Then he lifted his head once more
to look at me.
“I shall show you affection so that you may never
forget again,” he whispered. “But, stranger, you
must stay with me if I do. Remember that when you start
dancing you can never stop?”
I had already begun to nod in acquiescence and then I
stopped myself. I shook my head. I couldn't stay. I couldn't remember why.
But I had to go.
“I don't think I can stay," I said sadly. "I know I have to find her now. I need to find her.”
He was amused. “ But you have found me.”
“And I am glad. But you are simple affection
remember? A healing with no hurt or pain, a brevity, a
delight for the moment that cannot go on forever," I replied.
He sighed. “And so I have soothed your past wounds
but cannot be of significance to you?”
“Simple affection is much better than obsessive
love ... somehow I think you have helped me to remember that," I said.
He was looking at me with sad eyes.
"Oh, I will adore you always," I said, "... but love so easily becomes hate ..."
My words trailed off, they made no sense to either of us, "... Kiss me," I ended up saying somehow.
He grinned. “I shall not. For then you shall fall
in love with me and that would be a pity.”
I laughed. “You are joking, of course,” I replied.
“No," he said seriously.
I knew it was time, a time, an end.
I moved away from him at once, regretfully detaching
myself from his arms.
“You must find her," he said regretfully. He snatched up my hands and
kissed them again. “Goodbye, sweet stranger," he said.
I watched him pick a fruit and let him place it in my mouth.
“Don’t forget me," he whispered.
"Never," I couldn't say, as I sucked.
How dull the sweet nectar tasted after his lips. I
chewed the fruit remorsefully as I watched him drift
away.
The mirrors shifted as he disappeared. People were suddenly
dancing around me once more. The music carried on.
The gay laughter made me
blink back tears of self-pity.
I felt so alone now after him, and looked out to the crowd, searching for my waif.
Yet she always came. She was
always there to guide me. I moved in the water and
watched the faces. I searched.
Ah, the hand.
* * * * *
I felt it slip into mine, and the familiar fondness
rushing into me and tugging at my heart so fiercely
that I gave up and let it be warmed completely.
She was such a comfort that I needn’t be afraid anymore.
“Were you certain you would find me?” she asked,
bobbing beside me in the water. I wanted to pick her up and hug
her but somehow that seemed impossible.
“No, but I was certain that you would find me.” My
eyes lit up at last. “ I believe I do remember something now.”
“That’s beautiful!” she cried happily. “You
remember! Do you remember my name?”
Her name illumined my thoughts instantly.
“Yes ...” I began excitedly.
She put her little fingers to my lips. “ Do not say
it. Not yet," she told me. Suddenly she wore a sad expression on
her face. “Alas stranger, it means that it is time for you to
leave.”
I was immediately alarmed at the thought of leaving now.
“But, why? Surely I can stay. I can go back and
fall in love with the prince and …” I started.
She shook her head. “Oh, I’m afraid you can’t.”
“But I want to dance forever!” I cried.
“The music will always be with you,” she said
softly, and then sighed again. “And me? Sometimes I
will be with you, sometimes I will not be. But I will
always find you. Always.”
I opened my mouth to retort but no meaningful words came.
I knew she was right. She was always right.
“I know," I said at last, despondently.
“Oh, do not look so sad. You shall make me cry,” she
said, tears glistening in her eyes. “ Please smile for me.”
I swallowed hard and managed a smile.
She squeezed my hand. "It is time.”
The mirrors were shifting again. The music was changing.
“Are you coming with me?” I asked apprehensively as I glanced around.
The hall was disappearing.
Wind flowed where water had, rushing, swirling between us.
“Ah, but you have your own light now,” she said,
grinning, reminding me of him now.
Oh, she was disappearing! “Your light will
guide the way," her voice said, coming in echoes.
I felt panic. And I suddenly felt the music completely again.
It surged forward to fill me as my heart beat pounded in my ears.
I was drifting away.
Behind me there was a rainbow, and it led me down the
underground river that dug deep through hundreds of
illuminated caves and onwards.
* * * * *
I felt thin fingers. A hand? Her hand?
Her name illumined my thoughts.
Hope!
“Hope. Hope? Is that you?” I whispered, opening my eyes
and clutching tighter.
The twig snapped in my grasp.
Whatever I had been, wherever I had been, I would never know. But with the
twigs sticking uncomfortably into my sides, the
leaves on my coat and the bitter taste on my tongue, I
knew that I was awake.
I instantly rememebered everything.
And I was not in love with the silly
man that had left me and broken my heart. Not
anymore. Not after hope had come to me.
The picture lay on the ground beside me and that stranger's face
smiled up at me, mocking me, his arm around a girl
that was also smiling.
I rolled my eyes, picked up the picture and crushed it into a ball,
hardly thinking about it at all.
I wanted the prince, my prince, and I knew that I
would find him. In the waking world. When it was time, of course.
And we would dance forever.
THE END.
*
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