01-01-2021, 08:18 PM
WORSHIP
How unfortunate it is that he should be such a serious thing, Worship.
Were he a child prone to softness, perhaps he might have smiled, let loose a breath of laughter. It is plainly evident that she had not spoken the words in jest, but the laughter would not have been born from any amount of humor. Instead, it would have sprung forth from the giddiness of feeling as if he had just been gifted a secret. Some unknown fact of life that he could not have known before she told it to him.
But he does not smile, this boy, and he does not laugh. He just goes on looking in that same breathless wonder, still afraid to blink, lest the reality of the world steals her away from him.
He edges closer, just barely, as if he will not be convinced of her realness until he can feel the heat radiating from her skin. He doesn’t touch her, though. Wouldn’t dare touch her.
She shifts his focus from brilliance to the wings sprouting from his sides. He turns his head to glance back at them, giving them a little shake before he turns his focus back to her face. He shakes his head and this is his first taste of what it means to disappoint. She had asked it with such reverence that he does not think he has the heart to tell her the truth.
But he is not a liar, Worship.
“Not yet,” he tells her and unfurls the baby wings so that the soft feathers rustle as the wind catches them. “Someday I will, my father promised to show me how.” He says this just as seriously as he had said everything else and he sets his mouth in a thin line when he goes quiet again.
And then he draws in a shaky breath and says, “I think I will like flying.”
Were he a child prone to softness, perhaps he might have smiled, let loose a breath of laughter. It is plainly evident that she had not spoken the words in jest, but the laughter would not have been born from any amount of humor. Instead, it would have sprung forth from the giddiness of feeling as if he had just been gifted a secret. Some unknown fact of life that he could not have known before she told it to him.
But he does not smile, this boy, and he does not laugh. He just goes on looking in that same breathless wonder, still afraid to blink, lest the reality of the world steals her away from him.
He edges closer, just barely, as if he will not be convinced of her realness until he can feel the heat radiating from her skin. He doesn’t touch her, though. Wouldn’t dare touch her.
She shifts his focus from brilliance to the wings sprouting from his sides. He turns his head to glance back at them, giving them a little shake before he turns his focus back to her face. He shakes his head and this is his first taste of what it means to disappoint. She had asked it with such reverence that he does not think he has the heart to tell her the truth.
But he is not a liar, Worship.
“Not yet,” he tells her and unfurls the baby wings so that the soft feathers rustle as the wind catches them. “Someday I will, my father promised to show me how.” He says this just as seriously as he had said everything else and he sets his mouth in a thin line when he goes quiet again.
And then he draws in a shaky breath and says, “I think I will like flying.”
you were the boat that breached in the tale of conrad
oh, i loved you with the good and the careless of me
but it all goes bad
oh, i loved you with the good and the careless of me
but it all goes bad
@[Stellaria]