Between here and now

Happiness is a slimy thing. It catches you unawares on some dark nights, and on some others, decides to go on a long walk. To some it may seem like the measure of their lives, and yet to others just a passing purple breeze. Ah, the transience of Frangipani scented afternoons.
How many lives and how many hours we spend, wondering what is amiss, or thanking our stars- when the answer is staring you right in the face. This vagabond word starting with an ' h'.
Holden also starts with an h. It is a proper noun (I think). He shares the first alphabet of his name with the theme of this piece- and he is the protagonist in many ways, if you may.
Though it is often said that the world is a small place, Millie always thinks these labyrinths are anything but small. She gets lost a lot and is incapable of telling right from left just after she has had a strong dose of some existentialist she just met on the welcoming racks of a library.
Maybe it is this quality that attracted him to her. Or was it the look- when she looks up with those dark eyes of hers, lost deep in thought, and gives you this intense stare like you are some beautiful anonymous hamlet she sees from a train window.
I am attracted to you because I know I cannot touch you, cannot be a part of you. We are but divided by the thin metallic frame of time and space.
If this is not ethereally sad, then what is?
Hush starts with an h. It is a strong word, lots of personality to it. It can be something you say holding a wailing lover in your arms, or something you say in the middle of the night when your spouse can’t seem to stop snoring and you think you heard a little noise downstairs.
Examples are hilarious figures. You can build so many stories around this. Hilarious simply because hilarious starts with an h.
She read an example once. Twisted and turned it here and there and added touches of imagination to it. That is how her favorite story was born.
Once upon a time there lived a king. This was a strong, handsome king who loved his people and generally did a good job of managing his kingdom. One day his empire came under attack. He lost.
He takes refuge in a forest close by with some of his followers.
Needless to say, they were heartbroken.
It was as if the entrance to the forest had those lines from Dante’s Paradise Lost.
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.
The king was dejected, but had not lost heart. One of his followers asked him how he managed to look forward to the next day given what had just happened. His answer was simple- this too shall pass.
Sweet transience.
Like a bunch of monkeys who never tire picking lice from one another’s hair, they managed to keep each other’s spirits up, and even make a strategy.
Stratagem is a pretty word. Like a pale young woman standing at night by the shore, waiting for a sign, while the wind amuses itself playing with her hair and her knee-length, thin cotton dress.
So they planned and attacked their erstwhile kingdom. And won.
What do you know; life allows you victories every now and then.
A celebration was thrown on the streets of the kingdom. The beloved King is back. Through the procession that followed, a follower asked the King “ Are you not happy, my Lord”?
Simplicity etched meticulously with wisdom. The King’s answer- this too shall pass.
So she has all these thoughts, these stories running through her head.
It is so absorbing, almost like a vaccum, where there is an opaque fragility to your aura- that of your thoughts.
But really, does that sounds like a bad thing?
Is there such a thing as bad or good? Who makes all these laws that govern our life- good, bad, three meals a day, laundry, waxed arms.
In many ways Holden is like The Little Prince. He only asks questions, does not answer them.
So then why does he leave her little presents- like a copy of a book he saw a woman read in a coffee shop? Just before he did what he likes doing most afternoons- charming his way to a woman’s heart.
In many ways their story is like one all of us share with our destiny.
Hoi polloi is a funny word. It belongs to the masses and still is a part of you. It starts with an h.