Not very long ago, in a beautiful and pristine village, far away from the greeds of humanity, lived a little girl named Hope. Her mother, a very beautiful woman, was Lily. Hope's father, James – a God-fearing, courageous, hard working and a honest man. Together, they formed the happiest family, so happy that others said that their smiles could turn someone's misfortune into good luck. One day, as fate would have it, the loving Lily died. Just before she closed her eyes, she made James promise that he would look after Hope.
A few years passed. All the while James, struggling with his loss and loneliness, tried all to take care of little Hope. After all, she was all that was left of Lily. Soon he found his loneliness overwhelming him. He married Desire, a beautiful woman, full of promises of love and togetherness. Little Hope's happiness knew no bounds for she had a mother again. No one knew, that Desire was not a human. She was a witch.
Soon, Desire's spells started working on James, who in turn started to believe that Hope was possessed by an evil spirit. He would not talk to Hope any more, would not listen to her, would stay away from her, and was rude to her. Hope, in turn, would sulk in silence, wondering what she did to annoy God. Soon James decided, with enough grief and helplessness, that it was in everyone's best interest that he and Desire run away from Hope. So one night, while the poor angel was asleep, dreaming of the good days when her father loved her, James and Desire eloped.
Just as they were running away, Hope woke up and caught the sight of them. She screamed of fear, she called for her. Hope ran behind him, all the while calling him, urging him to come back. Soon she reached a very dark forest, it was so dark that she could not see her own fingertips. There were sounds of wild animals and smell of a lonely winter in the air. James was nowhere to be seen. She was scared to her bones. She had only taken a few more steps when the ground below her melted and she fell into it. It was Mr. QuickSand. She struggled, cried and wailed, "Let me go, please. My father. I need to stop him." "No," came the loud voice from the molten ground. Mr. QuickSand's voice was like dark clouds thundering. He gave a demonic laugh, the most vile one she had ever heard. She shivered in fear and tried hard to free herself of that evil quicksand. The more she tried, the quicker she sank. Just when she was sunk till her shoulders, she cried, wished her mother as alive. And then, as if by magic, a ball of light appeared and started to hover over the pool of quicksand. Hope watched as the flying ball of light became a shape and Lily's spirit appeared.....
A flash of happiness ran through Hope, “Mommy,” she screamed, all the while trying hard to reach out to Lily. She sank 2 inches deeper in the quicksand. Mr. QuickSand laughed again.
“Calm down, sweetheart, calm down,” the spirit said.
Hope wanted that the spirit embrace her in her arms. The thought made her cry again. She wept so much that for a moment Mr. QuickSand thought that her tears would dissolve him. Hope tried to pull her hands out so that she could reach the spirit but she only sank more.
“Calm down, honey. Don't move. Mr. QuickSand won't hurt you if you be a good girl and stay still,” Lily's spirit looked at Mr QuickSand and smiled. He smiled back. Hope could not understand this acquaintance and kept weeping. Lily kept consoling her. Finally, after an hour, Hope wiped her face and nose.
“Daddy went away,” she said. Lily's spirit nodded.
“Desire took him,” Hope took a deep breath. Lily's spirit wondered if she would cry again.
“I want to go to Daddy," Hope started to cry again. Lily was patient.
“Why do you want to go to Daddy, sweetheart?” Lily asked after a while.
“Because I love him,” pleaded Hope.
“But you can still love him when he is away.”
“No,” Hope wailed again. “I want to be with him. I feel happy when he is around.”
“But you can still be happy without him.”
“How can I, Mommy? If I love Daddy and if he is not around, how can I be happy?”
Lily's spirit was thoughtful for a moment. That was a valid question. “Tell me sweetheart, do you believe that when you love someone, you should be happy as well?” Hope didn't understand the question. Mr. QuickSand on the other hand found the discussion curious and paid all his attention to the apparition. “Do you think that Love always comes with Happiness and never without it?” Lily asked after thinking for a while.
Hope was thoughtful for a while before she replied, “Yes, Mommy. I feel happy whenever Daddy is around. I love my friends as well and I feel happy when they are around. And they also feel the same. Those who love, they should always be happy, isn't it, Mommy?” Her innocence, momentarily, moved Mr. QuickSand.
