Margins Magazine - Volume 4 Issue 4

VOL. IV | ISSUE IV
MARGINS
The Girl With The Red Balloon.
by Maisha Maimunah
Visual Credits: Eric Ward
Once upon a time, in a tiny little sketchbook, there lived a girl. Unlike princesses
in fairy tales, she had no defining features of long hair or big eyes. She was just an
ordinary girl living in a vibrant world with butterflies and rainbows.
Until she fell down the dark rabbit hole where the pages were white, and the ink
were black. It was explicit and bland. The answers were yes or no; there was no grey
area let alone crayons of colours. She tried so hard to fit in, but the pages did not let
her stay. She sometimes bled colours, something the world she lived in, was afraid
of. One day, after shifting from one page to another she came across a red balloon.
When she touched its string, her colours disappeared. She began carrying it around.
The balloons absorbed her colours, and she began to fit in. She could now finally fit
in. She had friends and the pages didn’t drive her out.
As time passed, the balloon got heavier with colours. Everything was well until a
storm of erasers came and wiped away all the ink. She was all alone again….
The owner of the sketchbook did not like the heavy balloon, so she erased that as
well. The colours inside dripped onto the empty page, creating vibrant rivers. Her
world was bright again. With her balloon gone, she realised she had all the colours
needed to create her own little world. She always had it; but it took a storm and a
blank page for her to realise it.
72
73
Visual Credits: William Farlow