As I lay dying...er...passing time on the table at my chiropracters last week I worked on this post in my head. I've traded in acupuncture for chiropractic. It's cheaper, my neck now moves much like it's supposed to and I get a lot of time to work on blog posts. I'd just fall asleep at acupuncture because it was so relaxing.
I once made a foolish bet with a very good friend. I inadvertently challenged him to find my tale on the 'net. I should have never done that. I want to keep my story safe from the prying eyes of in-laws and my own family (not that they would look for me) and not have to censor myself but now this friend thinks he is unwelcome here. I knew when I challenged him that he would find me. He spent hours and hours reading blogs to do just that. I think he would have read the entire internet if that's what it took. Because he cares just that much.
So, this tale is for you my friend. Keep reading today and forever, if you want.
Once upon a time, in a land far far away, where the roads were made of tobacco and the rivers flowed with sweet tea that only the natives could drink, lived a fair maiden. She searched high and low for a prince but only found errant knights and wayward minstrels. She fell in love with one of the knights and thought for a while he'd grow up to be a prince, or at least a fine wizard. He shared his castle with another young wizard while they both pursued the dark arts. These wizards were far from home so the maiden and her family took them in for all the normal holidays and things of that sort.
The wizards and the maiden shared many interests. They were modern knights so their jousts involved pinball and their allegiances were to the schools that trained them. The wizards were devil worshippers--blue devils, that is while the maiden favored a school the color of they sky. Even with these differences they had a great deal of fun together.
Wizard school was long and grueling but it finally drew to a close. At around the same time, the maiden decided it was time for her to complete her training. She left her chapel on the hill and moved west to a strange salty city in the desert and left her love on tobacco road. The other wizard moved even farther west, to a land of cable cars and golden gates.
The maiden and the wizard in black (as her friend was known) shared many late night calls. They both felt like strangers in strange lands and found great solace and friendship in each other.
If this was a traditional fairy tale, you might think we were nearing the end. Many writers would have the maiden and black wizard fall in love and live happily ever after. But not this one.
There were visits back and forth. The black wizard met a maiden here and there. The distance helped the maiden realize that her love was just not 'the one' and she should search on. The black wizard was very happy and rejoiced in the maiden's decision. Once she stopped looking she found her true love. Isn't that how it always is?
But this is a fairytale about friendship not love. The maiden and the black wizard remained very good friends. The maiden and her true love moved to a castle built of stock options (not the best foundation as they later found out but that's what happened) by the sea. The maiden's work sent her on travels far and wide and she started spending a lot of time with the black wizard. This time, the black wizard shared his life and his friends and made her feel so welcome. As luck (and the high tech job market) would have it, the maiden and the prince moved to the black wizard's kingdom. There were great feasts and parties. People were voted off the island but never out of the party. Life was good but one thing was missing.
The black wizard was lonely. He still hadn't found his match. The maiden and the prince (and all their other friends) wanted nothing more than to see their friend happy. They thought for a while they'd all get their happily-ever-afters when the black wizard took up with a feisty fun maiden but it was not to be.
The maiden and prince finally got married and the black wizard was the best man there and all the land saw what a great and true friend he was and what a story he could tell. The maiden and prince, like so many newly marrieds, got all bogged down in their lives and their trials and tribulations noted in other pages here.
The black wizard had tribulations of his own. He parted ways with the feisty maiden. His saw his truest companion, the best friend a man could ever hope for, killed by a large vehicle near his castle.
He searched high and low for a maiden of his own. For a while, he kept company with a raven-haired maiden. This liason started for questionable reasons at best according to the black wizard. While the maiden and the prince liked the raven-haired maiden they felt their friend still wasn't happy and this wasn't the best match. The black wizard himself said it wouldn't last more than a few fortnights but he was so very tired of being alone and really wanted a true love of his own.
Other friends of the black wizard questionned his new relationship. Some severed their ties because they felt he wasn't being true to himself and they couldn't bear it. This angered the wizard. The smug marrieds stood by their friend and supported him. But it would be a lie to say they weren't greatly relieved when the relationship died. They thought he might now find a love worthy of him.
They still hope for that day but here's where our story, like all good fairytales, takes a turn. The path to true love is never easy or straight. In most fairytales, there is an evil stepmother or bad prince or something like that. Our story has a trickster maiden. One who knows how to confuse the wizard and push just the right buttons to put a spell over him. All of the black wizard's friends are very sorry at this twist in the plot.
I hate to end the story here but I'm still waiting for a better ending. Maybe one of my lurkers could help me out?
Maybe one of the dear friends could expose the trixter maiden, or cast some sort of "truth" spell on her.
And I agree, worship of devils that are blue is wrong. Am a former student of the skyblue school myself, and only minutes away from either.
Hope your friend finds his heart's desire soon.
Posted by: Kate | Tuesday, 19 July 2005 at 06:57
Um, Millie. I am not sure what you are going on about but hey! its pretty.
Posted by: Pamplemousse | Thursday, 21 July 2005 at 04:30
not as clever as you, so i can't come up with anything! but friends with devils who worship the blue? millie!!
Posted by: elana | Monday, 25 July 2005 at 14:40