The Contest Winner

“But, Mom, I don’t want to move. Why can’t we stay here?” Danielle asked. Her nose was red and puffy; huge crocodile tears were threatening to spill out at any moment.

Ginger looked down at her daughter with much empathy. She felt much the same about the move, herself. But there was nothing she could do about it. Rick’s job had transferred him. If he didn’t go, he would most likely get passed up come time for promotions.

Ginger sighed deeply and rubbed Danielle’s head. “You know why, honey. We have to go where Daddy’s job wants him to go.”

“But what about all my friends? And Bobby? Mom – I like Bobby, and he likes me, too,” the youth pleaded.

“Danielle, you’re only fourteen years old. You’ll meet another boy, and you’ll make new friends, too. You’ll see. It won’t be as bad as you think.” Ginger pulled a dust-covered box down from the top shelf of the closet she was packing.

“Honey, can you get mommy another box from the hallway, please?”

“Oh, all right!” Danielle said, sorrowfully. She felt defeated.

She returned a moment later with an empty box in hand and found her mother rummaging through the one she had just removed from the shelf.

“What’s in there, Mom?”

“Just some old memories, that’s all. Did I ever tell you that I was on a TV show once? God, it’s been at least fifteen years or so.”

“Really, Mom? You were on TV? What show?” Danielle asked, her eyes wide with excitement.

“It was called Xena: Warrior Princess. I played a very small part of a princess. Although I haven’t thought about it in a very long time, it was an experience I’ll never forget,” Ginger said as she gazed at her script copy in remembrance. It was the only original copy of that episode’s script in existence. All the others had been destroyed long ago, but this copy had survived. It was the copy that Ruby had given her when she first arrived in New Zealand for the filming.

“I wanna see it. Is that a tape of it?” Danielle pointed at an unlabeled VCR tape still sitting in the box with some other junk.

Ginger shook free from her thoughts and looked at the tape. “It could very well be. Here, pop it into the VCR and well soon find out.”

She handed the tape to her daughter, who immediately went to the player and loaded the tape. Sure enough, it was a copy of the episode that Ginger had appeared in.

Danielle was sucked into the story from the very beginning. Like her mother, she too had a love for fantasy stories and movies.

Ginger sighed and thought to herself, ‘She’ll be occupied for the next hour, anyway.’ She continued to pack the closet.

About ten minutes later, she heard her daughter call for her.

“Mom, come here, quick!”

“What is it, sweetheart?”

“Who is that?” She pointed to the TV screen.

Ginger looked at the television and saw a scene unfolding with Ares and Xena.

“That’s Xena.”

“Not her. Him?”

She laughed. “That’s Ares. Or I should say, Kevin Smith. He was such a dear. They all were.”
“Oh, Mother! He’s very handsome.” Danielle sighed, her eyes never leaving the TV screen.
“He’s also much older now, Danielle. Much too old for you. I believe he’s in his 50’s now.”
“Look, Mom, there you are. Wow, you look so pretty,” she said with awe.

Ginger blushed. “Ah, the wonde mag magic of makeup!” Then she saw herself and Kevin together on screen and it made her uncomfortable. It reminded her way too much of everything that had happened on that trip. And of Ares. A cold shiver ran over her skin. She was definitely getting rid of this stuff. She didn’t know why she had kept it in the first place.

“I’ve got to get back to packing. When that’s over, you need to start packing your own room, okay?”
“Okay,” Danielle responded, only half paying attention to her mother. She was too busy watching Ares to really listen.

As Ginger continued her task, she noticed the script out of the corner of her eye, stopped and stared at it. She felt compelled to read it. It called to her silently, begging to be read.
‘Just touch the pages, sunshine.’

She gasped. Quickly, she picked it up and tossed it into the box of garbage and then returned to packing, once again.

When the tape was over, Danielle offered it back to her mother.

“Just throw it in that box over there,” she told her.

“Isn’t that the trash?”

“Yeah.”

“You mean you’re not going to keep this. Why not?”

“It’s just another piece of junk that’s taking up space. I don’t need it.”

“Can I keep it?”

“NO!” Ginger snapped. “Please, Danielle, just throw it in the box.”

Danielle did as she was told and left the room with a hung head.


********************

Later that evening, Danielle went outside to throw away a bunch of stuff that she had cleaned out of her room. She lifted the lid off of the trashcan and spotted her mother’s tape. As she reached in to retrieve it, she also noticed something else. It was the script to the very same episode. She grabbed both items, hiding them under her shirt; she snuck them back inside and into her room.
After everyone was asleep that evening, she got out of bed and closed the door to her room. She went to her dresser and got out the script and a flashlight. Then she got back into bed and turned on the flashlight. She hadn’t stopped thinking about that God of War guy since she saw him earlier.

She began to read, wishing that she was a real princess and that the God was really there. She softly hummed to herself. She didn’t know where she had heard the song, but for some reason she couldn’t get it out of her head.

“You are my sunshine, my only sunshine…”