“You're making a mistake sweetheart,” Lily's spirit said, “All of us, while we live, take it for granted that happiness will always go hand in hand with love.” Hope was still confused. Mr. QuickSand was all ears. Lily continued, “You see, child, we are all born with little gaps and holes in our hearts, which we try to fill all our lives. Love always begins when we, in the depths of our hearts and spirits, find someone whom we believe can fill those little gaps in us. Its just like children – not all children are friends with each other. You only make friends with someone you like. Isn't it?” Hope nodded, she was starting to understand.
Lily said, “And when we find that someone who can fill our gaps then the first thing we want is to have him or her fall in love with . We secretly harbour the desire to be loved back similarly as we love that person. And it hurts when we don't get loved in return.” After a momentary silence, Lily said, “Where I come from, there are people who only went there because they ended their lives when they were not loved back in return.”
Hope interrupted, “Mommy, are you talking about the kind of love you fell in with Daddy before you two were married?”
“No sweetheart, I am talking about all kinds of love that there is – between you and Daddy, between you and me, between me and Daddy, between you and your friends,” Lily explained. "And when you'll grow up, between you and the man you'll love."
Hope was lost again, “But Mommy, I have always loved you and Daddy. And you too have also loved me back always. I never had to want and wait for you to love me back. You two always loved me, isn't it?”
“And we will always do so, sweetheart. But when it comes to us, you see, even before you were born, we knew you would complete our little world, and we loved you even before you came to this world. And for you, as soon as you were born, we were around for you – loving you, taking care of you, protecting you, nurturing you – and you loved us back. So neither of us had a point in time when we waited for the other to love us, we were always there for each other. But now, when your Daddy is not there for you, your desire to be loved back is hurting you.” Lily looked at Mr. QuickSand. He nodded.
“But Mommy, I can't help but feel sad when Daddy is going away.”
“That's true, honey. That's what makes us human. But you see, in doing so, you depend entirely on your Daddy to be happy. You are wanting for a happiness whose presence depends on another person to love you back. What you should want is to be happy from inside – from inside yourself.”
“How can I do that – be happy from inside?” Hope asked inquisitively.
“First of all, by believing that it was only in your control to love someone. It is just not in your control to have that person love you back. Loving someone was your choice, being loved back is good fortune. Not being loved will hurt as it hurts all good and pure human beings like you, but that needs to be endured, for it will pass with time. Other than time, there is no other cure for it. If you try to fight it and try forcefully to get someone to love you back, it will hurt even more.”
It was then Hope understood how this pool of quicksand had suddenly appeared beneath her feet. Now she knew why she sank deeper each time she struggled to get out. Now she noticed that all the while, she had been listening to her mother peacefully, without fighting, she had not sunk any more.
Lily's spirit said, “Whenever someone tries to get love forcefully, Mr. QuickSand comes in their path and they fall into it. And from then, the more they struggle, the more they sink.”
Hope was silent. Lily understood what question swam in her daughter's innocent, deep black eyes. “Time, my child. Time is the only cure. You just need to stay still, let it hurt you as much as it can without you loosing your goodness, and then it will pass and someone you deserve, will pull you out. Just let it pass.”
Mr. QuickSand nodded with a smile mixed with a small part of pride which comes when someone explains how perfectly one works in his purpose.
“But why Daddy? All Daddy's love their daughters. Why doesn't my Daddy love me?” Hope was getting violent, she . It didn't help except that she sank two more inches, she said, “I don't want to live. I'll kill myself.” With this, the heart broken little girl pushed herself inside the pool of quicksand. Her head was just under the surface. She pushed hard to reach deeper, just then she felt her body fly out in the air and fall back in the pool of quicksand, sinking only as much as she was before she tried to force herself in.
Mr. QuickSand said, his thunderous voice mixed with calculated anger and purpose, like that of her school headmaster's, “It's a sin, my dear to try and end one's life. It's a sad thing that my entire existence depends upon the suffering of others but this is my role in this world and I play it well. It doesn't please me watching children, young and old struggle in my depths after having themselves enslaved to someone else for their peace of mind. Sometimes, I hate myself. But what should I do? Find a lake and dissolve myself into it? End my misery? No. I still do it for it is my very purpose. I find my happiness in the fact that my purpose is fulfilled, that my existence is justified and put to a lesson-teaching use. I can only help you realize the truth about your troubles, to make you strong enough to face your troubles, but I'll not help you end them like this.”
