Once there lived a Young Woman who had a curse placed over her. You see, an evil witch who was jealous of the Young Woman made her to believe she was unappealing to look at and had nothing to hold the attentions of the opposite sex when really she was the Princess of the neighboring kingdom and had been lost for quite some time. She was unable to remember anything up to and including the day she happened to cross paths with the evil witch.
The Young Woman was able to look in mirrors and see her reflection but every time she did her eyes would dart here and there taking note of her imperfect skin, her curly hair that did whatever it pleased, her eyes that seemed to be too small, her waste that seemed to be too big, her tiny breasts, her wide shoulders...it became so much that she stopped looking in the mirror all together. Naturally all this was part of the curse but since the Princess could not remember anything of her past she grew to accept her fate and moved on.
There were many men who would pass her on the streets and smile, many men started conversations with her and many men grew quite fond of her because it was only she who could not see her true worth. She reasoned in her mind "They enjoy my company, they could not possibly be in love with me, they are just kind" And so it went for many years, Men of the village would hint and implore, one after the other but all inclinations of affection would fall on deaf ears.
Then one day a Musician came to the little village. He came to work and did not plan on much else. The musician was mostly a simple man which should never suggest that he was dimwitted, the man merely lived his life without the complications of many physical possessions or anything else for that matter. He had the clothes on his back and his special guitar and not much else. The Musician had an honest heart and an approachable smile and thought of himself as such.
On a chance meeting the Young Woman and the Musician passed each other on the road leading into the village. The Young Woman was on her way home and the Musician was just walking in. She regarded him with interest in her heart but quickly tried to hide it. "I must not allow myself to think such things" She scolded herself. "It has done me no good in the past to become enamoured, no man will ever want me. I must stop allowing myself such pain."
The Musician saw the Young Woman for the beauty she really was and more. When their eyes met he was sure he saw that familiar glint of approval and gave her his best approachable smile which was met with a scowl and a quickening of the Young Woman's pace. "Oh well." He thought. "I'll forget her soon enough I'm sure."
But the Musician did not forget, whats more he COULD not forget the beauty he passed in the street. His nights at the INN were restless at best, he walked around in a fog which only lifted when she was near and found that even his guitar could only think of her as well. "This won't do." He thought and swore to his instrument that he would talk to her the very next day.
She saw him long before he could spot her. Against her better judgements the Young Woman found herself thinking about the Musician she passed in the street a week ago more and more. She would die before she acknowledged to herself or anyone she found him appealing but in the past week he seemed to be there whenever she turned around and it became harder and harder not to study him...secretly of course. She began to look at him so much that she could pick him out of a crowd of 100 men just by the way he walked. She would catch a glimpse of hair on a man that was exactly the colour of his and become disappointed when it wasn't. She could close her eyes and pick out his voice from a group of other men standing near by, she even recognised his sent.
Her heart fluttered when their eyes met from across the yard. She cursed, swore she'd never make that mistake again and busied her hands. When curiosity got the best of her and she let her eyes lift up once more he was standing right in front of her.
"Don't I know you from somewhere?" He asked her. At the sound of his voice everybody else in the market, in the world for that matter melted away.
"Know me? Uh.....no. No one knows me. You must be mistaken." She stammered, doing her best not to look at him.
"Oh well" He grinned. "You have the prettiest eyes I have ever seen. Greener than the trees. I think there even the same colour as mine" He smiled once more and walked away. For the rest of the day the Young Woman didn't know what to do with herself.
"He was just being nice." She tried in vain to convince herself. "I'm sure he's seen many eyes that were prettier than mine. He was just trying to be polite after he found out I wasn't who he thought I was. Yeah. That's it." But that night when she went home she dug out an old dusty mirror to look and what she seen was like nothing she'd ever seen before. Her eyes were alive! She had never seen that colour of green, and she found that since the colour of her eyes were so appealing, the shape of them was quite beautiful too. They accented her facial features quite well, delicate and graceful, sloping upwards slightly at the outsides. "My eyes are the same today as they were yesterday. I wonder why I have never seen them before?" If she was able to remember the Evil Witch and the curse that was placed upon her she still wouldn't have know that the curse had lost its initial power long ago. The witch knew that once the Young Woman forgot where she belonged and believed she had nothing of worth to offer, the curse would take on a power all its own. It would become like an invisible ball and chain wrapped around her neck so she would slowly suffocate but not know why.
Quickly her eyes began to dart in the same familiar pattern and hours later she slammed the mirror down in disgust and disappointment.
The next day before she left to go to the village and sell her wares she found herself paying extra attention to how she looked. Not a lot of extra attention but enough to make her feel silly. But again the Musician came up to her and asked "Excuse me...But are you sure I don't know you from somewhere? You sure look familiar."
And again she looked up at him and other people were just gone, melted, transported to another world...it didn't matter. "I'm sorry sir but I'm afraid I am a nobody. Nobody knows me."
"Well....I would like to. Is that alright?" He whispered, he was just as nervous as she was only he was better at hiding it. She, shocked beyond normal thought heard herself saying "Alright" and they became friends.
Soon they were inseparable. Everyone in the town knew that to see one meant the other was not far behind. They did everything together, they talked about a wide variety of topics. The Young Woman could not remember the last time she felt free to speak what was on her mind and finding a willing audience who wasn't laughing at her. He complimented her often and she would go home to the mirror and see her body in a completely different way and always seem to notice something else as well, something she seen herself. Soon her and her mirror became close friends as well. "Mirror...Do you think I'm pretty?" She would ask.
