The Golden Compass "Daemon Dialogue"

“Ugh. This isn’t working!”

I threw the purple tank top onto the discard pile, which had been steadily growing larger for the past ten minuets.

“There has to be something that goes with what I’m wearing!”

I looked in the mirror. The striped purple-and-black tights definitely went with the black-and-gray striped skirt. But what to wear on top?

“How about that grey camisole?” Philligan sprang off my bed where he’d been lying as a cat, and transformed into a sleek red fox before he hit the ground. “You can wear your little blue jacket on top of it.”

“Philli, you’re a genius!”

I dug around in my draws for a few moments (not that there was much to dig through; I had already eliminated half my clothes), then exclaimed in delight.

“You’re right, this’ll look great!”

I quickly slipped on the camisole, then put the light blue jacket on on top. I examined myself in the mirror.

“Ok, good enough,” I compromised. “Finishing touch, lavender bandana. Make-up?”

“Nah, you look good.” Philligan took a giant leap and sprang onto my shoulder.

I frowned.

“Your not going to be a fox for the ceremony, are you?”

“Why not?” came the reply.

“Your too red. Can’t you be something that goes more with my color scheme?”

“I like being a fox! I’m small and quick. Besides, it’s getting harder for me too change now a days.”

“But I’m only twelve. Your not supposed to settle yet! Twelve is really early.”

“That’s never stopped you before.” He smiled. So did I. Or rather, I grinned mischievously. “Hah,” he smirked.

“Oh, hah yourself!”

“That’s exactly what I’m doing.” His smile widened.

“Anna, let’s get going, Eva’s here!”

“Coming mom!”

I headed out of the door to room, flicking off the lights as I did so. Then I stopped, turned, and flicked the lights back on.

“Maybe I’ll put on a red necklace,” I mused.

“What for?”

“To balance out your redness. Now where’s that red choker I made?”

“We’re going to be late.”

“Here it is. Let’s go.”

I walk out of my room once more, Philligan on my shoulder.

“Anna! Now! Oh there you are. Let’s go!”

Philligan jumped of my shoulder, touching snouts with my mom’s daemon, a sleek gray rat name Chink.

“Not now, Chink. Let’s go!” She scooped Chink up and placed him on her shoulder. Philligan leapt onto mine.

The doorbell rang.

“Out! Now!”

“I’m going, I’m going!

“Gosh,” I said to Philligan as I ran down the stairs. “I’ve never seen her so anxious to get out the house. Usually it’s dad who throws a fit.”

“It’s a big day,” he said flatly.

Outside, our car was double-parked clumsily across the street. Eva’s daemon, a black and white cat named Figaro, sat on her lap. She looked up, saw me, and gave me a wave. I smiled, and waved back.

I carelessly look both ways, then crossed to our black Honda Civic.

“Scoot over,” I said to Eva, then filled the very recently vacated seat.

“Where is she?” my dad exclaimed angrily. He sighed to the tawny owl sitting on his shoulder. “She’s always the last out.”

“There she is!”

“Finally.”

I rolled down my window. “What did you forget this time?” I grinned.

My mom gave me a look, then got into the car.

“You have the poem?” Eva asked.

“Yah.”

“All set?” my mom checked.

I caught my dad share a look with Sky, his daemon. But he just said “Yep.”

“Then drive.”

* * *

Fifteen impatient minutes later, we pulled into my schools parking lot. The Awards Ceremony was supposed to take place in Monterey, but as Brandeis had the most winners in the state, they decided to have it here.

I was out the door even before the car had come to a complete stop.

“Let’s go!” I hopped from foot to foot impatiently.

My friend Pavla’s car pulled into the lot. She had gotten an honorable mention for her poem. She was just as exited as I was, if that’s possible.

I rushed over to their car jut as Pavla was getting out.

“I’m so excited!” I squealed.

“I know,” she said in a thoroughly Pavla way. “Me too!”

“Come on.” I ran back to my car, Pavla in tow. “Come on I said to Eva, who had just gotten out of the car. Then I took off running to the building. I paused outside the front entrance to give everyone a chance to catch up.

“You’ve got your poem?” my mom asked, worrywart that she is.

