With a camera on her hand, Penelope is busy taking angles on her dragon statue. Signore Antonio is taking it tomorrow so she needs to take the picture of dragon first.
She's busy with taking pictures, setting the lighting, finding the right angle, creating the perfect background. While Gustavo is sitting in the living room, doing his magic onto a piece of wood, smiling uncontrollably at Penelope, who's enjoying herself so much.
By afternoon, she's done taking pictures of most of the statues in the house. She admits that she's very happy with the result of her own photography.
"You're done?" he asks when he sees Penelope puts the camera onto the table. She nods and she smiles. He takes the camera and checks on the result.
"What do you think?"
"Not bad." He peeks on her through the hole. He aims at Penelope who's standing not so far from him. She smiles and Gustavo, doesn't want to miss the beautiful moment, takes the picture at once.
"Gus!" she exclaims as she laughs. It's obvious that she's embarassed. She sits next to him and grabs the camera to see the result. With a low ISO, the picture shows a mannequin at the edge of the picture, smiling to the camera, with a sun light shines to the upper body, very contrast to the almost-dark background.
"This is not bad." She says. He shrugs and laughs almost immediately.
"I'll print it out." he whispers.
"Do whatever you like. I'm going to upload those photos into our website and instagram account." She stands up to immediately start woking.
"I like it when you're excited like this." A ghost of a smile appears on his lips..
"Oh really?"
"You look more, um, alive."
"Alive?" She laughs. "Like I'm not alive yet."
He chuckles. And he hears Penelope sighs when a picture of a family figure shows up onto the screen. But that sadness goes away within seconds. Her eyes start to focus again, as they always have been in the last few weeks. So he decides not to bring it up again.
He sighs. "Hey, you're hungry?"
***
The clock rings twelve times throughout the house, causing Gustavo to suddenly awake. He automatically goes to the kitchen.
When he arrives, Penelope looks up and smiles. He knows something is wrong, so he sits next to her.
"Why do we always go to the kitchen when we can't sleep?" She laughs.
"Women belong in the kitchen." She frowns, start to bring up a fight how men and women are equal. "Men belong in the kitchen. Kitchen has food." He continues.
"Ah." And she laughs.
"Are you okay?" He asks, breaking the silence.
"Yea, of course." She nods.
And an amazing thing happens right after she says that; her nose gets one-inch longer! She gasps and he widens his eyes.
"Geez! Isn't a living wooden statue ironic enough?" She exclaims as she touches her nose.
She sighs. "No, I'm not okay. I feel, weird."
And, amazingly, her nose turns back into the normal size.
"Wow." He whispers.
"It isn't fair." She pouts. "You can lir and I can't!"
He can't help it but laugh. "Why would I lie to you?"
She shrugs. He tilts his head and clasps his fingers onto hers.
"Is it something you want to talk about?"
She looks at him, considering whether she should share her mind or not.
"Well," she says after some time. "I was born in a small village in Australia. I forget exactly when, but it was around the early 1920s. So when the World War 2 occured, I was still really young. And I've lost everyone; my parents, my sister, my fiance, my dog. Everyone." She sighs.
"A few years later, I heard a rumour saying that deep in the forest near my house, there's a place where we could live happily ever after. Everybody tried it, but no one came back alive. So I tried it myself. I thought, I've lost everyone, no one would miss me.
"So I did. It took me weeks and so many hard times surviving the wild to reach that place. But I let myself down. That "happiness" was a lie. It was literally a rounded spot where the sun shines, too brightly.
"I was, depressed. I fell down to my knees and there were so many stems and tendrils and leaves and branches, and they, they held me onto the ground.
"For years, I lived as the heart of the forest. I kept them alive, made sure they are feeded well, no one chopped them down. They lived happily, and as the return, they fed me and made me happy, made sure that the birds and the winds kept me updated with the latest news," she chuckles.
"But then, the nightmares begin. As people need more papers, more fields to make foods, more area for houses and apartments and malls. People need more and they give us more pollution.
"And they started chopping down my forest. You should've seen them, my friends, they've put up such a fight. But those big bulldozers, heartless people, seesaws," she sighs. "They kill us."
"How do you survive?" He asks.
"They cut me into pieces, which was a very much hurtful process. But they couldn't cut the inner piece of me where my heart and my soul lay, creating scratches and unfinished edges, ugly wood that no one wants. So they shipped the woods everywhere around the world, including the ugly wood which contained my soul.
"And you, my dearest Gustavo, has given me, an ugly wood, a chance to live again. There is no greater love than that." She smiles and she kisses his cheek softly, as if she's really thankful.
"And you're awake because this thing keeps burdening you?"
She laughs. "I sometimes had nightmares, about the horrible things that had happened in my life." She shrugs. "Sometimes I wish that I will have a family again. And sometimes, the thing that makes me more burdened is that there are people who waste the love of their family."
He chuckles. "Are you talking about me?"
She shrugs and she laughs too.
"It was my fault, though. I wish I can say sorry to my dad, but I just couldn't. There's no way he would forgive me. After years of being a horrible son, he would never accept me back."
"Have you tried?"
"No."
"Then, how do you know your father will reject you right away?"
***
Ping.
A message chat pops up into the monitor. Penelope looks and squeals.
"What is it?" Gustavo asks. He puts down his tools and looks up to her.
"Listen. Hi, I'd like to order one of your statues, please. 018 Horse in Gears Linda Amar (address) (phone number). Where do I transfer the money? "
Gustavo stays silent. "I can't believe it we have the first online customer!" She squeals and immediately stands up to hug Gustavo, who gets startled.
"Sorry. I'm just too excited."
Ping.
"Eep! Another customer!"
YOU ARE READING
Pinocchio
Fantasy"She's just a piece of wood" "He's just an ordinary woodcarver" And then, they met
