Anna will prepare the lunch and dinner.” Mrs. Smith tells seriously, "Bone... It's not that I don't want you to go out, but your father told me before he left that you couldn't go out, and you know your illness... It is dangerous for you to stay out. "
Bone kept her head down. She didn't know how many times she had heard that. She knew how serious it was. The last time she bumped into the foot of the bed, she couldn't even move, she lay there for I don't know how long... Sarah would come and see her and tell her about the outside world. But her slightly open eyes were filled with dust. She had just noticed how foul the air in the room seemed. The gas was like flowing sewage, so suppressed that you couldn't even breathe deeply.
Bone knows that when she goes out and falls to the ground, Sarah can't carry her back. She ran too slowly when she met the beast. It was too cold, too hot, too humid for her weak body. But she could not bear the feeling of dust over her eyes that she could not express.
Maybe she wants to be a wisp of smoke, fragile but free.
She stood up and said, "Mrs. Smith, I want to go out for a while. I'll take care of myself." Bone looked up. Her eyes were never so fixed, her legs so eager to go into the light, so eager to see where the light went when it left the ground, so eager to see what she had never seen.

Mrs. Smith was touched in a moment. She did not know why the girl had changed so much in a moment, but at least she saw a new light in Bone's eyes, shining through the dust.
"Go away and be back before dark." Said Mrs. Smith, tenderly looking at Bone,“Bone, it will bring you untold suffering and pain,but I hope you will not be overwhelmed by this strange disease.”
“I will, Mrs. Smith. I bet it is not that scared anymore.” Bone said.
Walking out of the house, Bone realized how small the world was in that window. Into the forest, the wind is not impulsive, it moves gently to and fro, flowers and grass follow his steps. And in the distance, the mist has not dissipated, like a mysterious veil, leading them forward.
Sarah walks in front of Bone, plucking the grass and rubbing it in her hands." We walk too slowly to see anything interesting!"
Bone frowned. She doesn't like to be bothered. Seeing her sister's face impatient, she said in little voice, " you can run ahead, see what is fun, and then come back to see me."
Sarah looked back at Bone. "I'll go and have a look," she said with a little surprise. "when I see these flowers and butterflies, I'll just turn around and run back!"
Seeing Sarah running ahead, in a moment Bone wants to start running. She got ready, raised her right leg, stepped forward, and swung her left leg forward as well. When her legs were ready to start running slowly, she swung her arms.
Still, she ran slowly, even with all her might, but slowly, slowly...
Bone suddenly feel a sense of losing track of her run. To be honest, she was still a little resentful of her body. She had the courage to fight it, but sometimes she didn't have the courage to face herself. How to make her body so that she could at least run, dance, and follow her loved ones without dragging them down, including her father who had been working so hard because of her illness...
She didn’t know why, this forest gradually became monotonous, looking up is the tall trees, bowing her head is a lawn of green grass. Just like Bone's home, the people and the scenery have become numb over time. The girl gradually lost her patience to move on. She carefully crouched herself down, then sat down again. She was afraid of being hurt again, the pain that pierced her, her bones as fragile as paper.....

It was a dream. A castle was hidden in the mist.
"Would you like to come into the castle?" A voice came from behind the girl.
Startled, Bone turned her head to see a man crouching behind her. She had no idea when the man had appeared, and she broke into a cold sweat, a paralyzing sensation that swept over her.
"Why don't you speak? As the man continued to talk to her, the girl could not see his face, only his approaching feet and the rustle of his feet on the leaves.
She couldn’t arouse herself from unconsciousness. The sleep paralysis has come again.
When she woke up again, she felt like a smoke, she could feel the warmth of the air, she could feel someone's touch, she could blend in with the darkness, she could see the light, but
it could not move. It was fixed in one place.
She's too scared. It's all about the unknown. Her imagination felled her stomach like a stone, her body was like filling of seawater. The reassuring warmth of the air became strange as she closed her eyes. Sensations ran through her, and everything became unpredictable.
At this moment, her previous life was so familiar and warm, subconsciously, she remembered all the memories. The light smoke rising from the dark sky, the warmth and humidity touching the curtains, the aroma of the peas. That was her, and how she could feel about her life.
She tried to open her mouth, but she could only move the corners of her mouth slightly.
After a while, she heard a cough. The man had been beside her. The touch, the sensation, Bone was so scared, her body started shaking.
"I am a prince and Lord of this castle," the man murmured to himself. "My wife should be the most perfect princess."
"Did you sleep well, my little princess?"
Bone was confused, but she couldn't remember how long she had been there, and she tried to remember the smell of beans in her mind.
"Pea... ." A sentence came out of her murmuring.
The man's eyes lit up when he heard this. "Are you really my princess? Dear princess, I added five velvets to the bed where you sleep. I ventured to add a pea under the velvet. You really are my princess."
The man suddenly sobbed, spreading his intense joy like an excited rooster.
"Why don't you speak to me , my princess? Why don't you speak?" The man kept repeating the same thing, his voice getting more and more intense, like he was criticizing Bone. He grabbed the girl's weak shoulder like a gust of wind that seemed to scratch the girl’s face and shook it.
The smoke was about to blow away, the bones seemed to be crushed, and a sudden pain woke the girl from her numbness.

She awakened from the dream with a start. This time she’s not sinking into the paralysis. Was she dead? Or did smoke have a dream about a dark sky.



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