Hope's cries reduced to sobs and soon she was quiet. In the moments of silence that followed, Hope and Lily kept watching at each other, while Mr. QuickSand took a quick nap that one deserves after a long and hard working day.
Hope broke the silence finally, “I'm sorry Mr. QuickSand. I'm sorry, Mommy. I understood it all now.” Lily's spirit felt as if, within a moment, by some magic, her little girl had grown up. Hope continued, “I understand that I can only love someone but not have them love me back necessarily. That's not in my control, so no point being sad for that. It will hurt but it will pass if I endure it with peace and faith. Life will bring something new, even better, in some other form. If I keep worrying over what's been lost, I'll never be able to recognise when life gives it back to me in a disguise. I need to wait, enduring the pain, and it will pass. If I don't endure with patience, I'll fall into Mr. QuickSand again and the more I struggle there, the more I will sink.”
Mr. QuickSand gave a Santa Clause type laugh and said, “There you go child. There you go.”
Lily's spirit nodded. She could not cry for she was a spirit without body or else, she would have. She added, “Very true, my angel. And remember, this is true for all kinds of love...”
“Between Daddy and me, you and me, me and my friends, me and the man I'll love...,” Just then Hope realized what she had said more than she needed to. She looked at her mother and they both broke into giggles. Mr. QuickSand joined in.
Just then they heard some footsteps.
“Dadd...,” Hope was about to speak up when she saw Lily looking at her with contracted eye brows and a smile on her face. Hope understood. She would follow her lessons.
“Hide, quick,” Mr. QuickSand said.
Soon, an old, childless couple passing near by spotted Hope. They threw her a rope and hauled her out. "Where are your parents, child? What are you doing here?" the old woman asked.
"I am alone," Hope said.
“Oh my child,” said the old woman and held her in her arms. Tightly. “We do not have anybody of our own. Will you come with us, child? Will you be our little daughter?”
“Look at your age, Jasmine,” the smiling old man said, “We can only be grand parents.”
They all laughed. Hope started to walk with them. She sneaked a look back and found Lily's spirit waving at her with a smile on her face. Mr. QuickSand quickly wiped a tear from his eye and whispered, “Bless you, my child. May your story be told for generations to come. Those who have loved and lost, may they find peace and strength in your lessons and endurance tonight. And may the world see the true virtue of love.”
A few years passed. All the while James, struggling with his loss and loneliness, tried all to take care of little Hope. After all, she was all that was left of Lily. Soon he found his loneliness overwhelming him. He married Desire, a beautiful woman, full of promises of love and togetherness. Little Hope's happiness knew no bounds for she had a mother again. No one knew, that Desire was not a human. She was a witch.
Soon, Desire's spells started working on James, who in turn started to believe that Hope was possessed by an evil spirit. He would not talk to Hope any more, would not listen to her, would stay away from her, and was rude to her. Hope, in turn, would sulk in silence, wondering what she did to annoy God. Soon James decided, with enough grief and helplessness, that it was in everyone's best interest that he and Desire run away from Hope. So one night, while the poor angel was asleep, dreaming of the good days when her father loved her, James and Desire eloped.
Just as they were running away, Hope woke up and caught the sight of them. She screamed of fear, she called for her. Hope ran behind him, all the while calling him, urging him to come back. Soon she reached a very dark forest, it was so dark that she could not see her own fingertips. There were sounds of wild animals and smell of a lonely winter in the air. James was nowhere to be seen. She was scared to her bones. She had only taken a few more steps when the ground below her melted and she fell into it. It was Mr. QuickSand. She struggled, cried and wailed, "Let me go, please. My father. I need to stop him." "No," came the loud voice from the molten ground. Mr. QuickSand's voice was like dark clouds thundering. He gave a demonic laugh, the most vile one she had ever heard. She shivered in fear and tried hard to free herself of that evil quicksand. The more she tried, the quicker she sank. Just when she was sunk till her shoulders, she cried, wished her mother as alive. And then, as if by magic, a ball of light appeared and started to hover over the pool of quicksand. Hope watched as the flying ball of light became a shape and Lily's spirit appeared.....
A flash of happiness ran through Hope, “Mommy,” she screamed, all the while trying hard to reach out to Lily. She sank 2 inches deeper in the quicksand. Mr. QuickSand laughed again.
