She opened her eyes at 9:00 AM like every day. Nothing has really changed. The bright clarity shining through the glass was usual as always. Her alarm is the old jazz music playing in the background, she’s lying in her little bed with her little pink puffy cute dress, her long black hair spreaded in the small pillows, and those big confused sad eyes, -that are her most remarkable face feature- were curiously staring at the exterior world surrounding her while waking up to reality.
“I wish I could go out and see what's out there” -sighed- “and figure why I am so tiny.”- were her typical thoughts every morning while looking through the thick glass between her and the BIG world. You see, Eko was not common, no, on the contrary, she was extremely unique and weird, not just anyone could find such a “peculiar entertainment’’ that easily, not without digging in a SMALL world or two.
Tiny little humans were the most exotic trend in the BIG world, expensive and almost impossible to find but really, really, ‘a most have if you can afford’ fashion. A few quite wealthy BIG people own one. Of course, Eko did not know any of this, she could barely even remember how and why she got there, all she knew was the round crystal glass that separates the BIG world from hers, only making Eko’s wondering desires grow bigger.
Growing up, she got used to the huge things that often appeared in front of her, enormous faces getting too close , enormous hands getting too close and a giant furniture in a very large space were BIG people always gathered to ask her to do something she did not felt like doing, “TALK!’’ -They often said- “CAN YOU HEAR ME? Alternatively, CAN YOU DO THIS’’?
-which demands she must tried to obey and follow or else she would be punished.
One time, she was not in the mood of doing what the BIG humans wanted her to do and all she could remembered after that particular behavior was fainting of stomach pain. So, staying quiet was not an option for her. Even though she used to be around BIG people, she felt very isolated.
Frequently, in her loneliness, she recreates dance moves from BIG humans, trying to dance by remembering their motions. She actually enjoys the feeling of shaking, wishing that her body could hold it for longer, “only if it wasn't so tiring’’, she complains after moving for hours. Eko day dreamed about being BIG and talk and write and sing with the BIG people, oh! she dreamed so much. At night before going to bed she pictures herself walking in the BIG parlor, greeting everyone around her while dancing near the furnitures.
One weird morning, she woke up earlier than she always did thanks to unknown background noises. She got up from her little bed and got closer to the crystal glass, pushing her face against it to see what the fuzz was about, then, all of a sudden; she started to feel like flying in her transparent ball. She slided inside the spheruled floor and figured she was being moved. - “But why? and where?” - She thought, and it was right there when a BIG human wearing a uniform entered with a mega-squared box to the living room.
After a few minutes of the giant box put into place, Eko felt like she was being moved again to a different space from where she always was, this time, too close to a corner edge, all happening while the BIG humans were bickering about who’s going to watch the big box first.
So, there she was, waiting to see what was this new box, why is causing so much talk and what’s going to do, then the BIG humans were finally ready to “turn the big box on”, she heard a click and the box started talking, she was amazed by the things she saw. “People living inside glass like me?’’, she utterly said. This new gadget was so shocking to Eko whom got so curious, asking, thinking so many things and for her surprise, she started to feel quite entertained too.
Sometimes she did not liked what the big box displayed in its own crystal ball, but regardless of what Eko was watching, what she loved so much is the fact that she could learn from it, she learned than the sky was blue, than people fall in love and kiss, than there are big creatures called animals, than the long green sticks with red on top in the pot near her are called roses, and for a moment she felt outside of her very clear, thick, glass world.
The following night, the BIG humans forgot to turn off the giant box and fell asleep in the big furniture, this created an opportunity for the little human, wishing to know more and more of the unknown, finishing a movie after the other, she found herself amused by one in particular: A dance film, her eyes got so full of magic and curiosity that she really, really wished to become that woman dancing and singing freely.
Little by little she started dancing, she started copying all the movements, all the gestures, following the rhythm and at that very moment she decided what she wanted to be in life, she was now sure of the name of her dreams and sure that she only wanted to do this forever. Therefore, she did, Eko started dancing, and dancing, spinning and acting her life away as if she was in her own BIG movie, she started rotating so fast that she lost control of her body and hit the glass right in the direction were the corner edge was. The glass ball fell and she fell with it, hitting the floor.
She opened her eyes and with the heart in her mouth, the tiny girl was happy she was not dead, all thanks to a very tumid carpet in the house floor. Slowly she realized that the crystal ball was not in the high place where it used to be anymore and assimilating this Eko got so scared that she could not breathe, immediately the search for some crack of air begun. In her heavy breathing state, she found a very little space opening from a corner, ransacking to it with such strength that it broke in seconds. Followed by a deep gasp, between coughings, her heart quickly felt like a horse in desperation. Little did she knew what was about to follow, Eko stood quite for a moment, while her respiration normalized, realizing and saying, ’’I’m free’’.