words: a response to compassion

Albir

I miss the life I had as a child. Everything was black and white. Nothing gray, no shades.
But then there were no sudden bursts of color either.

Ariella walked with me last night. In my silence, she left me there in the garden. It wasn't abandonment, it was understanding.

Tears came immediately to my eyes and my efforts to angrily send them back from whence they came were unheeded. I cried like a child; with complete abandonment, weeping as loudly as I dared. There was nothing to help it!

There was a girl standing in the bushes. That girl. The unfortunate girl who became the object of Alphonse's misjudged obsession. The girl who still bears the bruises I inflicted.
I expected ridicule, spite... cruelty in revenge for my abuse.
She stood there for a moment with loose strands of her hair caught in the branches behind her.
I never imagined such a graceful gesture; in one movement she was on her knees before me, wrapping her arms around my shoulders and pressing her face against my chest.
I confess that despite my expectations, I welcomed her embrace. She could be nothing but one of the most beautiful beings I have ever encountered. Her eyes, when she finally released me, were bright with tears, and I kissed her. A kiss in a garden and a wooden seat swinging slowly back and forth.

I seek solitude for my despair, but long for an end.