What Happens When You Are a Mockingbird

Oana-Maria Moldovan

Much could have been said about the star-shaped small town, which was destined for both greatness and failure in equal measure. But one thing was true: it was full of rich kids with no real friends or dreams or opinions. Or was it?

In Matereo, the so-called town of Angels, there was no greater disgrace than not being invited to the latest party. After all, when you are young, rebellious and have your daddy’s credit card, there is nothing more to do than getting shitfaced at a random person’s house. The latest party? Carla Johnsons’ sweet sixteen. Where did she have her party? On the hill where it was told, from generation to generation, angels came to life. 

“Ashton, darling, you think I’m beautiful, don’t you?” the girl asked the tall boy who sat next to her on a bench, hiding behind a garbage can on the tallest hill in their small town.

“Should you be beautiful? And I don’t know, Maddie,” he replied, his eyes still on that stupid phone of his.

“You’ve become like them,” the girl whispered, tilting her head towards the restaurant on the hill where the latest “cool” party was being held. Ah, to be young and spend your parents’ money on a stupid sweet sixteen. “That screen is getting you so hooked.” He turned his phone off and threw it on the ground.

“Come on, give me a cigarette if you want to know how beautiful you are.” And that’s what Maddie did. She gave him one of her cheap cigarettes. “You smoke these cigarettes with me, but what kind are you smoking with those rich kids up there in the restaurant?” This kid was an asshole and he knew it. Like she would let herself be seen smoking some cheap cigarettes when she was drinking expensive champagne.

“You say it like you are not rich yourself.” He never liked when people reminded him of that fact. “Ashton, darling, tell me, am I beautiful?” She loved to touch the last nerve left in that head of his.

“The question is, do you want to be beautiful or do you want people to remember you?” Ashton asked her as he lit his cigarette.

“I’m Madeleine McCannan,” the teenage girl said simply, as if that statement answered his stupid question.

“You are now, but in ten years will you still be your parents’ name?”

“In ten years you and I probably won’t even be in this small town anymore. We’ll go to some big city where no one truly knows who we used to be, so stop saying stupid things.” Maddie laughed stupidly because, after all, what else could the young girl do? It wasn’t as if she could be optimistic and hope that at least one of them would ever grasp some better path than becoming their parents.

“Tell me, Madeleine, do you think I’d be ruined if I wanted to not become like them?” asked Ashton, tilting his head towards the restaurant. That really took Maddie by surprise. She knew that he was serious, using her full name. He never did that, not once in the last ten years they knew each other. 

“Boys like you never change, not really, not in movies, not in books, not even in real life. I’ve never once in my sixteen years ever met anyone from this town who became different from their parents. We are who we are; we are all doomed to repeat our parents’ mistakes.”

“So, what, you think no one ever changes? That’s not very realistic of you.” The boy started laughing at her. 

“They do change, but not here. We were all born to represent our family’s legacy.” Ashton started thinking profoundly at the girl’s words. It is a funny thing really, because, between the two of them, she was the childish one, but that is the thing, he usually didn’t listen to what she had in mind. 

“To give my soul on a platter to a twisted and abrupt creature is the only sin I can forgive myself,” he said, like was talking about someone else, a lover, not about himself. “Your very soul is like a church where you are sinking into a cult of dreaming from which you cannot escape.” Maddie finally understood what was all about his previous rambling. “To respond to your actual question, you are beautiful with the nimbus and the dark circles, the warm eyes and the wicked smile. My God and all the others are my witnesses when I declare that you are too beautiful not to get lost in this town, or even in a big city. As beautiful as you are, you will become nothing more or less than a trophy wife, my dear.”

The young girl wanted to say something more, but what else was there to say to this kind of an answer? Should she be flattered or should she start crying for her inevitable future life? Ashton decided there should be a stop to this discussion. “Who knows what will happen?” he said, leaving the girl in her aberrant thoughts where she was trying to create an image of a life different from what she had known. 

Some people write books on how to kill a songbird. Maddie wanted to know what happens to your spirit when you are this kind of creature. Riding through the dark clouds of the town where anything and everything was possible.

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Oana-Maria is a young creative, aspiring journalist and writer from Romania, who wants to find beauty in the most unexpected places. She is an avid human rights social activist who thinks that we have to make the word a better place for the younger generations.