XI

THE CANDLE (REPRISE)

 

The Horseman stared in wondrous shock,

seeing, even on this child, the golden lock

of hair that had so bewitched him from that fateful day.

His Hellbound voice knew not what to say.

 

And so he began his tale from the start,

imagining that before him was the girl of his heart:

 

‘Once upon a time, there was a quiet lad,

and most of the time, he felt lonely and sad.

And nothing much happened ‘til a girl came to town,

a special girl whom he loved to see ‘round.’

 

The little girl shone with a glorious smile.

(She hadn’t thought of herself that way for some while.)

 

‘All the other boys of Two Trails Cross

tried their best to thaw out the frost

that they felt from that girl as she sauntered along.

But the quiet boy…he heard a warm song

which grew in his heart every time she passed by.

Until one day she smiled and he felt he would die.’

 

Molly giggled, embarrassed and amused.

 

‘The boy had never been so far from confused,

and he knew right then what he had to do.

He planned it perfect, and thought it through,

and he brought his sweetheart high to the tower.

 

‘He presented her first with a beautiful flower

he had picked himself from the outskirts of town.

And he lit a candle as his sweetheart looked down

over the place she had come to call home.

When he turned to her, she could have turned him to stone

with her cold and absent and horrified stare.

 

‘She told him she could no longer be up there.

Her smile was gone, her eyes showed disquiet.

Yet asked he of her love, lest she would deny it.

He held out a box with a trinket of love,

and opened the lid with all the faith of Above.

 

‘But she shook her head, and tears rolled down her face,

when he had been sure this was the perfect place

and time and way to declare his intentions.

But she told him she could not be his redemption.’

 

The Horseman held the gaze of the girl,

feeling foolish and weak in the womb of his world.

She approached him and reached for his stubbled face,

but he stumbled back to the rubbled place,

afraid that her touch would corrupt her forever.

 

But she spoke soft and said, ‘I never

intended to break your troubled heart.

I would have said “Yes” had I been born apart

from the dealings and wickedness of Two Trails Cross.

From the very beginning, our lives were lost

to the bargains and ceremony of the old men of town.

My Dear, Dear Norman, we were always Hellbound.’

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