• Published 1st Dec 2013
  • 725 Views, 23 Comments

Wayfarer - The Plebeian



A picture is worth one thousand words.

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XVIII

She tells him yes, although it is not through the word. The word is for communication, not for the affirmation, solidarity it pretends to entail. Her eyes are closed, and her dark curly locks drift over the left side of her face, cast back, so as not to obscure it. The feather rests by her ear, vibrantly, and her neck is outstretched. She kisses him softly and tenderly. His eyes are wide in shock, and rosy color runs into his face, disrupting the former blue. His wings curve down now, though still outstretched.

And now, his heart is broken. She wants nothing else. He has been so wrong. He wants to berate himself for such a mistake, but he is lost in her. She has not forgiven him, he understands. She has never seen any wrong to begin with. She sees only his greatest, his inner colors. He is overcome, and his heart and mind are shattered. He feels the strong wind rush past him, and he looks over her graceful form. She is all he could ever want, he knows. And yet somehow, she wants him too. He is not undeserving, for her grace knows no such sentiment.

He cannot pay her for what she gives him. Somehow, all she asks is exactly what he asks, and the kiss brings him only further into ruin. No longer does he remember the horizon behind him, for it is a memory fading quickly, dying with the lonely pieces of his mind. He retrieves a few. He likes his wayfaring, she loves it too, he knows. His words she loves to hear. His love will always remain. He needs no longer his guilt, nor debt.

They are cleansed. He kisses back, and he dreams no longer of lonely horizons. He has a heart to share. He will always live without roots, and that she loves too, somehow. It is mystery to him, but he will learn, in time, what she gives for him. She is so beautiful, nothing he has found in any landscape or revisiting. She is not his, nor he hers, for one cannot own itself. They are theirs. She is so tender, he thinks. How can she be so? Perhaps it is a part of her that he reveals to her. He likes how that seems. She has shown him his memory, his love for the first time. Perhaps this love is far more reciprocal than he has imagined.

He finds no fault in her, though he cannot believe she finds the same; still, he must. He must, if he can accept her. She wants no debt, just all of him. He sees back to his shame, his nervous steps. He must give them up, and as much as he wants, it is more difficult than he can imagine. He pushes them away, tries to supplant them with hope, but they worm back in. He tries to destroy them with his self-berating anger, but realizes that must go too. He feels her tender kiss, and learns. He gently pushes them off, like a raft to sea, to a horizon he knows well. The sea touches many shores, but they shall never return to his. He whispers a good-bye, then turns around, never to look back. Everything for her, and he shall never turn around. The glow of a hearth’s fire takes flame in his heart, and he readies to weep, only for joy now. Only for her.

He understands now, and her heart leaps. She has brought him back to her, and she can feel the change work through him. She feels his broken heart, and like her heart before, she weeps for the parts he has left behind. He needs them no more, and she loves him all the more for his sacrifice. It is never easy, she knows, but now, they both have the pieces of their hearts. They may piece them together, one by one, into one.

She likes how it sounds, and she wants to say it aloud. Nothing more she says, though. For this moment, the now, the kiss is enough. She lets her unconditional love flow out of her, and helps him recover himself. She wants only to see that vibrance once more in his eyes, when she opens hers. They will be more beautiful than she has ever seen. He is afraid to see them go. The fear abates, darling. She is here. Let it go. She takes him up into a mental embrace, never to let him go. They will stray together, she thinks. There is no reason to stray apart. Let them be, together and one.

She waves goodbye with him, to all that he gives up for her, and she sees her own fear, her own shadows lilting away on that little raft. Let it go forever, she thinks. It is no easier, though she keeps on; the image of those blue-green atolls in his eyes strengthens her. She sees a certain weakness leave too, this of its own accord. It realizes now that she can live without it, so it flutters away. She will not miss them, for their heart together is whole. She smiles inside, feels his warm fire, realizes her own. It warms her, brings tears of joy to her eyes.

She is free with him. She has cast aside the shadows. She loves that she could show him the way. She realizes that she has lost hers awhile. They find their path together, and she wishes it no other way. She knows this is no end, but a new beginning. To a brighter sunrise she looks forward, and to sunset they will love. And beyond, they will love as the moon shines. He is ready now, she knows. He has given himself up, and she herself. He returns the kiss, and the vigorous tempo of their heart is broken a moment, in a wonderful pause.

And there, on the rooftop, they found their heart to share.