Jenny found the egg in the wood. It was the colour of winter rain. She warmed it with her hands. It felt sea smooth. She followed sparrow flit and blackbird dart and showed it to all the birds. She tapped her nails on trunks to call woodpeckers. She tried to match the egg to nest shadows. It didn’t fit.
She took the egg home and tried to find it in pictures of eggs in books. When she couldn’t see it, she tore the pages out and made them into a nest. She put the egg in it. She curled round the egg and whispered all the names she knew of birds. When she got to the end she started again.
One day, the egg started to creak. She hurried the nest outside to show the birds. The egg cracked and shook and hatched into a grand castle. Jenny stared at the turrets and flags. She crossed the moat bridge and peered in the windows. Then she moved in.
Year passed. Jenny lived in the stone halls and towers. One morning, as she gathered lavender in the wood, the castle grew wings. Jenny watched the castle soar past the bird flocks. She saw it glide into the clouds. She climbed into the treetops to get closer to the sky. She is still watching the skies for her castle.
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Rebecca Harrison sneezes like Donald Duck and can be summoned by a cake signal in the sky. Her best friend is a dog who can count. She’s been nominated for Best of the Net, and was a finalist in the first Wyvern Lit flash fiction contest. Her stories can also be read at Mount Island, Maudlin House, Luna Station Quarterly, and elsewhere.