Saving Melanie
SAVING MELANIE
By Elizabeth Donald
Melanie was the most talented of the Dreamers, until she was lost in the space between the stars.
I like to stand on the tallest peak when I finish making a new world. It's the best view.
I stood on the mountaintop, gazing down at the swirling clouds from the wrong side. Through slight breaks in their sky patterns, I saw a glimpse of the faraway sea. I made the oceans a lovely iridescent shade of lavender this time, thanks to a funky plankton I made up. I was tired of the same old blue and green.
It wasn't like I was really breaking the rules. The fish had to have something to eat, right?
In the shifting lavender waters far, far below, I could sense a leviathan moving toward its first kill, a school of smaller fish with tentlike spiny projections along the dorsal edge.
The leviathan was a smooth dark gray, not unlike a shark, but with more teeth. And about sixty feet long.
