Once upon a time, in a perfect valley of perfect trees, an ugly, clumsy creature crawled out from a cave to be under a perfectly shining sun.
He saw the sun and wondered why it shined so bright. He saw the flowers and trees and wondered how they could be made to look so nice. He saw the butterflies flutter and birds fly high and wondered if they knew of their charm.
Every morning, crawling out of his cave, he’d wonder why he ever woke up. Every night, while going to sleep, he’d wonder if the day was even there. When he dreamt he wondered if dreams were real. When he didn’t he wondered if he was.
He wondered, with all of his wondering, how he’d in any way find time for the answers.
During an afternoon of wondering and wandering, he discovered the prettiest flower sweetly singing the happiest song. Because he didn’t know what else to do, he ran away and hid. He waited for the moon to become a blanket before using its cover to aid his escape.
Again came dawn and he found his path leading in the flower’s direction. He was awkwardly cautious to not come into view, worried she may scare at his sight and fold her petals to hide forever. He looked long from as far as his eyes allowed before running his fastest back to the cave.
Sitting in the cave, he wondered how long the flower had been there before he found it. He wondered how long it might stay. He thought of a million words to say she smells pretty and more that described how it feels when she sings. Dancing alone and singing her songs, he tried to build up his courage.
The days were passed watching her glitter and, with meticulous motion, rehearsing his words. His nights were spent waiting for days, and the songs that they carried with them.
Then came unexpected, and with lovely surprise, a melodic request for, “Hello.” She was singing that this she wishes whenever he’s dancing, “So, pretty much, all of the times!”
His tune didn’t carry an abundance of sugar when he answered, “Oh, how I really, wholly, truly want for us to be friends, but my wondering how much you won’t like me is always holding me back.”
The flower got giggles and asked him, “Why?”
“Because I’m ugly and clumsy and far too different from all of the other things, I imagine you won’t like me a lot!”
The flower got giggles and asked him, “Why?”
He explained how everything he sees is so perfectly pretty and, surely, he felt, he is not. He told her that all he does is wonder all of the time and of all the things he wonders about.
She asked him why he would even need a reason for any of those things.
That was the last thing he ever wondered about.
It felt so nice to sit next to the flower that he decided never to go back to the cave.
He sat with the flower for all of summer. They never stopped laughing all through the fall. He kept her warm while she slept when winter came, patiently waiting for her to awake.
He waited. And waited. And waited…
Her rising in spring came with a fright from the way all the trees had sprouted around her. When asked, “What’s the matter?” she said she couldn’t see the sun shine through. With the trees in the way, she will not be able to grow.
It hurt his feelers to see his most favorite thing in the world be sad. It was only right for her to be as happy a flower as she could be.
Because of his clumsy, he couldn’t try to move her. He didn’t trust himself handling something so fragile. He was going to need an idea.
His idea came at night while she slept and he worked hard until the morning arrived…
She woke up, surrounded by sunshine, to see his smiling face. Quietly asked the flower, “And, what did you do?”
He told her how he couldn’t risk moving her, so he moved the earth around her, instead. “First,” he said, “I just gathered enough dirt to make a mountain, and when that mountain was ready, I spoke to all of the trees.”
“But what did you say?” she wondered.
“I asked if they might better like that mountain for being closer to the sun. They liked that much,” so he had moved them one by one.
He was so happy to do something nice for the flower that he didn’t notice the splinters in his hands when he was finished, or the fact that he had built a perfectly beautiful mountain. He was too busy watching the flower sleep while he worked to have paid attention to anything else. In all of his excitement, he never even considered taking a break.
Sharing their fresh new breath together, he questioned, “Is all this okay?”
She has yet stop singing long enough to give a “yes” or “no”.
Fin.
Best enjoyed with the following:
1. Sigrid – Dynamite (Acoustic) 3:51
2. Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats – I Need Never Get Old 4:14
A Rando Mand Irving Production
7/18/19