“Yes,” I said. “Let’s go, I think it’s in the Library.”

We walked through the propped-open door. Sure enough, a large blue-and-white sign directed us to go to the library, which was directly upstairs. I took a deep breath and headed up the stairs, family and friends trailing behind me.

We reached the top of the stairs. An aroma of chocolate greeted us. And so did our teacher, Ms. Shulman. She gave Pavla and me hugs, and shook the hands of Eva and our parents.

I peered behind her, curious to find the source of the chocolaty smell. There were two tables, set up across from the library, filled with sweets and cookies. I guessed those were for the post-ceremony celebration, seeing as no one was eating anything. Instead, they were all crowding into the library.

“Let’s get some seats,” my mom said. We headed through the door. Inside, there were about sixty or seventy seats, all facing a lone microphone. On the left of the mic, semi-obscuring the door, was a table with about ten to fifteen books on it. All of a sudden, I felt something fluttering about in my stomach. I looked over at Pavla, wondering if she was feeling nervously nauseous too.

“Ayelet, Pavla!” Rebecca, whose sister Natalie had also won, ran over to us. “Come sit by us!” She led us back to her row. Then she rolled her eyes. “That was real smart of me, inviting you to sit where there’re no seats. I guess you could sit on my lap, but…”

“It’s ok,” I laughed. “We’ll sit in the row across from you.”

There ended up not being enough room for all of us, so me, Pavla, and Eva sat in that row, and our parents sat behind us.

We jabbered about absolutely nothing for about five minutes, just to keep from thinking about reading our poetry in front of a bunch of people we didn’t even know. Then a woman got up in front of the microphone. She was tall, with long, straight brown hair. I immediately fell silent.

She read of a list of names, and then made a small speech of how cool we all were. I didn’t really listen. The feeling in my stomach was growing. I only perked up when Natalie’s name was called.

“Natalie Jacobson, first place in the state for her age division, third and fourth grade. Give it up for Natalie with her poem, In My Dad’s Arms!”

We all cheered. I glanced over at Natalie. She looked really nervous. I caught her eye and winked, giving her an encouraging smile. She smiled back, then took a deep breath and headed up to the microphone. As she read, I could tell why they’d picked her poem. It was a bit rough around the edges, but the emotion was all there.

She finished and we all cheered. She smiled nervously, and her daemon, Sabra, transformed from a mouse to a cat. She hurried of the stage, and someone had to remind her to get a book from the table, and to collect her certificate. Next was a boy of about thirteen, his daemon a crow. He finished, and the applause died down. Then I realized it was my turn.

“Ayelet Schrek, third place in the state for her age division, fifth and sixth grade. Give it up for Ayelet with her poem, Me and My Books!”

She pronounced my name wrong, but then again you can’t have everything in life. I stood up, smiling my best smile.

“Me and My Books.” I paused a moment then continued on. I finished the poem, and everyone applauded. I smiled. No, I glowed with pride. Then I realized that it wasn’t pride, and that Philli was actually the one glowing. He glowed brighter and brighter. Everyone else shunned the light, looking away or shielding their eyes. But the light didn’t blind me. It was warm and inviting, like the arms of a loving parent after a really bad day. The light kept expanding, until it completely surrounded me.

“Philli?” I whispered.

“Yes?” he grunted. It sounded like he was in pain.

All of a sudden, a wave of agony rippled through my body. I fell to my knees. The pain intensified, then vanished, as did the light.

“Philli,” I whispered. “Change.”

“I-I can’t.” His pointed features were filled with awe.

“I know.”

Someone started clapping. I looked up sharply. I had totally forgotten that there was anyone else in the room. I rose unsurely to my feet. More hands joined into the applause.

The lady walked over to me, and addressed the audience.

“We’re going to have to be careful with this one. She looks as sly as a fox.”

Philligan and I turned to each other and shared a smile.

“Good thing the mall’s so close to school.” I said.

“Why?”

I sighed. Philli just couldn’t care less about fashion.

“Because,” I explained, “I need to get some new clothes.”

“We went shopping last week!”

“I know, but you’re a very inconvenient color for me. Red just doesn’t fit into my color scheme. Now, if foxes could be purple…”