While discussing Quantum Mechanics, Albert Einstein once declared: “I, for one, am convinced that He does not throw dice.” This brings us to the contradiction of Fate and Chance. I, for one, choose to believe that nothing is an accident. My mentor once told me that “If something is in your life, it is there because you drew it there, and on some level, it serves you.” Everything in our lives, the bad and the good, serve us in some way that we ourselves might not understand right away. As such, he and I both believe that nothing is an accident.
Take the doll, for example. When I found it that day, laying in the dirt, I could have left it there. But that’s not what happened at all, is it? Despite running late for the bus, I picked up the toy that had inexplicably caught my eye, and took it home. Imagine... a full grown man, being late for work because he had to save a Twilight Sparkle toy! And yet, home I went, with my new prize, filthy and tangled, in my pocket. As an interesting side note, my bus ran late that day, ironically allowing me to arrive at work on time.
How was it that that tiny spec of purple was able to catch my eye, even from across the street? What was the chance that it would be, specifically, Twilight Sparkle, who had been on my mind just earlier that day? Why would I risk tardiness just to save a toy, after I had vowed not to collect such toys myself? Simple. I do not believe in chance.
Years later, I would see a young girl in need of a friend, and it was then that I understood. I had found Twilight for a reason, and if the events to follow would be any indication, it was certainly the right thing to do. Now, I can’t vouch for God, or some other higher power leading events from one to another, but I do know that I was meant to find that toy, because the little girl I eventually gave it to was meant to have it.
Call it fate or random chance, but I, for one, am convinced that He does not throw dice.
Chapter 2: Of Things Lost and Found
Twilight Sparkle had a special place in Angel’s room; Even though it was hard to make her stand up without falling over, Angel liked to stand her on top of her rosewood cupboard, near her bed, so she could see her when she woke up in the morning. Angel had lots of toys, but none of them were as special as Twilight. The purple Unicorn was given to her to be her friend, after all, and Angel decided she would love Twilight most of all.
For the next couple of days, Angel played with Twilight a lot. Sometimes, she would imagine having a little tea party where Twilight was the hostess and some of her other dolls were guests, and they would talk and gossip about whatever ‘they’ could think of for hours and hours. Other times, she would play with Twilight’s tail, braiding it or brushing it out. Angel liked to talk to Twilight, imagining that the little pony doll was actually listening to her, and when her Mother’s fighting with Samuel was at it’s worst, she would hug Twilight tightly to her chest, and she would feel better.
Even though she hardly ever saw him, Angel and Lee would always share a smile when they passed in the Apartment building. One time, her Mother asked her why she acted so friendly to him, but Angel only told her that sharing a smile with someone felt nice. She didn’t tell her mother about that time he gave Twilight to her, because she was afraid she would be mad. After all, her Mother had always warned her not to speak with strangers.
Every day, during the week, Angel would take Twilight to school with her, and play with her at recess. Other girls played with different pony dolls, and sometimes she would even play with them, pretending the Ponies were all friends in a world one of the girls, named Shannon, called Equestria. Angel thought Equestria was a funny name for a world, but Shannon said that Equestria was the name of the world in the Pony cartoon.
Angel had a television, but she only had a few channels, because her Mother couldn’t afford cable television, so angel didn’t get to watch the Pony cartoon at home. Shannon’s Television did get the channel however, so she knew the most about ponies. Shannon told her that the princess of Equestria ruled the whole world, and that she taught Twilight how to use magic. This excited Angel, so when she was at home, she imagined being a Princess, and teaching Twilight how to use magic.
One day, though, Angel nearly lost Twilight Sparkle.
It started one morning before school. Her mother saw her packing Twilight into her backpack, and asked where she had gotten her. Angel didn’t want to tell her mother that Lee had given her the toy, because she wasn’t supposed to accept gifts from strangers. Instead, she told her Mother that her friend had given it to her, which wasn’t really a lie, because Angel thought of Lee as a friend. Her mother asked her which friend it was, and then Angel did tell a lie, and told her mother that Shannon had given it to her. Her Mother seemed to be okay with this, so Angel went to school and forgot all about it.
A couple of days later, when Angel got home from school, her mother was really mad at her. Her Mother told her that she had spoken to Shannon’s mother, and that Shannon’s mother said that Shannon had never had a purple pony... Shannon had only ever had one pony doll, which was orange. Mother was cross that Angel had lied to her, and demanded to know where she had gotten the toy. Angel still didn’t want to tell her the truth, but her mother threatened to ground her to her room if she didn’t tell the truth.
Really, when you spend most of your time in your room anyway, being grounded isn’t that big of a deal. However, the words “You’re Grounded!” still carried weight with the young girl, if only because she knew she was in deep deep trouble. For fear of being grounded, Angel decided to tell her mother the truth about her toy.
Angel’s Mother didn’t yell, so at first Angel thought everything would be okay. She told her Mother all about how she had met the nice man next door, and how he had talked to her and smiled to her, and finally, that he had given her the toy. When she finished, her Mother had a very concerned look on her face. She gave Angel a very stern lecture about talking to strangers, especially strange men, and then she gave her another stern lecture about accepting gifts from said strangers, just like Angel was expecting.
The next thing her Mother said, however, was something she did NOT expect: her Mother told Angel that she had to give her the toy.
Angel became very upset when she heard this. Twilight was her favorite toy, and her best friend! How could she give her up? Her Mother explained that losing the toy would be a punishment and a lesson about accepting gifts from strangers, but Angel didn’t listen. Rather then giving Twilight to her Mother, she held tightly to her school bag, where Twilight was hiding, and angrily told her Mother that she wouldn’t give Twilight up. Her Mother became cross, and demanded the toy again, more forcefully, but Angel just yelled that Twilight was hers. Even when her Mother threatened her again with grounding, Angel refused.
