The Little Music Box

Words:1,562


Outside the sky turned a dark blue color with a group of hazy gray clouds blocking the sunlight. Rain droplets fell down heavily from the sky splashing on the windows and pounding down on the metal rooftop. The tree leaves blew around in the air like a cyclone as the wind speed picked up. A river formed traveling down the hill of my driveway causing a puddle that was turning into a lake at the end of the driveway near our mailbox.

All the children in my neighborhood ran to their shelters immediately. No soul was caught outside walking down the road. Nobody was swinging on their swing sets or diving into their pools and the kids across the street from me weren't running in their front yard playing pirates like they normally do. I bet they were all inside sitting on top of the television screens watching re-runs or playing video games rated for how violent the game is.

It was going to be a Dead Day , a day where people waste their time and energy moping around the house in a grumpy mood.

My parents were downstairs in the living room siting in their recliners watching a lifetime movie. Once my dad gets into a movie he tends to tune everything out and my mom will get mad if you interrupt it. I sat down on the couch to see if anything happening in the movie would catch my interest. I found that watching my parents eating popcorn was more entertaining.

My younger brother was in his bedroom on the floor right up to the Tv stand hesitating to put a video game into his playstation. But he shut it off and dove his hands into a drawer searching for his toy wrestlers to play with. It's sort of amusing hearing my little brother do voice overs for each different wrestler and hearing him really get into it.

I didn't even bother wasting time and energy walking down the basement stairs to see what exactly my older brother was up to. It's predictable that he was laying on his couch listening to music. I could feel the base vibrating through the floor. He was probably also down there chatting away on his cell phone with some girl. I knew if he was on the phone and I went downstairs he'd yell at me. Why bother getting yelled at?

Of course I didn't have anything to do. I sat on the side of my twin bed staring at the posters on my wall of Johnny Depp contemplating on whether I should watch a movie or play The Sims on the computer. I didn't feel like frying my brain cells by playing a video game, or blogging on the computer.And I already watched my Johnny Depp collection of films about a thousand times.

With nothing to do I watched my black cat Boo cleaning herself in the corner of my room while her four little kittens tried nursing. That lasted about five minutes and then I heard a big crashing sound coming from across the hall. I abruptly headed toward my grandmother’s room.

"Grandma are you alright?" I knew her knees weren't too good, and I was praying that she didn't trip or fall.

She was breathing heavy holding her hand up to her chest siting on her bed. A huge box was on the floor tipped over with old photos scattered everywhere.

"I tired to get the box down from the top shelf in my closet. I didn't realize how heavy it was." My grandmother said finally catching her breath.

I helped her pick up the photos and put them back into the box so she didn't have to bend down and hurt her back. There were pictures that were black and white and some from a few years ago. It was nice to see myself when I was so young.

I wanted to go through the pictures on a day like today. There isn't anything else to do on a crappy rainy day. I handed the photo albums to her and sat next to her on her bed.

She held a picture of herself when she was a little girl. It was a picture of her standing in front of her catholic school in her uniform.

"Wow that was you?" I asked sort of surprised that the picture was actually her because she looked nothing like that now.

"Yes, I know, shocking right?" She pulled out another picture of her, but in this one she was holding a little music box.

"Why are you holding a stupid little music box?" My grandma looked upset with what I just said.

She scavenged through the box and at the bottom she pulled out that same music box that she was holding in the picture. The thing looked like an antique from like the 1930's. She blew the dust off of it and opened the box. Inside was some old jewelry, a pearl necklace next to a pair of diamond earrings. I bet that she use to wear them.

Next she whined up the box and sat it down on her night stand. The music was still working. My grandmother closed her eyes and when the music stopped she just smiled. She closed the box and handed it to me.

"What is this for?" I didn't want a useless antique in my room.

"Hold on." She said and lifted from the bed. She walked over to her closet and slid open the doors. "Now it should be in here somewhere." She had her head in the closet and pulled out a dress.

The dress was gorgeous. A beautiful white dress with sparkles and lace. It was so magical like something a princess would wear at a masquerade party. She laid the dress down on my lap.

"One more thing." She said looking through her bottom dresser drawer. She pulled out a black shiny mask and put it on my face.

"Grandma why are you giving me all of this?" I was puzzled. Here she was with no explanation giving me all of this random stuff.

"Well when I was a little girl I had nothing to do on rainy days either, so I would get all dressed up in that dress and that mask, put some jewelry on and listen to the music box."

She took my hand and had me hold the dress up to see if it would fit me. Then she pulled me and told me to look at myself in the mirror. It was a stunning beautiful look. She turned the music box on and told me to close my eyes.

As I closed my eyes I could still hear the classical music playing but it wasn't coming from the music box it was playing from a grand piano in a castle ballroom. All around I could see thousands of people wearing suits and dresses and costumes and masks.

It was like I was at a real ball. Everyone was dancing the waltz. I searched around the room, on the left of me was a huge staircase that was golden and a skylight right above it. Through the skylight I could see the white fluffy clouds moving and the crystal blue sky. On the right, was the royal family. The king with his crown worn with pride on top of his head and the Queen elegant as she always seems in fairy tales. And right in front of me was the Prince.

He was swarmed with girls throwing themselves at him. I couldn't compare to theses girls. I was just a 15 year old girl with wavy brown hair and glasses. Theses girls were tall with brown or blond hair with shining eyes. The prince didn't seem to like those girls.

There I was standing in the middle of the ballroom looking clueless all by myself with nobody to dance with. With a tap on my shoulder I turned around to see a tall man with a mask on his face.

"May I have this dance?” I was charmed indeed.

"Why Yes." I didn't know what to say.

He put his hand up to mine and his other on my hip, while I put my other hand on his shoulder. The music played louder and louder as he twirled me around the room.

"You know all of those other girls can't compare to you." He said.

"Huh?" I was again confused.

The man took off his mask and my heart dropped. The man I was dancing with was the prince. He was tall with blond hair and had baby blue eyes. He took my hands and ran with me outside. We sat down in the courtyard next to the fountains and under the millions of stars.

"You're truly a beautiful girl.” He looked deep into my eyes.

Then he leaned in and kissed me.

The music stopped and my grandma was yelling "Kayla, Kayla, wake up"

I was back to reality when I opened my eyes. I stood in front of the mirror and smiled.

"Thanks Grandma." I gave her a huge hug and a kiss on her cheek.

Now on every rainy day I would have something to do.