“Calm down, sweetheart, calm down,” the spirit said.
Hope wanted that the spirit embrace her in her arms. The thought made her cry again. She wept so much that for a moment Mr. QuickSand thought that her tears would dissolve him. Hope tried to pull her hands out so that she could reach the spirit but she only sank more.
“Calm down, honey. Don't move. Mr. QuickSand won't hurt you if you be a good girl and stay still,” Lily's spirit looked at Mr QuickSand and smiled. He smiled back. Hope could not understand this acquaintance and kept weeping. Lily kept consoling her. Finally, after an hour, Hope wiped her face and nose.
“Daddy went away,” she said. Lily's spirit nodded.
“Desire took him,” Hope took a deep breath. Lily's spirit wondered if she would cry again.
“I want to go to Daddy," Hope started to cry again. Lily was patient.
“Why do you want to go to Daddy, sweetheart?” Lily asked after a while.
“Because I love him,” pleaded Hope.
“But you can still love him when he is away.”
“No,” Hope wailed again. “I want to be with him. I feel happy when he is around.”
“But you can still be happy without him.”
“How can I, Mommy? If I love Daddy and if he is not around, how can I be happy?”
Lily's spirit was thoughtful for a moment. That was a valid question. “Tell me sweetheart, do you believe that when you love someone, you should be happy as well?” Hope didn't understand the question. Mr. QuickSand on the other hand found the discussion curious and paid all his attention to the apparition. “Do you think that Love always comes with Happiness and never without it?” Lily asked after thinking for a while.
Hope was thoughtful for a while before she replied, “Yes, Mommy. I feel happy whenever Daddy is around. I love my friends as well and I feel happy when they are around. And they also feel the same. Those who love, they should always be happy, isn't it, Mommy?” Her innocence, momentarily, moved Mr. QuickSand.
“You're making a mistake sweetheart,” Lily's spirit said, “All of us, while we live, take it for granted that happiness will always go hand in hand with love.” Hope was still confused. Mr. QuickSand was all ears. Lily continued, “You see, child, we are all born with little gaps and holes in our hearts, which we try to fill all our lives. Love always begins when we, in the depths of our hearts and spirits, find someone whom we believe can fill those little gaps in us. Its just like children – not all children are friends with each other. You only make friends with someone you like. Isn't it?” Hope nodded, she was starting to understand.
Lily said, “And when we find that someone who can fill our gaps then the first thing we want is to have him or her fall in love with . We secretly harbour the desire to be loved back similarly as we love that person. And it hurts when we don't get loved in return.” After a momentary silence, Lily said, “Where I come from, there are people who only went there because they ended their lives when they were not loved back in return.”
Hope interrupted, “Mommy, are you talking about the kind of love you fell in with Daddy before you two were married?”
“No sweetheart, I am talking about all kinds of love that there is – between you and Daddy, between you and me, between me and Daddy, between you and your friends,” Lily explained. "And when you'll grow up, between you and the man you'll love."
Hope was lost again, “But Mommy, I have always loved you and Daddy. And you too have also loved me back always. I never had to want and wait for you to love me back. You two always loved me, isn't it?”
“And we will always do so, sweetheart. But when it comes to us, you see, even before you were born, we knew you would complete our little world, and we loved you even before you came to this world. And for you, as soon as you were born, we were around for you – loving you, taking care of you, protecting you, nurturing you – and you loved us back. So neither of us had a point in time when we waited for the other to love us, we were always there for each other. But now, when your Daddy is not there for you, your desire to be loved back is hurting you.” Lily looked at Mr. QuickSand. He nodded.
“But Mommy, I can't help but feel sad when Daddy is going away.”
“That's true, honey. That's what makes us human. But you see, in doing so, you depend entirely on your Daddy to be happy. You are wanting for a happiness whose presence depends on another person to love you back. What you should want is to be happy from inside – from inside yourself.”
“How can I do that – be happy from inside?” Hope asked inquisitively.
“First of all, by believing that it was only in your control to love someone. It is just not in your control to have that person love you back. Loving someone was your choice, being loved back is good fortune. Not being loved will hurt as it hurts all good and pure human beings like you, but that needs to be endured, for it will pass with time. Other than time, there is no other cure for it. If you try to fight it and try forcefully to get someone to love you back, it will hurt even more.”
