"She is on the other side of every mirror...
...When the eyes that look back at you know you too well and no longer care for what they see, they are her eyes."
The girl weeps at the foot of the Tower and the blinded Knight hangs his head. Zillah sells her wares in the Market of Miseries as the Librarian frowns and Morpheus stands bleeding. The Moon shines upon the World offering change and promising nothing.
Not what I was hoping for, but hardly unexpected. I feel hollow and twitchy as if I haven't eaten in days - which is a lie, but not much of one. Oh, and cold. I feel cold a lot.
Sometimes distance can make you realise how much you miss someone and how petty all your worries are. Other times distance is just a way of forgetting you ever loved them, so when it comes to saying goodbye it doesn't hurt so much. I wonder which will happen?
=====
There was a boy and a girl. They were holding hands and walking. It was night time, and although the stars were out the moon was hidden in cloud and the world was very dark.
The girl had a map with a great many places marked upon it. The map was very beautiful but hopelessly un-scaled; this didn't bother the girl much.
The boy had a compass; it was a heavy thing of brass and glass and bolts, given to the boy by a relative who thought one should always know where one was going. The boy couldn't always read the compass correctly nor make it tally with the girl's map and this worried him a lot. He tried not to mention it though.
After some miles it became clear to the boy that either he had misread his compass, or they had not gaged their place correctly on the girl's map. (There was a third option, that they were on the right path and it was simply the scale of the map which was wrong, but the boy did not consider that. He had been brought up not to argue with maps.)
"We're lost," announced the boy, suddenly feeling cheated (although by whom or what he couldn't say.)
"Oh," said the girl, looking around at the night-sky and the shadow land over-hung with stars. "Are we?"
"Where are we going?" asked the boy pointedly, letting go of the girl's hand and folding his arms.
The girl did not answer immediately. The path they were walking had several splits and turns along its back and although the eventual destination was the same, the time taken and the journeys made were all very different. "Evermere, I suppose," the girl offered.
"And where's that?" the boy demanded.
The girl gestured in the vague direction of 'forward' - it's hard to show the position of a place one has never been to when it is too dark to read a map, let alone see the landscape.
"Why are we heading this way? Do you even know what direction it is?!" the boy asked heatedly.
The girl shook her head; she didn't own a compass and couldn't have read it if she had.
"We've been walking on this path forever!" The boy no longer sounded angry, instead he sounded bitterly unhappy. "And you waste time picking poppies and talking to crows like some faerychild. Do you want to be on this path tomorrow? Or next wednesday? Or the friday after that?"
For her part the girl had not realised the boy had taken such a stern dislike to their road or to her ungoverned behaviour. "But it will not be the same path tomorrow or any other time because we'll be further along it and our shoes will be thinner," said the girl quietly.
"So what is the point of all this?" the boy raged at the night. "We walk in the dark forever just so I can buy us new shoes?"
The girl felt a little stung. It was true she did not have enough coin for shoes and the boy had kindly bought her last pair, but if she had known it would make him unhappy she would have walked barefoot. "It's night time," she said. "Everything looks the same at night. When the sun rises you will be able to see clouds and mountains, vast forests and small villages - we might even be able to see Evermere."
The boy did not believe her.
"Well, where would you like to go?" asked the girl desperately, for she was not so set on reaching Evermere (or anywhere else for that matter) if every step along the road made the boy so miserable.
"I don't know," said the boy, looking at his compass in the dark.
The girl hugged her arms around her waist feeling somewhat lost and useless. "Would you like to chose a different road, one to walk by yourself?"
The boy was silent for so long that the girl resigned herself to his answer being 'yes'. "No," said the boy at long last, although he did not sound very convincing and he did not take hold of the girl's hand either. "I think perhaps you should walk three paces to the left of me," the boy decided. "Your shadow is crowding my compass, I cannot read it when you stand so close. I need a little space."
The girl did not point out that it was dark and shadows do not fall by starlight. She nodded instead and tried not to mind.
And so they walked; the boy scowling at his compass and the girl trailing to his left, wishing with every breath that the sun would rise and wondering if Evermere was very far away and if the boy would keep company with her or leave before they reached it...
