In the Northern Alps, a cold wind blows over the ice. Jean is sleeping in her colourful little abode with her window opened. It is dawn already and the warm yellow rays shone bright melting the ice on her window pane. She isn't an early bird, probably because she had been all her life and never caught a worm. It is the first death anniversary of her parents. The two died in a tragic shark attack as they were fishing in the wee hours of the night. Jean has ever since been locked up in her room researching on ways to escape a shark attack, one could call it her healing mechanism.
Rising from her bed, she picks a picture from the table lit with candles that held the only memories of her sire and mom. Tears rolled off her eyes in streams. It had been a year yet the pain was as fresh as yesterday's. Memories started to pour into her little overburdened brain as she blankly stared at the picture.
"Your father has really spoiled you, Jean, can't you hold it by yourself ?" said her mother. She used this phrase to tease her little skylark. The three were taking a selfie and Jean, five years old then, was barely still while holding the selfie stick and her sire held it with her.
Only God knows how bad she misses them. The night to their death is printed with a high-tec printer in her head.
" Be a good girl baby, eat your food, lock the door and most importantly…" said her mother with an expectant look. " Lock my window. I know all that mommy, you two should take good care of yourselves because I love you very much," Jean remembers uttering these words with a weird pain in her throat and teary eyes. Her instincts had tried to warn her. Her parents then kissed her chubby cheeks, almost squeezing the breath out of her nose.
Jean walks to the bathroom. She stares at her puffy spotty face in the mirror. This was among the reasons why she got herself locked up in her room. Her face was scary. Puberty made things even harder than it should have been. The mood swings and body changes that she found absurd added stress to her already stressed up life.
A knock at the door. It was Miss Magdalena, her late parents' close friend. She took it upon herself to make food and bring house accessories to Jean ever since her parents died. It was however really hard for her to always be there because she owned a shop, the only shop on their snowy island. That meant that she often went to the mainland to buy supplies. Any time Miss Magdalena visited, she would try to talk Jean into relocating to the mainland for there were more opportunities there. She however declined. She felt like the Island owed her an apology for bestowing so much sorrow in her life.
Miss Magdalena leaves.
Jean was leaning on the door in despair with her itchy eyes cast on the patched roof when she heard a loud bang. She dashed up to her room only to find her favourite family photo in shackles. An unexplainable wave of immense pain got her crying loudly just as she did at her parent's last respect ceremony.
Just then a strange shiny metallic beetle landed on her cheek and she pushed it away in panic. The tears seized. It was her first encounter with an insect. She had only seen them on the web. The snowy Island had no vegetation and was too cold for them to survive.
She extended her hand towards it and it slowly climbed onto her palm, slightly scratching her skin with its prickly tiny legs. Jean was amazed. She smiled for the first time in a year. The insect then flew onto her bed and sat with its leg on top of the other. This got Jean on the floor with laughter.
Then something strange happened.
"Hello there, I am Little Miss Twinkle you can however call me Twinkle ! You and can be friends! I am made with the most updated programme and I can therefore relate with you at a personal level!" The laughter came to a halt as Jean squeezed herself at a corner near the window in astonishment. "You can speak? How did the internet miss such an important detail? Well then, my name is Jean," she said with her anxiety cooling off and she now moved closer to the strange little thing. "Nice meeting you Jean! For clarity purposes, the internet doesn't know me because I am from a different galaxy!" Twinkle uttered and immediately shape shifted into a lady with blue eyes perhaps to show off her sophistication.
Jean: Oh my God! ( Almost falling off the window )
Twinkle: I am sorry I scared you. Being program driven, I can do way more cool stuff that humans may find strange. That's how we all are where I am from.(She said with a stunning smile that revealed the aligned shiny crystals in her mouth)
Jean: Is that gold ?( pointing at Twinkle's mouth)
Twinkle: No! It is something more precious than gold made of illuminated particles that surround my home galaxy. Do you like it? I can give you one as an expression of gratitude and perhaps friendship. ( closing her eyes she pulled one gem- tooth and handed it to Jean)
Jean: Thank you! ( placing it into her jewellery can) You are so amazing. It seems like we will get along really well, so tell me, what else can you do?
Twinkle: More than I can mention! Is there something you would want me to do for you? I will gladly do it because you are a nice person, you didn't chase me away like other humans did.( her face cast down)
Jean: Hey! Don't be sad. Well you see, this world is not fair at all unlike yours which sounds like a piece of perfection. Wait… You said that you can do alot of cool stuff, right?
Twinkle: Of course!
Jean: You probably can't do what I am in dire need of right now. It is an impossibility.( Tears in her eyes as she looked at her family photo in shackles on the floor)
Twinkle: ( A blue beam glowed from her eyes as she scrutinised the photo that had Jean stared at in tears) That's Mr Eddie and his wife Belinda, your parents. They died in a shark attack a day like this last year. (Now looking at Jean who couldn't stand the glowy eyes and faced away) You miss them so much and you want to see them again. Fortunately , I could help you with that!
Jean: Can you really? Oh please do. I want to see them just one more time. But... how will you do that? ( she clumsly moved towards Twinkle with her body shaking, unable to keep a still posture.)
Twinkle: I can take you back in time. However, to do that I need to regain enough power. The island is so cold and thus my energy is used up faster. I therefore need your help to fill this bar with sunlight, that's the only way I can be of any help to you.( Showing her a bar just below her neck).
Jean: Uhhmm…( lost in thought)
Twinkle: Is there a problem?( Looking at her closely) What's that… you're afraid of going all the way to the mainland?( Jean looked at Twinkle with a kiddish frown on her face as if to agree with what she said)
The mainland was the only place with enough sunlight since in the snowy Island the sun only shone in the very early morning hours.
No matter how difficult it sounded, this was her only chance, the universe was granting her this last opportunity. She had to grab it with both hands.