Once a boy fell in love a girl or maybe a girl fell in love with a boy. Neither knew how or when it happened just that it did.
There had been a time when they talked about how they thought it happened and though they didn’t agree who said what to who and when they acknowledged it was the deepest and most powerful love they had ever felt.
For a long while their love encased them in a secret world and they were filled with joy.
And then one day the bubble burst and the real world inserted itself into theirs and for the first time they knew doubt and uncertainty.
For a long while they managed to stave off the burning questions and ignored the fear that came with the other two uninvited guests and then it happened.
She told him to go and he told her to get lost and they went.
Their separate ways that is.
The absence of the other was palpable and the empty space in their respective hearts grew larger and more painful until one day it was too big to be ignored.
Ok, that is not really true, the two of them were cranky, grumpy and stubborn, among the ‘est’ of all of those words.
Meaning crankiest, grumpiest and stubbornest (who cares if it is not a word) and so they pretended their split didn’t bother them.
But it did.
Sometimes they would do things to try to ease their pain, mainly dumb things like fight over ridiculous stuff that didn’t matter or throw eggs at the others house.
And for about a millisecond they would feel better and if didn’t last that long, well they would draw up a list of reasons to be angry with the other.
The reasons didn’t have to be logical or rational, they just had to be on paper because if they were on paper they held weight and substance.
In reality it wasn’t much of either, but it was enough for them to pretend it had meaning, enough to be used to try to be angry.
Anger was good because if you got angry you didn’t have to miss the other person until you realized you did.
“Oh fuck, I am not angry any more, I better go start another fight.”
We are not really sure if that is the way these things went because the secret documents that tell the story are a secret and so all we have is speculation.
Once during a time that was or might have only been a dream the girl asked the boy to explain his actions and to describe their circumstances.
He told quoted Edgar Allen Poe’s Annabel Lee and said
But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we-
Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.
The girl gave him a wistful smile and said he was breaking her heart and asked for more than that.
“Annabel Lee dies, you know that don’t you.”
The boy told her he could quote other poems and talked about carrying her heart with him always.
She smiled and said she liked that one better but said she still had her doubts and shared some with him.
“Oh, so now I am a thing to you, a possession huh.”
He shook his head and told her she could push back and be a pain his ass but he didn’t care. It didn’t and wouldn’t change things.
She gave him a smile, but he wasn’t quite sure if it was the one he got when she was teasing him or thinking about something else.
“You really do love your quotes don’t you.”
He laughed and told her he had plenty of his own thoughts and said he had to share one more quote any way.
“Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.”
― William Shakespeare, Hamlet
“That is very sweet, but you know you are crazy and there are some things you can’t change.”
He whirled around, anger flashing in his eyes, “don’t tell me what I can or can’t change or how I feel.”
Except the funny thing was she was gone and the room was empty.
And then he wondered if she had ever been there or if maybe he really was crazy and had been talking to himself.
It almost felt like he had gone back in time and yet never left the present and if that wasn’t crazy, well he didn’t know what was.
Maybe he really was running through the shadows.
Somewhere in the echoes of the past he heard himself talking about learning how to walk the line.
Didn’t matter whether it was real, fake or something in between. Didn’t care if someone had sprinkled fairy dust upon their heads or if it was something altogether different.
Somethings just are.
Secret Worlds & The Things We See In Them
The Snowdens of the world find ways to release the secret documents because they think doing so will provide answers and insights to questions people have.
They believe a world without secrets is one that is more easily understood and that greater understanding will lead people to be better towards each other or at least more consistent.
But the Snowdens don’t understand that somethings can never be explained, they can only be experienced.
And that which can only be experienced cannot always be understood, at least not in the traditional ways.
It makes for a dilemma.
If you believe Einstein is correct and that if you can’t explain it to a six-year-old you don’t understand it you have to ask yourself if maybe you don’t really get it.
But then again there are things that cannot be explained in scientific terms yet exist.
So you can live at the intersection of faith and science and hang your hat on mystery or you can deny.
The problem with denial is sooner or later your heart will betray you and you’ll be forced to learn the lesson.
It is not if but when.
Love isn’t made for the rational. It is made for the wild, the crazy and the free.
Editor’s Note: Who knew that thinking about the two root canals you’ll have in the morning stimulate creativity. 😉