It was then Hope understood how this pool of quicksand had suddenly appeared beneath her feet. Now she knew why she sank deeper each time she struggled to get out. Now she noticed that all the while, she had been listening to her mother peacefully, without fighting, she had not sunk any more.
Lily's spirit said, “Whenever someone tries to get love forcefully, Mr. QuickSand comes in their path and they fall into it. And from then, the more they struggle, the more they sink.”
Hope was silent. Lily understood what question swam in her daughter's innocent, deep black eyes. “Time, my child. Time is the only cure. You just need to stay still, let it hurt you as much as it can without you loosing your goodness, and then it will pass and someone you deserve, will pull you out. Just let it pass.”
Mr. QuickSand nodded with a smile mixed with a small part of pride which comes when someone explains how perfectly one works in his purpose.
“But why Daddy? All Daddy's love their daughters. Why doesn't my Daddy love me?” Hope was getting violent, she . It didn't help except that she sank two more inches, she said, “I don't want to live. I'll kill myself.” With this, the heart broken little girl pushed herself inside the pool of quicksand. Her head was just under the surface. She pushed hard to reach deeper, just then she felt her body fly out in the air and fall back in the pool of quicksand, sinking only as much as she was before she tried to force herself in.
Mr. QuickSand said, his thunderous voice mixed with calculated anger and purpose, like that of her school headmaster's, “It's a sin, my dear to try and end one's life. It's a sad thing that my entire existence depends upon the suffering of others but this is my role in this world and I play it well. It doesn't please me watching children, young and old struggle in my depths after having themselves enslaved to someone else for their peace of mind. Sometimes, I hate myself. But what should I do? Find a lake and dissolve myself into it? End my misery? No. I still do it for it is my very purpose. I find my happiness in the fact that my purpose is fulfilled, that my existence is justified and put to a lesson-teaching use. I can only help you realize the truth about your troubles, to make you strong enough to face your troubles, but I'll not help you end them like this.”
Hope's cries reduced to sobs and soon she was quiet. In the moments of silence that followed, Hope and Lily kept watching at each other, while Mr. QuickSand took a quick nap that one deserves after a long and hard working day.
Hope broke the silence finally, “I'm sorry Mr. QuickSand. I'm sorry, Mommy. I understood it all now.” Lily's spirit felt as if, within a moment, by some magic, her little girl had grown up. Hope continued, “I understand that I can only love someone but not have them love me back necessarily. That's not in my control, so no point being sad for that. It will hurt but it will pass if I endure it with peace and faith. Life will bring something new, even better, in some other form. If I keep worrying over what's been lost, I'll never be able to recognise when life gives it back to me in a disguise. I need to wait, enduring the pain, and it will pass. If I don't endure with patience, I'll fall into Mr. QuickSand again and the more I struggle there, the more I will sink.”Mr. QuickSand gave a Santa Clause type laugh and said, “There you go child. There you go.”
Lily's spirit nodded. She could not cry for she was a spirit without body or else, she would have. She added, “Very true, my angel. And remember, this is true for all kinds of love...”
“Between Daddy and me, you and me, me and my friends, me and the man I'll love...,” Just then Hope realized what she had said more than she needed to. She looked at her mother and they both broke into giggles. Mr. QuickSand joined in.
Just then they heard some footsteps.
“Dadd...,” Hope was about to speak up when she saw Lily looking at her with contracted eye brows and a smile on her face. Hope understood. She would follow her lessons.
“Hide, quick,” Mr. QuickSand said.
Soon, an old, childless couple passing near by spotted Hope. They threw her a rope and hauled her out. "Where are your parents, child? What are you doing here?" the old woman asked.
"I am alone," Hope said.
“Oh my child,” said the old woman and held her in her arms. Tightly. “We do not have anybody of our own. Will you come with us, child? Will you be our little daughter?”
“Look at your age, Jasmine,” the smiling old man said, “We can only be grand parents.”
They all laughed. Hope started to walk with them. She sneaked a look back and found Lily's spirit waving at her with a smile on her face. Mr. QuickSand quickly wiped a tear from his eye and whispered, “Bless you, my child. May your story be told for generations to come. Those who have loved and lost, may they find peace and strength in your lessons and endurance tonight. And may the world see the true virtue of love.”
Images and text are copyright of the author.
No comments:
Post a Comment