La Vie En Rose (Deleted stories)

Opening her eyes from rose coloured dreams, Rose rose from her bed and stretched her arms feeling the warm rose coloured sun against her face as it streamed in through a rose coloured window from the rose coloured world beyond.

“Rose, Honey”, said her Mother, “It’s quarter past seven, come down and get your breakfast”.

It was Saturday, no School today and she could go over and see her friend Petunia and
go swimming in the deep rose coloured swimming baths and submerge herself in rose coloured water.

Outside she could hear birds struggling to be heard above the sound of lawn mower engines
and then her mother calling again.

Putting on her rose coloured dressing gown and rose coloured bunny slippers she made her way down to breakfast. Rose coloured ham and eggs and a glass of rose coloured fruit juice to wash it down.

After breakfast she got washed and dressed; putting on a matching rose coloured top and jeans
with rose coloured sneakers before heading out into the rose coloured Summer day; passing by her dad on the way who was polishing the bonnet of his rose coloured car so that it gleamed to perfection.

But there was something quite strange about the sky as she looked up at it; something not quite rosey about it. Something absolutely weird.

And then she realized what it was. There was a crack in the lense of her glasses and something else was coming through; not the colour rose but something else; almost like; no exactly like.. a different
colour.

Rose screamed in terror at the strange colour.

“What is it honey?”, said her father, turning towards her and looking concerned, “What happened?”.

“Daddy!”, she yelled, weeping rose coloured tears, “There’s something wrong with the sky”.

The rose coloured whites of her father’s eyes seemed to widen behind the rose coloured lenses of his glasses as he rushed over to shield his daughters eyes.

“Don’t worry, honey”, he said, consoling her, “I’ll take you straight to the optometrists and he’ll make everything rosey again”.

Then her father got some rose coloured tape out of his rose coloured tool box and taped over the oddly coloured crack in her lense and then she got into the car and he drove her to the optometrists
at the end of Pinkerton street.

But, after they’d got out of the car and were heading towards the revolving, rose coloured glass door of the rose brick building, Rose noticed something growing nearby; pushing its way up through a crack in the rose coloured pavement.
“Wait dad”, she said to her father, rushing over to where the dandelion was growing and plucking it from the rose coloured asphalt.

“Rose! Forget about that, honey”, said her father, annoyed and, for some reason, a little bit frightened, “This is more important”.

But Rose couldn’t be dissuaded. As long as she could remember, all flowers had been the same colour but she wanted to know what colour a dandelion really was and, pinching hold of the edge of the rose coloured tape that was taping up her glasses, she slowly peeled it back.

Then, all at once, an indescribable, beautiful glow struck the lense of her left eye; a strange new colour like the way the sun felt against her skin or like the ringing of a bell.

Then she wept again but this time it was with happiness and, because she couldn’t take off the glasses that were locked permanently around her head, she tried to stick her finger inside the crack
and break away the rest of the lense and though she cut her fingers and saw rose coloured blood
ooze from her fingertips, the pain didn’t matter as much as her burning desire to see the world as it truly was.

Her father looked horrified and rushing towards her, he tried to restrain her but it was too late.
She’d already managed to break away the lense and expose her left eye to all the fabulous; incredible; magnificent, beautiful colours of a Summer day.

“You should see it daddy!”, she said, smiling and turning her head left and right, struggling to see just as much as she could, “Its…”.

She was lost for words but then, looking up at her father, all she could see was him shaking; his face full of bewilderment and anger and she realized that he couldn’t take off the glasses ever. He’d had them on for far too long.