Finally, her Mother made to grab for her school bag, but Angel pulled it sharply away and ran towards her bedroom, slamming the door. Rather than simply following her in, her mother stood outside her bedroom door, demanding to be let inside right that instant. Panicking, Angel pulled Twilight out of her school bag, and began looking for a place to put her. When her Mother started counting down from three, she saw the cupboard, and opened it. Once the counting finished, she opened the door. Angel threw Twilight into the cupboard right then and there, and locked it.
Unfortunately, Angel’s Mother saw this, and now was demanding the key. Once again, Angel willfully denied her mother, making her even angrier. Seemingly fed up with Angel’s behavior. Her Mother began to make her way across the room. At the spur of the moment, Angel opened the window, and tossed her key into the street below. Watching as the the key fell several stories to the ground and out of sight, Angel suddenly realized that now the key would be lost, and that she would likely never see Twilight again. She tried to race past her Mother, intending to look for the key, but her Mother stopped her by standing in the doorway. With nothing else to do, Angel flopped onto the bed and cried.
Her Mother calmed down a lot after that, but Angel was still grounded. Even worse, now Twilight was locked up in the cupboard that Father Carl had let her keep, and she would never get to play with her or talk to her again. Perhaps her Mother felt bad for her, because she didn’t take the cupboard away, but to Angel it didn’t matter because it was locked anyway. She decided then that she hated her Mother, and didn’t speak to her again for a whole week.
~~~~~
It was two weeks before Angels Mother decided that she wasn’t grounded anymore. To Angel, the grounding was never the true punishment, anyway, and Angel still blamed her Mother for losing her key in the first place. A week or so into the grounding, Angel started talking to her Mother again, but it was mostly out of necessity; after all, living in a house with someone without talking to them was hard to do, especially when you’re Angel’s age.
Angel had tried to find the key, but when she dropped it it had fallen out of sight. Now, even though she was looking around below where her window would been, she couldn’t find it. There was a storm drain there, and Angel thought it must have fallen down.
At school, Shannon offered to let Angel play with Applejack, her own pony, but Angel didn’t want to. Angel tried to explain that it wasn’t the fact that she was a pony that mattered, but that she was her friend. After a few days, Shannon stopped trying to play with her, and this made Angel feel even worse.
While she was grounded, Angel was expected to come straight home after school. One day, instead of going home, she went to see Father Carl, and she told him about everything that happened. Father Carl listened to everything she had to say, like he always did, but like always, he wasn’t able to help. He told her that sometimes we lose things that are dear to us, and that even though it hurts, we can always push through our pain as long as we perceiver and have faith in God. He was always saying things like that. She knew it was supposed to make her feel better, but it didn’t really work. When she got home, she got in trouble for deviating from the path, and for the rest of the time she was grounded, her Mother walked her to and from the school.
Eventually, the grounding was over, and her Mother stopped walking her home. Angel was still angry at her, but was able to appreciate being allowed to walk by herself. Every day for another week, she took as long getting home as she could. Sometimes, she would walk the long way around her block, strolling through a park near the school and stopping for a swing. On one day, she took the Main Street, enjoying the smell of apple and cinnamon from the nearby bakery, and skipping home through the alleyway. Her Mother seemed worried sometimes that she was getting home so late, but never told her to be more punctual. Angel hoped her Mother was feeling sorry for being mean, but she still didn’t forgive her.
It was on a Wednesday that, while walking home through the alleyway, she saw something metal on the ground. She went to investigate, and saw that it was an old key. It was a small key, like the one she lost, but it looked very different. For one thing, it was plain and round, rather then rose-shaped. Secondly, while her key was a cast-iron key, this one was brass, and badly tarnished.
As she was inspecting the key, a voice spoke from behind her, startling her.
“That’s lucky, you know.”
The voice came from an old looking man wearing tattered and ragged looking clothing. His skin was black, like her Mother’s, and he had a long grey beard and hair. She had seen him before, and her Mother had called him a Vagrant, which was a kind of mean word meaning that he didn’t live in a house or an apartment. Even though she got in trouble last time she spoke to a stranger, she asked the old man what he meant.
“Ya know... some folks say it’s lucky to find a coin on the ground, but me? I find coins on the ground all the time, and I’m not all that lucky at all!” He laughed as he said this, and Angel could see that he was missing some teeth. Suddenly she understood why her Mother always made her brush her teeth, and wondered if this old man’s parents ever made him do it, too. She supposed not.
“What’s a coin really mean, anyway? A few extra cents? Bah. Maybe a whole dollar, if yer lucky. Nah, a coin doesn’t really mean nothin’! But a key, on the other hand... a key has meaning. Symbology. Every key opens a lock. Might not be the lock you need, but the meanin’s still there.
Locks keep things in, and keys... well, they let those things back out. So, if you find a key... I call that pretty lucky! More lucky then some old coin. Now you just need to figure out what that key unlocks!”
Angle didn’t really understand why, but suddenly she was very excited. She gave the old man the dollar-twenty-five she was supposed to spend on chocolate milk at lunch time, and raced home. When she got into her apartment, her Mother and her brother were fighting, but she didn’t care. Tarnished old key still in her hand, she ran into her bedroom, threw her bag onto her bed, and looked at the cupboard.
The man had asked her what this key would open, and even though she knew this couldn’t possibly work, she tried to put the key in the keyhole.
Angel felt the key thrum in her fingers as the tumblers clicked into place.
Special thanks to:
Nathan Traveler
Gyrofest96
Inoeitall
For moral support, as well as some editing from Gyrofest96. Without you guys, this chapter would have been very hard to write ;)