Once.: seanan

Once.

Once upon a time there was a girl who...no. Wait.

That isn't how this goes.

Once upon a time there were a great many girls, and they did and were and knew and learned and loved and lost a great many things. Some of them were good girls and some of them were bad girls, some of them were nice girls and some of them were naughty girls, but most of them were a little bit of each kind of girl, beautiful patchwork people. Some of them were princesses and some of them were pirates. They were charmaids and scullery maids, ladies maids and goosegirls. They were ladies of good standing. They had dangerous reputations. They were fox girls and phoenix girls, autumn girls and summer girls, coyote girls and mermaid girls and every combination and everything in-between, and they were wonderful.

Some of those girls loved each other and some of those girls lost each other and some of those girls gave up on each other and some of those girls never found anyone at all. Some of them were loved and some of them were lonely. Some of them were happy on their own.

But sometimes, sometimes...sometimes, one of those girls would be walking in the wood, or on the beach, or in the pumpkin patch, or through the garden, and she would see someone up ahead, through the trees, through the seagrass, through the roses—someone who looked familiar, even though they'd never met before. And she would go running, that girl, our girl, with her bare feet in the sand or her high heeled slippers on the palace floor, running like her life depended on it. Sometimes the other girl would hear her coming, would stop, and turn, and wait. And when they met, they would look at each other, and ask a question. Always the same question, even if they didn't realize that they were asking it.

Now, do not think that they always loved each other. Some of them were too much alike, and hated each other on sight, or were even more alike than that, and cleaved together like two petals on a primrose. Some of them were indifferent to each other, too different to repel, too similar to attract. Many went their separate ways. But still, they asked their questions first, and had their answers.

"What took you so long?"

I am an autumn girl. I am a coyote girl. I am a pumpkin girl. I love crow girls and summer girls and fox girls and phoenix girls, mermaid girls and autumn girls and wild girls and lost girls, ocean girls and desert girls and fiddler girls and girls who sing like mockingbirds and laugh like falling leaves. I love my sailing ship girls who leave, and my lighthouse girls who stand to guide them home. And every time I have met one of them, one of my girls, I have asked her a question, even if I didn't know that I was asking it, and I have given her an answer, even if I didn't know that it was given.

"What took you so long?"
"I'm here now."

Love the ones you love. Count your crows and your comets and your lucky coins.

Live your fairy tale today.

childinthegrave

May 20 2011, 18:21:48 UTC 6 years ago

New comment

thank you so much for this. it's been raining for a week here in pennsylvania and i desperately needed something beautiful. thank you <3.

and as i type, the sun is peeking out. time for this motherly girl to run in the wet grass with her ballerina girl ;)

seanan_mcguire

June 1 2011, 17:35:04 UTC 6 years ago

Oh, yay.

priscellie

May 20 2011, 18:35:14 UTC 6 years ago

<33333333333333

June 1 2011, 17:35:18 UTC 6 years ago

Right back at'cha.

firebirdgrrl

May 20 2011, 18:36:38 UTC 6 years ago

Smiling and crying here. Thanks for the beauty, wonderful lady.

June 1 2011, 17:50:01 UTC 6 years ago

Very welcome, always.

roadnotes

May 20 2011, 18:50:34 UTC 6 years ago

"I'm here now."

Sometimes, that's all you could ever ask for.

Thank you.

June 1 2011, 17:50:13 UTC 6 years ago

Very welcome.

It was amazing to see you.

brownkitty

May 20 2011, 19:07:53 UTC 6 years ago

The only problem I have with this, and it is most definitely a problem in me, is that I want to continue this and I'm afraid doing so would lessen it.

This behind-the-mirror girl doesn't love you yet. I don't know you well enough. But I admire you, and hope to stick around for a long time to come.

June 1 2011, 17:50:23 UTC 6 years ago

I appreciate all these things.

angelmcc

May 20 2011, 19:10:23 UTC 6 years ago

Lovely.

June 1 2011, 17:50:33 UTC 6 years ago

Thank you.

copperwise

May 20 2011, 19:11:47 UTC 6 years ago

<3 you so very much.

June 1 2011, 17:50:42 UTC 6 years ago

<3 you, too.

madtom_o_bedlam

May 20 2011, 19:53:59 UTC 6 years ago

This makes me wish that I loved more people so I could share it with them.

June 1 2011, 17:50:49 UTC 6 years ago

Aw.

eilan

May 20 2011, 20:01:33 UTC 6 years ago

This post is made of win.

June 1 2011, 17:51:09 UTC 6 years ago

Aw, yay!

paperscout

May 20 2011, 20:32:06 UTC 6 years ago

This is kind of my new favorite thing.

