{"id":3326,"date":"2022-12-12T12:06:30","date_gmt":"2022-12-12T17:06:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/?p=3326"},"modified":"2022-12-13T09:11:37","modified_gmt":"2022-12-13T14:11:37","slug":"do-you-believe-in-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/?p=3326","title":{"rendered":"Do you believe in magic?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>Do you believe in magic?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/crystal-ball.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/crystal-ball-240x300.jpeg\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-3327\" alt=\"\" width=\"126\" height=\"158\" srcset=\"http:\/\/hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/crystal-ball-240x300.jpeg 240w, http:\/\/hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/crystal-ball.jpeg 736w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 126px) 100vw, 126px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Helena held the orb in her hand. It was just a piece of crystal that she found on her walk in the woods. Not something that one expects to find. It was perfectly round and clear. She could see her own reflection in it. The reflection of a sad and lonely girl out on her own.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cI wonder what this is?\u201d she said out loud. But there was no one there to hear her. There never was.&nbsp; \u201cIt certainly doesn\u2019t look natural. It\u2019s too perfect.\u201d&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was then that she heard a woman\u2019s voice, \u201cIf you believe, then it is real.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Helena turned around to look. There was no one there to see. Just the branches of the trees swaying softly in the wind. It was getting late, and darkness was beginning to fall.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Again the voice spoke, \u201cIf you believe, then it is real.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As if on cue, music filled her head; it was the opening lines of an old 1965 song by the Lovin&#8217; Spoonful \u2013<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&nbsp;<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><em>Do you believe in magic in a young girl&#8217;s heart<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><em>How the music can free her whenever it starts?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWhat the\u2026\u201d This didn\u2019t make any sense at all. The orb, the voice, the music\u2026<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><i>MAGIC<\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">She thought about it for a while, very confused. She thought to herself, \u201cDo I believe in magic?\u201d Helena had never thought about it before. She\u2019d seen magicians doing tricks, but that\u2019s just what they were\u2026tricks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But then the caring voice spoke up again, \u201cIf you believe, then it is real.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWHAT\u2019S REAL!\u201d she screamed but got no answer.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">She wanted to turn away from the orb in her hand, but instead, she felt compelled to look at the crystal orb again; only this time, it was no longer clear. Within the globe, she saw herself, yes, but it was not the she who was standing there in the woods. The image in that globe was her at another time and another place. It was Helena sitting beside the deathbed of her mother. She remembered that scene. She wanted to shut her eyes. The memory was too painful. She had lost the only person who did believe in her, the only person who gave her strength, the only person who advised Helena on who she should be. The one person who left her when Helena was so young.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the image, her mother spoke. The words that her mother spoke, Helena had forgotten, but now they were being refreshed in her mind.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cYou are special,\u201d her mother said. \u201cYou are inheriting a great gift from me as I pass on.\u201d&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This time Helena did close her eyes. She did not need the image in the crystal to tell her the words that she now remembered. \u201cYou have power that comes from ancient lore. With this power, you can do anything you want. You can be anyone you want to be. You just have to believe in yourself.\u201d And with that last breath, Helena\u2019s mother passed on.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">How could Helena have forgotten? How could she forget what her mother had gifted her? In Helena\u2019s anger at her mother for leaving her like that, she had heard words with no meaning.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But this globe, that song, that voice, which she now recognized, was no trick. Music and warmth filled her heart and her head. It had to be magic, which, in fact, it was. And yes, Helena did believe in magic. And said so, \u201cI BELIEVE! I BELIEVE!\u201d&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And that belief proved itself, for the crystal globe disappeared from her hand, and in its place, there was a special aura that surrounded Helena for the rest of her days. And the magic within her, and the magic she used, I would like to think, made this world a better place.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"gtx-trans\" style=\"position: absolute; left: 348px; top: 48px\">\n<div class=\"gtx-trans-icon\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do you believe in magic? Helena held the orb in her hand. It was just a piece of crystal that she found on her walk in the woods. Not something that one expects to find. It was perfectly round and &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/?p=3326\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[415,177],"class_list":["post-3326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-original-stories","category-story-writing","tag-magic","tag-writing-prompt"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3326"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3331,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3326\/revisions\/3331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}