Short Story Curiosity Didn’t Kill the Cat

[deadstar4188.livejournal.com]

Hi every one this is a short story that i wrote a while ago. It's complete and i would like to know what you all thought.

 

Curiosity Didn’t Kill the Cat 

 

Standing by the gate, I remember a day when I was five; I was with my mother Eloise. We were going to the fair. It was common for my mother and I to go out just by our selves, leaving my father at home doing odds and ends. I remember standing in the massive crowd of people, holding tightly on to my mothers’ hand. I looked up and saw her beautiful face smiling back at me. She picked me up and placed me on her hip. I could see the crowd ahead of us. They looked as though they where a living, breathing ocean that seemed never ending. We waded through the crowd to one of the stalls. I was looking at the large stuffed animals. When, in the corner of my eye, I saw my mother pull something out of her bag. Curious, I looked and saw it was a dark wooden box. My mother opened it, and lifted out a crystal bottle, that had a metal top that reminded me of an acorn. She tapped the tip and the top blossomed opened. I remember seeing bright lights, which looked like liquid go into the bottle. So much of the bright liquid went into the small bottle I wondered how it all fitted. Then as it had opened, the lid closed and I stood there in aw looking at my mother. She placed the bottle back into the box then into her bag. She saw me looking at her with my mouth wide opened.

     “What’s the matter Abigail?”

     “Mummy, I just saw all those lights go into the bottle, what were they?”

     “I’ll tell you the story when we get home, but for now how about some fairy floss?”

     True to my mothers words, she told me the story when I was about to go to bed. She sat on the side of my bed and as she tucked me in for the night, she told me what I had seen.

     “Those lights that you saw go into the bottle. Was the knowledge of all the people at the fair.”

     “Mummy, I’m not a little kid anymore, you don’t have to tell stories that aren’t true.”

     “You didn’t let me finish Abby. Long ago when the world was still new, a goddess came down from the heavens, and bestowed the crystal bottle to a woman who had just given birth. She told the woman that the bottle kept all the knowledge of time. The woman asked why the beautiful goddess had chosen her. The deity told her that, she had been watching her from when she was born and that out of all of the people on the world she was the most trustworthy and fair. The woman understood the gift that the deity had given her. As the mother looked at the crystal bottle, she touched the lid and all the knowledge that was in side came out and disappeared into the air. The goddess was understanding and told the woman, that since the knowledge has escaped, she and her decedents would have to recollect it. The goddess also said that knowledge comes not from one source, but many different places, all as important as the rest.  They woman agreed but asked one last question.

     “What is your name goddess?”

    “I am known as curiosity.’ Then the goddess disappeared.”

     “For the rest of her life, the mother would go to populated places to collect the knowledge that she had released. As time went on and she grew old and frail, as she laid on her death bed, her daughter who was there when the goddess shown her self, sat and waited with her. The woman could feel deaths touch and handed the bottle to her daughter.”

     “Death has come my darling; I give you the bottle for you to continue my duty.”

     “Then the woman died, and her daughter continued her mothers’ task. She collected as much as she could and when death came for her, she past on the bottle to her daughter, and so on. Then when grandma was dieing she handed me the bottle, and one day I will give it to you. Our blood line has given the world all of its knowledge; it’s our duty, our purpose in life to copy that knowledge and to re-fill the bottle. Abby many people spend their lives trying to find what their purpose is. This is ours.”

     For a long time I thought my mother was lying to me, trying to cover the true reason for the lights and the bottle. But as we both grew older, I started to realise that she had told me the truth from the beginning. The day she laid in the hospital bed minutes away from dieing, she handed me the box with a smile.

     “You’ll have such an adventure, no one will believe you.”

     Then the sound of the heart monitor bought people to her lifeless body. I will always remember my mother as she was the day I saw the lights, her bright smile and smooth face, and she was right about the adventures. My whole life has been an adventure going all over the world with my crystal bottle. Meeting new people, friends, family and even love.

     A loud buzzer rang and screaming children could be heard.

     “Mummy, Mummy!”

     “Hello, Jacqueline! Did you enjoy school today?”

     “Yup, guess what!”

     “What!?”
     “The schools having a fair on the weekend, and their letting year one in for free. Can we go please, mummy!”

     “Hmmm alright, do you think there is going to be a lot of people?”

     “Heaps and heaps.”

     “Heaps and heaps, why didn’t you say so? To the fair we go, we’ll get some fairy floss as well.”