Writer in the Dark - J. HALE

66 - ᴍᴏᴠɪᴇ ᴅᴇᴀʟ

SOMETIMES, AND it never happened more than once in a year, Athena let her mind wander to a place she had almost forgotten. Seeing people, young children, become adults. She always marvelled at how things were carried on from childhood, like comfort in a stuffed animal or a tendency to run through a flock of birds on a path. She believed, she strongly believed, that the world would be better off if people would let their inner child run free for at least a day a year. To live carefree, without worry and still see the magic behind the plastic fairy doors hidden in some woods that held an entire make-believe world of absolute beauty. She believed that mortals needed to learn to see the light in things, the way that grass swung in the wind on a particularly windy day or the way that trees always grew into the light.

She so yearned for mortals to experience that. To not spend all their time waiting or saving for something, to realise that they had limited time and they should waste it on the frivolous things if they so wished. They should and should constantly take days to be alone in nature or just alone in the world. There was a certain beauty that came with experiencing the world alone - she had learned many many moons ago but not very many mortals had. Honestly, she looked forward to the day trips that she planned alone. Simple walks or trips to bookstores or other things that in her mind, made her eternity.

Athena thought about that deeply for a long time, as she did yearly, and found herself falling even further into the depths of seeing the childhood beauties the longer that she started out of her bedroom window. She looked back and truly believed that people experienced the world better before they had too many distractions. Where books were growing in popularity and most people lived on farms with animals that they considered their family. When they would use the mouth of a babbling brook as a cooling mechanism for jars of milk or water that would be freshly pumped at the beginning of the morning.

Her daydreams, like usual, were cut short by the chiming of her phone in another room. She sighed as a bird flew onto the birdfeeder and turned, walking quickly to the phone. She raised a brow at the name on the phone and answered, clearing her throat of the dreamy state, "Pria?"

"I have news," she was clearly smiling and the entire room was void of all sound of the computer, meaning that she had their full attention. The remnants of her dreamlike reminiscing state fell immediately as concern for Pria's grandmother - the woman who she had known since she was a child - grew in her stomach as Pria's voice did not show any emotion whatsoever.

"Good news or bad news? Is Ela okay?"

"Oh, she's fine. This is good news," they paused as Athena sighed softly out of relief. "They want to make the book into a movie."

She raised a brow, walking across the room to fix a plant that had started to grow into another plant's space. "Seriously? That's awfully quick," she responded with a confused frown.

"I've had eight offers in the past hour and a half," Pria chuckled, beginning the clacking of the computer once again.

Her eyes widened, "Holy-"

Pria interrupted her slight breakdown, knowing that they wouldn't get anywhere if she didn't. "I sent you an email with all the company names and what they're asking for. I also made an email with the pen name you used so make sure you switch to that one before contacting the one that you choose." The conversation continued snapped her back into living mode, where she was aware of her surroundings and not just the shock that flooded through her frozen veins.

"You're amazing," she chuckled softly, still in shock about the success of the book that she had written in just over a month. First draft anyway. "Which one do you think I should choose?"