The girl weeps at the foot of the Tower and the blinded Knight hangs his head. Zillah sells her wares in the Market of Miseries as the Librarian frowns and Morpheus stands bleeding. The Moon shines upon the World offering change and promising nothing.
Not what I was hoping for, but hardly unexpected. I feel hollow and twitchy as if I haven't eaten in days - which is a lie, but not much of one. Oh, and cold. I feel cold a lot.
Sometimes distance can make you realise how much you miss someone and how petty all your worries are. Other times distance is just a way of forgetting you ever loved them, so when it comes to saying goodbye it doesn't hurt so much. I wonder which will happen?
=====
There was a boy and a girl. They were holding hands and walking. It was night time, and although the stars were out the moon was hidden in cloud and the world was very dark.
The girl had a map with a great many places marked upon it. The map was very beautiful but hopelessly un-scaled; this didn't bother the girl much.
The boy had a compass; it was a heavy thing of brass and glass and bolts, given to the boy by a relative who thought one should always know where one was going. The boy couldn't always read the compass correctly nor make it tally with the girl's map and this worried him a lot. He tried not to mention it though.
After some miles it became clear to the boy that either he had misread his compass, or they had not gaged their place correctly on the girl's map. (There was a third option, that they were on the right path and it was simply the scale of the map which was wrong, but the boy did not consider that. He had been brought up not to argue with maps.)
"We're lost," announced the boy, suddenly feeling cheated (although by whom or what he couldn't say.)
"Oh," said the girl, looking around at the night-sky and the shadow land over-hung with stars. "Are we?"
"Where are we going?" asked the boy pointedly, letting go of the girl's hand and folding his arms.
The girl did not answer immediately. The path they were walking had several splits and turns along its back and although the eventual destination was the same, the time taken and the journeys made were all very different. "Evermere, I suppose," the girl offered.
"And where's that?" the boy demanded.
The girl gestured in the vague direction of 'forward' - it's hard to show the position of a place one has never been to when it is too dark to read a map, let alone see the landscape.
"Why are we heading this way? Do you even know what direction it is?!" the boy asked heatedly.
The girl shook her head; she didn't own a compass and couldn't have read it if she had.
"We've been walking on this path forever!" The boy no longer sounded angry, instead he sounded bitterly unhappy. "And you waste time picking poppies and talking to crows like some faerychild. Do you want to be on this path tomorrow? Or next wednesday? Or the friday after that?"
For her part the girl had not realised the boy had taken such a stern dislike to their road or to her ungoverned behaviour. "But it will not be the same path tomorrow or any other time because we'll be further along it and our shoes will be thinner," said the girl quietly.
"So what is the point of all this?" the boy raged at the night. "We walk in the dark forever just so I can buy us new shoes?"
The girl felt a little stung. It was true she did not have enough coin for shoes and the boy had kindly bought her last pair, but if she had known it would make him unhappy she would have walked barefoot. "It's night time," she said. "Everything looks the same at night. When the sun rises you will be able to see clouds and mountains, vast forests and small villages - we might even be able to see Evermere."
The boy did not believe her.
"Well, where would you like to go?" asked the girl desperately, for she was not so set on reaching Evermere (or anywhere else for that matter) if every step along the road made the boy so miserable.
"I don't know," said the boy, looking at his compass in the dark.
The girl hugged her arms around her waist feeling somewhat lost and useless. "Would you like to chose a different road, one to walk by yourself?"
The boy was silent for so long that the girl resigned herself to his answer being 'yes'. "No," said the boy at long last, although he did not sound very convincing and he did not take hold of the girl's hand either. "I think perhaps you should walk three paces to the left of me," the boy decided. "Your shadow is crowding my compass, I cannot read it when you stand so close. I need a little space."
The girl did not point out that it was dark and shadows do not fall by starlight. She nodded instead and tried not to mind.
And so they walked; the boy scowling at his compass and the girl trailing to his left, wishing with every breath that the sun would rise and wondering if Evermere was very far away and if the boy would keep company with her or leave before they reached it...