Flash Fiction Anthology

Kaleidoscope

"Mum, I'm home!" I called even as I turned my key in the lock, just to make sure that she was really already gone as the absence of her car in the drive had suggested.

Clutching the mysterious object I had found outside the door to my chest, I dropped my school bag in the hall, letting it fall to the wooden floor with a thud. I kicked my trainers off then and walked into the kitchen, where Mum always left me messages if we missed each other, and she left for work before I arrived home.

There it was on the table, a piece of paper informing me in her neat handwriting, 'Your dinner is in the fridge, just pop it in the microwave. Don't wait for me, I'll be late again.'

Knowing that Mum would not let me open the mysterious box, I breathed a sigh of relief, feeling happy for once to be home alone. Grabbing a chocolate bar from the cupboard above the sink, I rushed out of the kitchen and up the stairs, towards my room, where I let myself drop on my bed.

The slim and long box made of shiny black wood lay on my lap now, a thin golden ribbon wrapped around it a barrier between my curious eyes and its contents.

There was no way of guessing who had brought it on my doorstep, no note explaining its mystery, only my name written in flowy, elegant letters on the lid, the gilded characters shimmering in the dim, wintery light filling my room.

Could it have been Lara? It would be just like her to give a fancy magic wand-- that's what I was expecting to find within the box. We were both great Harry Potter fans... But my seventeenth birthday would be in two weeks, it was too early for a birthday present and then, why would she leave it outside my door? I mused, dismissing the idea of calling her; I had just said goodbye to her at school, half an hour ago.

My hand hovering inches above the polished wood, fingers itching to pull at the ribbon, I suddenly hesitated. What if there was something I didn't want to receive? Maybe I should just take the box outside on the porch where I had found it, and see is someone would come to carry it away...

Nonsense. My curiosity finally winning over my other feelings, I removed the golden ribbon, took the lid off the box revealing a... Telescope?

I lifted the golden cone carefully, twirling it among my fingers, marvelling at its freezing smoothness. Turning towards the window, I brought it to my eye curiously, gasping at the surprise that was waiting for me... It wasn't a telescope, but a kaleidoscope! Tiny pieces of colourful glass came apart and together again as I turned it around, unable to stop the smile, soon followed by happy giggles, which the images coaxed from me.

It was like watching a stained glass cartoon... of myself! Lara always teased me for my wild imagination but this... this was something else!

The first few images only made me see my room as if made of colourful glass, then, the portion of our road I could see from my window, the cloudy autumnal sky above.

Then I saw the clouds explode in millions of snowflakes, causing a traffic jam I'd be caught in on my way to school in the morning, my birthday party next week...

What?! How was this possible?! I forced myself to put the kaleidoscope down, heart racing. This was crazy. There was something wrong either with this thing or with me. How could I be seeing the future? Had it only been my imagination?

I brought it to my eye again, unable to resist. This time I saw myself walking hand in hand with Liam, my years long crush, I saw him kiss me... Will we really get together? Then I saw Mum... getting married. A man I did not know held her in his arms tenderly. Lara was there next, looking at a baby sleeping in a cot placed next to her bed...

A bewildered, but content smile still played on my lips as the happy images became more serious, disturbing, then scary-- I saw Liam kissing another girl. Mum crying in the kitchen late at night, her broken lips bleeding profusely, a dark bruise pooling like a shadow under her left eye. Lara, rocking back and forth as she sat on her bed, arms wrapped tightly around her body, staring absently at the empty cot... And then I saw myself again...

That last image was so awful that it brought tears in my eyes. I threw the kaleidoscope on the floor, watched it roll under my bed, heard it come to a stop against the wall. Then I just stared out of the window, my eyes glued to the churning clouds for seconds, minutes, or hours.

It was starting to snow when I promised to myself, my words echoing around me in the now dark room, "I won't let any of that happen."

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This story was written for Imagine this... Writing Workshop, prompt n.42.