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The Inevitable Bite- A boy sat with his father, looking across a meadow. A calm breeze blew across the tall grass, causing it to bend and sway lazily. Other families had come, also, to celebrate the unseasonably cool weather, and to play and socialize in the common field. The boy looked across the field. There, darting around with the other children, engaged in some sort of game, was a girl. Her dark hair bounced around her face, lighting up with hints of amber when the sun would catch it in the right angle. The boy wrung his toes, looking down to his feet. "Father... what is love?" The boy's father looked to him, a slow smile climbing up his worn cheeks. His eyes were studious as they left him to glance at the young girl across the meadow. "Love? It is..." His father paused. His eyes were focused somewhere, far away, someplace the boy could not see. A snake wriggled past, across an opening in the brush nearby. The father saw it. A common green snake, and nothing to worry about. He pointed. "Do you see? The snake creeps along the ground, methodically, until it finds what it seeks." The boy turned to his father, placing his chin in his palms, knowing what to expect. He adored his father's parables. "It is the same with love. It creeps up on you, slowly. And you do not know it's there until it strikes. And the venom that it leaves from it's bite will change you forever." The boy scrunched his face. "What do you mean?" His father smiled again. "Love affects all senses. You will see the world around your beloved differently, more vividly. When you hear her, it will be the most entrancing tune. When you hold her, you will be unable to withdraw. And when you kiss her..." He glanced down at the boy. "Well, I will leave that to you to find out. The boy turned his gaze to the young girl, still playing. "When it bites, doesn't it hurt?" The boy's father did not speak. He closed his eyes, and took in a long breath, exhaling slowly. His wife had passed the previous summer. Finally, he opened his eyes. "Not at first." "Once love has taken your heart, there is nothing that you can do. And when you are first bitten, it is the sweetest intoxication. You do not desire anything but to share your love with the object of your affections. Happily would you accept any state of being, so long as it was near your beloved." "But with time, things change, as do the seasons. And when you have walked as far as you can with your love, and it leaves you, it takes with it everything that you have become since being bitten. Suddenly, that vitality, that clarity, is gone. And you are left where you started. And suddenly..." He stopped. "Suddenly, things are very small." The boy nodded, picking a blade of grass and rolling it between his fingers. "I'll never let love bite me. It seems to be far worse than being bitten by a real snake!" Sensing premonition in his words, the boy glanced around, but saw nothing. His father laughed gently. "My son, you cannot avoid love's bite. It comes unavoidably to all. But the sweetness of the intoxication is well worth the inevitability of dissolution. To say that one will never experience love is to say that to live would be too much, knowing that one must die. Would you make that choice?" The boy paused for a moment, and shook his head. "No, I don't believe so. I have too much to do!" They laughed together, and looked across the field. The sun was settling above the treetops, ready to descend into twilight. The young girl was talking to the other children, as the families around them made preparations to return home. The boy looked to his father. "May I?" His father smiled and nodded. "You'd best be off, then. I'll wait here." The boy stood and made his way shyly over to the young girl. She turned to him and grinned. His father smiled, sensing a familiarity in the exchange. He could not hear what was said, and he did not need to. He closed his eyes, and drew a deep breath, exhaling slowly. -PoHatu | |