Mapping The Territory - Elegy (5)

MAPPING THE TERRITORY - ELEGY (5)

'Fools.'

'Come again?'

'I cannot abide fools.'

Mapping The Territory - Elegy (1)

MAPPING THE TERRITORY - ELEGY (1)

'Now it's clear, my dear, for all who can see; it's nigh time you started confiding in me.'

'I keep my confessions for curates and shrinks. That excludes - woe is me - a Priestess who drinks.'

'Tut tut, dear child, where's your etiquette? Just because you run wild pray, please, don't forget there's a reason we're heading this way. . .

'Are you so very dull that you really can't tell that this walk will decide if it's heaven or hell? It wasn't free-will, it was mandatory; this hiking you're doing's called purgatory.'

'Really?'

'Yes.

'A heart only has so much pain it can take before it stops beating. (They call it heartbreak). I'm sorry to say that your days are now numbered, but, some of us care that you die unencumbered by feelings that might leave you bitter and twisted and so (I'll come clean) we've petitioned - insisted - you're given a chance to repent all you hate before you drop dead (as they say, become 'late').

'Ok. Where should I start?'

'How about at the beginning?'

Mapping The Territory - Seven Years (2)

MAPPING THE TERRITORY - SEVEN YEARS (2)

'Once upon a time (let's say, seven years ago) . . .

'I was married to a man (who was not married to me). A confusing state to be in as I'm sure you clearly see. After all, what should be done about the house and custody of all those ornaments and nicknacks that remain so dear to me?'

(I looked in vain for another planet heading our way.)

'Well.

'The point of man and wife is that you get to share the strife that this life throws at you - clod-like - now and then.

'But.

'When matrimony isn't mutual - think, one-sided kind of nuptials - there ain't nothing that's reciprocal, at all.'

'Why do you speak in riddles?' I forced myself to say.

'Child, it's no major feat to follow (though, I know, it's hard to swallow). I conceive you are deliberately obtuse. . .

(I curled up into a ball; asked 'what's the use?')

'Here's the thing', she continued, unperturbed.

'If a man gives you his ring, he saves you from your kith and kin. (Did you ever meet my family? I forget).

'So, it came as quite a jolt - and I maintain it was his fault - when I divorced him on the grounds of gross neglect.'

Mapping The Territory - Seven Years (1)

MAPPING THE TERRITORY - SEVEN YEARS (1)

'Well, ' said the Priestess, extracting herself in an ungainly manner from her make-shift bolt-hole . . . 

'Given we're still here,' as she downed a Macon Lungy. 'Let me tell you a short story and, forgive, if it affects me. As you know I'm quite emotional (some might deem 'over-theatrical') but I cannot help deep feeling, after all.'

I searched the skies for another potentially-fatal missile heading our way, but all I could see was the Milky Way.

'The story, my child, goes like this . . .'