June 1 2011, 17:51:19 UTC 6 years ago

That makes me happy.

phaedra_lari

May 20 2011, 20:33:31 UTC 6 years ago

This made me want to cry. Very lovely.

June 1 2011, 17:51:25 UTC 6 years ago

Deleted comment

June 1 2011, 17:51:32 UTC 6 years ago

Very welcome.

starletfallen

May 20 2011, 20:40:44 UTC 6 years ago

From a Cuckoo Girl to her favourite Pumpkin Girl... thank you. Thank you so very much.

I feel like I'm not allowed to say that I love you, as it's not as if we're friends, but... sitting here crying unashamed in the little college town cafe I'm sitting in, I think it's maybe not as ridiculous to say as it feels. I love you in the strange peculiar way that we love those people who reflect our souls though we don't know them.

I try to use words as well as you do, and I don't think I do, but I hope... I hope I make sense, and that maybe you know what I mean.

Thank you.

June 1 2011, 17:51:58 UTC 6 years ago

I don't think that's ridiculous at all. I think I know what you mean.

You are always, always welcome.

wood_dragon

May 20 2011, 20:48:35 UTC 6 years ago

That is lovely. Thank you.

June 1 2011, 17:52:05 UTC 6 years ago

wendyzski

May 20 2011, 20:56:32 UTC 6 years ago

I think I'm a lighthouse girl - I'd wondered.

June 1 2011, 17:52:16 UTC 6 years ago

Cast your beacon far.

myuki_chan

May 20 2011, 20:57:14 UTC 6 years ago

Thank you, Seanan. ♥

June 1 2011, 17:52:25 UTC 6 years ago

ravens_shadow

May 20 2011, 21:07:15 UTC 6 years ago

And there are the snow ladies and owl girls, some girls who wore disguises, and others who took everything at face value. I like to think I'm a wolf girl and a butterfly girl, and a winter girl living in a summer land (Hawaii).

This was beautiful to read and brightened my day, and really makes me want to write or draw or create...something. It's getting printed out and tucked in a new journal (I had to buy it--it had a woman on the cover with feathers and birds flowing from her hair and beuatiful streaming across her body).

Thank you.
~Sabrina

June 1 2011, 17:52:39 UTC 6 years ago

You are very, very welcome.

kyburg

May 20 2011, 21:08:57 UTC 6 years ago

Heh. This is just so like you, and it's every reason why you rock.

idancewithlife

May 21 2011, 05:33:04 UTC 6 years ago

Love the icon!! That's the kind of woman I try to be. May I steal? If yes, who should I credit?

6 years ago

June 1 2011, 17:57:05 UTC 6 years ago

You will.

The sonic rainboom comes for all of us, in time.

cflute

May 20 2011, 21:31:24 UTC 6 years ago

Beautiful, evocative tribute. Thank you so much!

I think it deserves slashdotting. Or something. Maybe crowdfunding? It's a gem. But then, so are you. :-)

June 1 2011, 21:14:02 UTC 6 years ago

beeker121

May 20 2011, 22:17:57 UTC 6 years ago

Oh. This is lovely.

I'm going to link friends here, this needs to be read by everyone.

June 1 2011, 21:14:10 UTC 6 years ago

Aw, thank you.

talis_kimberley

May 20 2011, 22:21:43 UTC 6 years ago

Oooh... *thank* you for this gem of a tale, of all tales, to drop into my evening like this.

And I am proud beyond words that you are listening to my music.

And the thought that came to me reading this was of Lucy and the sea-girl in 'The Voyage of the Dawn Treader'... and then of women I've known...

May 21 2011, 02:55:38 UTC 6 years ago

!!! Yes, oh my, Lucy and the sea-girl was always something I dreamed about - finding that person somehow, that I knew from the start I would never forget even if we never met again.

allisona

May 20 2011, 22:42:12 UTC 6 years ago

That's just lovely.

June 1 2011, 21:14:46 UTC 6 years ago

fullcontactmuse

May 20 2011, 22:47:11 UTC 6 years ago

The only words I can find right are simply, "Oh my." And I mean that in the best possible way as I tear up just reading the words. I will definately read this to my magpie girl tonight before duties and responsibilities take me else where.

That was lovely.

June 1 2011, 21:14:53 UTC 6 years ago

themysteriousg

May 20 2011, 23:11:51 UTC 6 years ago

And now I'm sobbing. I'm lonely. But I will call my Cheetah Girl and tell her how much I love her and miss her.

Birthdays should not be so effing lonely.

June 1 2011, 21:15:04 UTC 6 years ago

No.

They shouldn't.

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