The Box

They told her it would never work. They told her she was chasing phantom dreams. Or are dreams by definition phantom? They said she was working herself up to failure. They all said it, everyone around her.  Standing there, mocking, jeering, waiting for her to fail. Everywhere she looked she saw it. Faces full of disdain. Sometimes there was pity. The kind you feel on seeing a wild beast sitting depressingly still in one corner of a dank and dark zoo cage. Trapped.

She was trapped too. They had trapped her. Everywhere she looked there were walls. Chains. There was no way of escaping. This was her punishment. They were making sure she understood the consequences of her actions. She had to. That was what they were here for. To make sure.

They had tried talking first. Then they stopped. It made her feel better - when they stopped, not the talking. She had tried talking back. But that was when they said it would never work. So then she stopped. It made them feel better too.

She was a dreamer. As a child she would talk of growing up. She would talk of seeing the world. She would plan all the changes she would bring about. She tried talking to them. They told her it would never work even then. So she spoke to her walls. All lined up with dolls and stuffed animals. That was all she ever did. Talk.

Then the talking stopped. Now there was silence. She only looked. They told her to stop it. It seemed unnatural. It scared them. So she stopped. That made them feel better. This quiet, non-looker. She was learning. Understanding. Growing up.

She had once planned to bring about change. They thought otherwise. She had once planned on seeing the world. They had trapped her.

Now all she had was her mind. They thought she was losing it. But she knew differently. She knew how safe she was there. Where she brought about all the changes she wanted. Where she could talk to her heart’s content. To anyone. Where, she went wherever she wanted to. No one asked her to stop. No one said it would never work. She was happy with her mind. She did not know it was a trap.

She had tried to live in a circle. They had forced her back into their box.