The fun fair

It had been a long exhausting day, Janey looked at the ferris wheel and just wanted to go home. Not a fan of the fun fair, she listened to the children happily laughing. The commitment as a mum to do things and enjoy new experiences.  She would have preferred to be a home with a mug of tea and her book. Instead, she had endured the prickly heat and rode the scary rollercoaster.   Team tagging dad to buy souvenirs, food and drink, the kids had helped them spend a fortune.

The truth behind the enviable photos on social media. Janey knew that if everyone posted how much they had paid for their happy days out, she would be shocked.  The inflated prices for an ice cream or coca cola, the cost adds up.  She also knew that people don’t show the arguments and hard day either.  Their photos showed her as having had a good day with her family.  Not the depressed sad mess she really felt.

Her heartache of the last few years, thoughts that she held inside. Constant feeling of four against one.  Maybe things would have been different if they had had a daughter. She loved her boys but felt a deep nagging loneliness, something or someone was missing.

It started five years ago, things were good once, and then they suddenly weren’t.  A trip to the funfair and an old woman in a tent.  She had told her that she would have another baby boy, disappointment had swept through her and then something bad happened.

The child

Elizabeth looked at the child next to her.  Five years ago, she had met an old woman at the funfair who told her that things were about to change.  She was not sure where the pretty blonde girl had come from. Everyone said that she was hers, but she didn’t feel the love for her that a mother should. She had been back to the fair many times, but the woman had not been there again.

Trying to puzzle out why she felt this way she had started having strange dreams. A lady who rarely smiled and a man who never showed much emotion. A deep sadness had broken them apart.  Who were these people and why was she seeing them in her sleep?

What happened?

Gifted with foresight, Doris could change lives. The power to change life paths and take someone of one path and place them on to another.  The day a lady came to see her at the fair desperately wanting a daughter she had made the terrible decision to give her someone else’s.  Why would a family need four children?  She thought the new baby would soon replace the loss of the girl and she wouldn’t remember her anyway.

Doris didn’t realise the mistake she was making, not then.  Events of the last five years now had taught her different. How many lives had she changed?  How many people had she harmed at the fair? She didn’t know but she needed to put things right. Visiting the great man, Hans who could correct all the messed-up lifelines she knew she was in trouble.  He didn’t take mistakes well.

Hans

Sat watching his ball of life he saw Janey distressed. Her husband didn’t appear to have been affected by Doris’s plans. He then noticed Elizabeth; she was not as happy as she should be. Sending her messages to try and communicate the problem he needed Doris to put things right. Everyone was suffering and lives had been changed that shouldn’t have been.

The job of a lifeline changer is a complex one, important decisions that change lives.  Lives that should not be aware that things are different.

Doris

Sensing Hans, she knew she needed to sort this, after five years she had left it too long. She had given up on telling fortunes at the fun fair but today she needed to see Janey again. Sitting in the tent she knew that Janey would not be able to resist coming in.  She also knew that Elizabeth would visit in the near future.

Janey

Looking at the lights on the ferris wheel she held back her tears.  She must stay strong for her family. It was then that she saw them.   Watching the woman, she felt a strong pull to the small blonde girl. She had never met the child but somehow, she recognised her, maybe from a past life.  As they now walked towards the small tent, Janey had the urge to follow.

Elizabeth

Walking into the tent, Doris smiled at her, relieved that they were here.  As Janey walked in  she could feel her heart jump, this was a first. The two messed up lives in the same place. The little girl looked up at Janey and smiled, did she recognise her?

Elizabeth’s jaw dropped as she saw Janey, the sad woman in her dreams. Doris looked at them both, it was time to do what she needed to do, what she had been hired to do, now with the help of Hans, it was time to correct the lifeline.

A year later

Sitting in the warm kitchen, Janey could hear the shouting, normal family life with four children, three boys and one girl.  This was how her life was meant to be. Feeling contented she drank her tea,

A few miles away Elizabeth was with her new husband Brian, and toddler William. Sat stroking her baby bump they were happily expecting a daughter.

Hans

With the lifelines corrected it was time to retire Doris.  Mistakes were not allowed, people had to be allowed to live their destiny. Intervention happened when people were not living their correct destiny, not just because Doris is trying to help.  Hans had his orders and he followed them. He could see that Janey was now truly happy, and the little girl, Emily, was laughing with her brothers. Should fortune tellers be at fun fairs? Maybe he needed to discuss this with his boss. A god much greater than him!

Written for Write the story prompt on Writers Unite

For more see, Giving more time and care