"Oh yes My Beauty. I do. I always have. I have been trying to tell you for years and years how pretty you are but you could never hear me. No matter how loud I would yell your ears were deaf to my voice. I could see you grow angry with me and eventually stopped seeing me all together. But now! Now we are friends once more. I hope the time never comes that you stop hearing me again for it is my joy to tell you how pretty you are my lovely."
The
Musician and the Young Woman drank tea at the local pub more and more frequently and he would play his special guitar for her. His special guitar that could only think of the Young Woman played songs especially for her. She smiled and listened attentively but never knew what the guitar was really saying.
They fell in love...as young people do. He with her from the very start and her with him also from the very start but she stood in the way. She could not deny her feelings for him any longer but it made her so sad because she was still so sure he wasn't actually in love with her. In her mind she could explain away all the wonderful things he said to her and all the ways he made her feel and one day in the middle of an innocent conversation she was able to bring it up to him. "......you see" she began all of a sudden finding it hard to breath " I am finding that I like you more than I should like you and that's not a good thing." She couldn't bring herself to say what she meant to say next. He picked up the lull.
"Well...That depends on who you ask." and so it was said, she could no longer deny it. "My Beauty, I want to start a project with you." He said. "I want to build a house with you, would you be willing?"
The Beauty was willing and more. She could not believe what was happening, She felt like the luckiest woman in all the world.
"I must warn you though, I have another project that I need to finish. Its important that I do this in the proper order and it means that I must leave you for a time. Are you still willing?"
It made her afraid to hear him talk of such things but she was still willing. After all she loved him and he loved her. How bad could it get?
"That time is not now though. What do you say we start?" The Beauty didn't think it was a good idea. She didn't like getting her hopes up and then being disappointed but the Musician was so charming and so earnest in his affections for her that she agreed and they began.
With every house you start with a foundation and this house was no different. The pair had so much fun laying the foundation, they played together and laughed until they couldn't breath, they danced, they chased one another and stayed up until all hours of the morning. They were having so much fun that they were careless of their job and as a result the foundation didn't set properly. There was cracks everywhere. It worried the pair and they decided to take better care on their next jobs, but the Musician new the time was coming to leave soon and felt like he couldn't do much good here in the time he had left.
The Beauty didn't want him to leave, she knew this day would be hard for her if they started building the house but she let it come to pass, her only consolation was knowing that by allowing him to leave without much fuss on her part it would help in making his job easier (and hopefully quicker.) They said their goodbyes and she watched him walk away. "Oh my." She said to no one in particular. "This is going to be difficult."
The Beauty decided to try and keep on building the house in his absence. The wind seemed to blow a little bit harder now that her musician was gone, it made it more difficult to keep the walls up. It seemed to rain a lot more now too and it made it harder when the roof leaked. She came to the house one day to keep working and found all the glass broken. She came another day and found paint all over the walls and crude words.
The people from the village begged her to stop going to the house every day. They told her that he was never coming back, that if he really cared he never would have left in the first place. When she tried explaining that it was alright, that he was the love of her life and he was
definitely coming back they asked her, "Alright. But why hasn't he sent you a letter? If he's in love with you he should have at least told you he's alright by this point. Why is it so easy for him to go so long and not talk to you?" She knew that the villagers were only trying to help her, that they were only worried about her but the day she ran out of lumber she said to herself "If my Musician were here getting more lumber would be a lot easier." And the day she broke two of her fingers she thought "If my Musician were here he would look after me. I wonder when he's coming back."
At night she began to think many thoughts that usually ended up to no good. "Maybe he fell ill, maybe he is sick. Maybe he went to his other project and decided to not come back. No, surely that's not the case. But what if..... He's been gone for so long. I suppose anything could have happened." The question the villagers
plagued her. Eventually it became too hard for the Young Woman and she attempted to contact him. She felt like she needed answers, she wanted to know why he was taking so long but mostly she missed him so much it hurt her insides.
She had no idea where the Musician even was but sent a letter out anyways hoping it would reach him, low and behold a few days later came a reply. "I miss you too. I'd really like to see you. I'll contact you in less than a week."
She was more than
relieved, the Young Woman ran into town waving the letter assuring her friends that he was a good man and that he still loves her. "You see?" She said to them, "I just had to tell him it was too hard and now he's
coming back for me. He didn't know I was in pain
until then,
That's why he didn't come." She waited and waited. A week came and went and still she waited. While she waited she worried. Since there was no reply her worries grew into giant monsters that made her crazy. They haunted her every day, while she worked, while she ate but mostly while she tried to sleep.
Finally she ran out of tears and decided to do something. She went back to the house and tore it all down. She ripped the boards out one by one and burnt them. She picked up every single piece of glass and melted them down. She ripped through the foundation and hauled all the rubble away. She found every discarded nail and hauled them away.
When she was done she sat on the land that her and the Musician picked out and looked at the spot where their house had been. She knew now that this is what she should have done the moment he left. You see, if she kept on building the house alone she would have ended up hating him and that was a terrible thing because hating someone you still love will kill your soul, but forgetting him was very hard to do because she didn't hate him. She forgave him.
And being angry with him doesn't seem to be an option. Its true this situation is extremely unfair to her and it would be easy to blame 100% of it on him but she agreed to do this. He made everything clear when they started. But she's afraid you see, because moving on is quite a sad process. She had picked up all the pieces but still felt like she was missing the biggest one.
In her heart she still hopes he loves her, that he'll come back to her and won't they be lucky if he does because they get the chance to start all over again! They can build the foundation properly this time and use brand new materials. Neither of them would be sad again.
So for now she waits. How long is up to him.
Ending to come.
I didn't re-read this, I just wrote it. I hope it all makes sense.
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