Everyone a Glimpse

Drem clapped his hands three times. "Now I think is a good time for a story. My people tell many stories, all of them to a purpose of some kind, some of them very old. This story has been told for a long, long time." He looked round the circle, not looking for their consent, there was no question all of them welcomed the prospect of a voice amongst them without the necessity of responding to it. Drem looked to see if they were listening and ready to hear; all of them, especially Nina.

He began: "A long time ago there was a big tree on a little island in the middle of the river. Up in the tree, as is the custom among our people, there was a platform with a house on it. It was a nice platform. The eaves of the roof hung well over the sides so the platform was always dry. There were partitions that could be moved about, so the house could be remade according to the wind and the time of day. There was a railing right round it and a ladder that led down to the ground that could be pulled up at the end of the day, leaving the people in the house safe and peaceful for the night.

At this time, there lived in this house a woman and her two daughters. The older daughter was almost as beautiful as her mother but the younger was the most beautiful of all. She shone like a star in the forest of the night and she was like the moon in a midsummer sky in the forest of the day. People would come by the island just on the chance of catching a glimpse of her gathering sedge among the reeds or looking over the edge of the platform. None of them took any notice of her beautiful mother never mind her sister who was almost as beautiful.

You might think the father would be happy to live with these beautiful women, sharing his life with the mother and her two daughters. For a long time this was indeed the case. When the younger child came, things gradually changed. Her beauty, you see, wasn't because of her appearance but rather it was because of who she was. She brought beauty into the world. Before she came, beauty was something that may have been around them but not so people truly knew what it was. Before the girl came, there were just different qualities, people would know that one thing was different from another, or one person was different from someone else, but they knew these things without really knowing why. When they saw the girl, they knew what beauty was; now they understood it when they saw it. As soon as she came to the platform, everyone around her felt it. Her father was drawn to her just as much as any of the people who came to the island hoping to catch a glimpse of her. He doted on her, bringing her treats, nuts and fruits he found or traded, he would spend hours carving her intricate little toys, boxes, even furniture. Occasionally he would remember the mother and very occasionally, he would remember the other daughter, but his remembrances just served to remind them how much he forgot and made them more bitter than ever. The young child was so beautiful it was impossible to hate her so instead they turned their hatred on the father.

The hatred became a tangible thing, visible in the evening light in the way the glow around the brazier on the platform stopped before it could reach the outside. The platform begrudged the light and ate it up, hungry from all the anger and bitterness of the people that lived on it. Finally, the mother and the older daughter had enough and they got rid of the man. There are various stories about how it was done, but they are for another telling. Suffice to say, one day he was no longer there. The younger daughter asked her mother where he was but she said he had gone off into the forest to live somewhere else. She asked the older daughter where he had gone. She said he had gone off to see the great ocean that bordered the edge of the world. The younger daughter knew by these things that someone was not telling her the truth. She asked again but her mother said to be quiet. If he were coming back, he would come back; there was nothing she or anyone else could do about it.

Many things made the youngest daughter beautiful, but those who knew her well said the most significant thing was how she was unaware of herself. She had very little idea of her own appearance or the impact she had on other people. In the same way and for the same reason, people had very little impact on her. So, when they told her the man had gone away, she accepted it, even though the older daughter told one story and her mother told another.

Getting rid of the man made no difference of course. People still came on the flimsiest of excuses just to see the younger daughter or even be where she had been. The mother and the older daughter quickly slipped back into a bitter anger now laden with an additional load of unacknowledged guilt. Still the younger daughter's beauty deflected anything they directed at her. They could not be angry with her for long and so they turned the anger and resentment against themselves. The older daughter went around with a hard pinched look on her face. The mother saw it but no one else did. Other people had never paid much attention to the older daughter in any case. The mother's face became drawn and haggard. She seemed to age a year for every month she lived and a week for every day, she constantly looked tired and began to quarrel with and snap at the older daughter.

Again, there are many stories about how it happened, but the younger daughter left. Some say she left because she could no longer stand the other two women. I don't believe it. I think there came a point where she could no longer see the other two women because they became so unlike her. She left because she was lonely and went out into the world seeking others like herself. The two women did not realize she had gone for some days. They were used to her disappearing for days at a time. Slowly they realized she was gone. When they really understood what it meant for her not to be there, it was too late; they realized that she was an essential part of their lives but it was a part of themselves they no longer had any access to. They knew they would have to find her if they were ever to know any peace. What they did not know is that they had lost the capacity to see her at all.

The youngest daughter wandered from one community to another looking for people like herself. In the end, she was doomed to failure because there was no one like her. She was beauty personified and no creature like her had ever come into the world before. Slowly, sadly, she disappeared. People found it harder and harder to see her. What they saw was a brief glimpse of light in the setting sun. Something like the flight of a bird passing in front of a rising moon, some sound in the forest deep in the night when the hearer wakes and cannot even be sure if the sound is something they heard or something that just came into their mind as a gift from the earth. The younger daughter learnt to see herself in these brief glimpses. As others saw her, so she saw herself. Hardly ever a person, mostly just something seen, heard, touched, or smelt in the world as it passed them by. Most especially the younger daughter saw herself in little children. She saw herself in lovers old and young. She saw herself in things people made with their hands and a touch lovingly given and gratefully received. No one knows for sure what became of her or of her mother and the older daughter. It is said that the younger daughter visits everyone before they die. She gives everyone a glimpse of herself before leaving this world. She has become the handmaid of death. Without her people cannot truly die and be at peace. If you haven't seen something of her in your life, you will be condemned to an existence eternally devoid of beauty and joy. You can imagine what they say has become of the mother and the older daughter."

To follow this thread in the story go to: Let it Go

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