Author's Note: This is just a little something I had to write for my Test Prep class in school. We just had to write a two page story which used 8 of our SAT words and if we had a spring theme we got bonus. It was also a sort of contest of sorts as the person with what our teacher deemed as the best story got a treat from Dairy Queen. Hehe, I won the ice cream and the bonus points. Enjoy :)

Long Awaited Sun

By: Fig

The girl stared out at the dark and dreary sky with disdain. Rain fell in large, heavy droplets onto her second story bedroom window. She sighed, her chin falling into her hand. Her mother had told her the previous night, when she had explained to her her plans for the day (all outdoors), that the weatherman had said that it was going to rain. The girl had shaken her head and informed her mother that that simply would not happen. And now it was raining horribly, cancelling any plans the girl had had for the day. Her mother, and the weatherman for that matter, had been right after all.

The girl turned from the rain dripping down the window to the rest of her bedroom. Toys and clothes littered the floor, books stood unopened on her shelves. She impetuously reached for one of these at random. She supposed she’d read; after all she had nothing better to do. She climbed on top of her bed and studied the book she’d selected. It turned out to be a book of old tales; a book her mother had read to her several times when she had been younger. She opened the cracking pages, how long had it been since this book had been opened?

The pages were crisp and yellowed as she turned them, searching for something of interest. The first few pages were simply a brief introduction which discussed the collaboration process for the book. It was excruciatingly dull and the girl didn’t even bother to read it. When the first story finally began, the girl was anything but excited. The story turned out to be about a so-called clairvoyant old woman who uses her ‘powers’ to dupe a young boy into going into a dark forest to fetch a magical sword for her, claiming that he will surely survive the adventure and that a great reward will be awaiting him when he returns to her. Of course, the woman was lying and the boy figures this out just as he is approaching his death. The girl rolled her eyes and flipped to the next story.

This one was a classic girl loves boy, boy loves girl kind of story. She flipped past this story also. And the next and the next until a strange title caught her attention. The Opulent Merchant it was called. She tried to think if she had ever read the word ‘opulent’ anywhere. She decided that it must be a nationality.

The tale was riveting. The main character was a rather greedy merchant by the name of Merl. He wanted, more than anything, to be wealthy (that was what the opulent word meant, the girl realized half way through the tale). To fulfill this desire he decided that he would visit an older woman who was said to be filled with sagacity, or wisdom. The woman told him that in order to gain the greatest kind of wealth he must enter the forbidden forest (the girl rolled her eyes as she remembered the story about the clairvoyant woman and the young boy) and retrieve for her the apple of wisdom and that after he had done so she would grant him the greatest wealth imaginable. Merl agreed at once and set off for the forest. Inside it he went through many perilous obstacles but eventually found the apple. Being sure to be prudent in his actions, he brought the apple to the woman and asked for his wealth. The woman smiled up at him as she gently held the apple in her lap and spoke one word: Love. Disgusted, Merl took the apple back and threw into a nearby lake, claiming that she had given him an unsatisfactory response. He learned later, however, when he lost his wife and only daughter in a tragic fire that love really had been the greatest wealth that he had ever owned.

The girl smiled as she shut the book with care, her querulous mood gone. She went to put the book back upon its shelf and caught a brief glance at her window. Warm sunlight was pouring in through the glass, and spreading throughout the room. It seemed that, like her mood, the dreadful rain and dreariness of the day had evaporated and had been replaced with happiness and the long awaited sun.