Attempt a Smile


Jack sat as tall as he could on the cliff overlooking the swamp. So much had transpired since the first moment when he had laid eyes on the one he loved. So much had gone sour. With a sigh, he pushed himself to his feet and jumped, the wind rushing through his hair and over his skin, a swan in its last moment before it hit the water. He could see everything so clearly now, but it was too late.



A stranger brushed past him as he strolled along the road toward his love's house. Jack looked back as did the stranger, except Jack was smiling and the stranger was snarling. With a shrug he let the man's image go. There were too many fights to pick and not enough time to pick them. He chuckled.

The town of Arey was large, but not so large as to warrant more than a short walk to get somewhere. However, he lived on one side of town and his love lived on the other. He moved in and out of traffic, ignoring vendors yelling out their wares, and into the main square of town. The breeze picked up and blew across his face, twisting his hair up pushing it into his eyes. He laughed and brushed it out of the way, sliding his fingers lightly across his forehead while a girl carrying a basket of flowers smiled in response to his laugh.

The main square wasn't exactly bustling with activity, but it was full. There were quite a number of people around, but no one was really doing anything. They stood, some fixated on the grass or the birds, others locked in pleasant relaxed conversation. Jack suddenly frowned and continued on his way.



A group of young boys were playing Kick-the-Can by one of the houses, but he didn't give them a second look. This part of town was where the rich people stayed, and he had no right to look wherever he pleased in this neighborhood. The sun, instead of being pleasant, seemed to attack him with heat, beating down hard on his skin and making sweat pour from his brow. He sighed and put his hands in front of his face looking up at the sky, and turned around to look at the rich houses. Each one stood jutting out of the ground, holding in all of its rich contents away from grubby hands like his. He furled his eyebrows at the site of the children playing, staring where his eyes shouldn't go. It was past time for him to play. He needed to go see his love.

He turned and continued down the road, determination filling him to the brim. Everything else in life didn't really matter when compared to this. He stopped short of her house and climbed the tree right off of the porch to wait.



She stepped outside radiantly shining like an angel in the sun, her heavenly figure perfect in every way he could think of.

Her hair hung at only shoulder length, but it shone with life and vibrancy to make up for hair as long as a woman could grow it. Her face digested the surroundings, noticing him in the tree but not showing it in any which way. She opened her mouth and the voice he longed to hear came out, "Have you been waiting long, my love?"



"Nah. I haven't. Only for an eternity."

She giggled, putting her hand halfway over her mouth. He kept himself well hidden behind the leaves just in case anyone happened to look their way and possibly see them together.

"And you?"

"I've waited long enough, love. But I have things to do unlike you, and there are many distractions for me."



"All that I am required to do is to visit your person. I have nothing else that really holds any importance."

"Yah, love. But life is important as well as to love me."

"Nah, to love you is life, and to breathe your breath is to breathe the fresh air after working in a smithy for the day."

She giggled again, this time covering her entire mouth. "You speak too highly of me, and too lowly of life. What cannot be will not be. There is nothing we can do to change that. Now, I must go. I'm sorry. Someday, I will let you touch me, but until that day you must wait patiently."

He sighed and waited for her to walk back into the house, then rolled off the branch onto a nearby roof and ran, jumping roofs until her house was out of site. He went home and went on with work when he had to, went on with play when he could, but every week he would return to the tree, and every week he would long to touch her more and more, but not until she gave him leave to. The guards had almost caught him lingering in the rich neighborhood one day, but he managed to outrun them, knowing every route there was out of the area in just such an emergency. He was adept at seeing her, for he had planned his life around this- their meeting.



The longing to touch her grew stronger in him, until he could almost not control it. Still she seemed to stand farther away from the tree each time he saw her. He could not understand. Were his words too strong?

Then his words grew harsh, and his temper grew hot. He had been kicked out of his apprenticeship for being lazy and had nowhere to go. Sorrow over took his joy, and he let himself slip once, one terrible time.



The next time he spoke to her, he was harsh, too harsh. Afterward, she seemed to step farther back from the tree, almost too great a distance to speak with. He worked as hard as he could to get into her good grace again, and did, it seemed, but she still remained distant.

Time passed, his words sporadically harsh, and it came so that he really could no longer speak to her because she was standing inside the porch of the house waiting for him instead of walking up to the tree. He would stare down at her with tears in his eyes, and from time to time she would glance up wondering what to do with him.

Then, one day, he couldn't bear it any longer and he scrambled down the tree, ran to her side and laid his hand on her face. She didn't see him, but she knew that he was there. Tears streamed down his face, for he had finally touched someone, felt their presence, and then she told him that it couldn't be. He didn't hear the words, so stunned he was. He stood in place, too afraid to move. A guard shouted and he spoke words to her so terrible and so harsh that he shocked himself. With a look at the guard he started running, and as soon as she was out of sight, he knew that it would now be too late for more words. An apology wouldn't work after this. He had spoken with too much, and she was too far away from him. He wished that he could take away that one touch, the touch that only he himself had committed, but it would stay with him.


Jack hit the water like a can rolling over the grass, smooth and rough at the same time. Maybe it was time to move on and not be crushed over something that had happened in the past, but the touch remained clear in his mind. He had given it, and had not received it back. He knew that his harsh words were the reason for that, and that even though she did not touch him back, at one time she had wanted to. At one time, she had adored him, and he was the reason that all that had changed, not her.

The water in the swamp glistened in the sunlight as he broke the surface for breath. His hair lay limp at his shoulders and he looked up at the sun beating his brow with shimmering heat. Lightly brushing the hair out of his eyes, he attempted something like a smile.

 

 

Umm...