Michelina Bellsong

This new story, and it might not really take off, is about a "normal" person named Michelina Bellsong. Uh huh, that's her name.

Some people go to the sunny tip of Florida to treat their depressions. I was among those people, and my first summer was not off to a great start.
BOOM!!!
The sudden thunder rattles my glass windows of the cheap, 1-bedroom 1-bath house that I'd more or less bought upon my arrival. Even though I'd only been here a couple of weeks, I knew the weather patterns. It didn't help anything that I'd come her to get rid of; my depression, my sarcastic attitude, or my irritation. I'd been anticipating long strolls down the beach, filling my lungs with fresh ocean air and listening to the sea gulls call to each other, maybe even taking a swim every evening, not gardening in the rain.
"Hey," a voice called.
I turned to see a girl with golden hair and blue eyes coming towards me. "Your lawn furniture sucks," she informed me.
"Thanks. Where do you live, girl?"
The kid pointed to the house alongside mine. "You're my new neighbor. We've been vacationing in Maine for the past two weeks."
"Hey, I'm Micky." I stuck my hand out.
The girl shook it and frowned. "Micky's a name for a boy or a mouse. You believe in life after death?"
I frowned, too. "Frankly, I'm not sure if I believe in life before death."
The girl snapped her fingers. "I knew you were suicidal. Not only did you name yourself after a mouse-"
"I didn't name myself after a mouse."
"Oh yeah?" The girl raised her eyebrows. "Micky isn't a girl's name. Your name's probably Michele. Most woman your age are Michele or Heather or Courtney."
"My age?"
"No offense intended. So what is your name?"
I sighed. "It's Michelina."
The girl wrinkled her nose. "Too precious."
"Michelina Bellsong."
"No wonder you're suicidal. And beautiful. If someone's got a beautiful name, they get a beautiful body. I'm Lilani Anderson. Can you think of more boring name?"
"Lilani's not boring," I objected. "And I'm not suicidal."
"Anderson is boring. It's one of the most common last names, up there with Brown and Miller and Green. Half of me is kind of pretty-"
"You're very pretty," I assured her. It was true. With her golden hair and bright blue eyes, the girl had a Hollywood model look.
"Half of me," Lilani insisted, "means my appearance. The rest of me, like my fashion sense and train of thought, is very, very boring. It's something that can fade in a crowd of people. Something that's nice in the background but not up close."
"Your train of thought isn't boring." And, as if to emphasize what I'd said, a beam of light shout through the clouds and landed right on her.
"Uh huh. And then look at you. You've got a great body and a great face, other than that my-life-is-so-depressing look in your eyes. You have depression that you can't explain. The treatments don't work. You came to Florida because you were hoping that the bright sunshine and ocean would help, but instead you got this." Lilani gestured towards the sopping wet ground.
I was stunned. "Girl, you are an amazing piece of work."
"Thanks. I must be right. I can sort of tell that about people. It shows in their eyes. So, back to my earlier point, are you suicidal?"
I sighed again. "Kid, why don' you just tell me what I am and save us time?"
Lilani beamed. She had perfect, straight white teeth. "You're not suicidal. That's good. I like you, as a neighbor, I mean. Don't move back to the mountains."
"How did you know that I moved from the mountains?"
"You keep staring at that little hill over there real wistfully. And you've got a GO APP STATE shirt on."
I'd forgotten about my shirt. Maybe moving away from Boone, NC had been a bad idea, but I hadn't known that Florida would be such a rainy, depressing place.
"What's that?" Lilani asked, pointing to the bush at my feet.
"A rosebush."
"No, really."
"Really. It's a rosebush."
"No roses. Barely any leaves."
"Lots of thorns," I pointed out.
"I bet that it pulls up its roots late at night and walks around the neighborhood, eating stray cats."
"Lock your doors," I laughed.
Lilani laughed, too. It was the first time I'd laughed in a long time.