Nostos

Dear friend,

      I hope you are doing well. It has been long since you and I have discussed our dreams and exchanged pleasantries. I wish to return to those times, so I will begin the tale I have conjured.

      The sun was shining just right and the sky was a perfect blue. These were the first things I noticed. I thought it to be a beautiful summer day. Do you remember those? A cool breeze blew from what I perceived to be the North and carried the beautiful scent of your favorite flower up and into my nostrils. Oh how the roses smelled! They seemed greater than all others before them! I wish you could have smelled what I did. It would have brought such grace to your heart!

      The ground then appeared beneath me. I discovered that I had been lying down. I could feel the grass carefully supporting my head. I relieved the burden of the tiny blades and looked around me.

      Oh how vivid the colors were! Cobalt blue flowers celebrated life on my left and bright orange ones on my right danced with the wind. Behind me, towards the North, lay a world of red and white roses. I nearly jumped to my feet, but remained where I lay. I had plenty still to observe.

      There was so much life around me! It was vivid and oh so real! The beauty of all the colors was all I could see. It was a rainbow painted upon the land itself. I wished oh so dearly that you might be able to join me. But dreams are lonely by nature, so you could not.

I stood up and immediately recognized the wonderful place. In the distance I could see Mount Olympus. Oh it was the garden of Macedonia that we once shared! The roses, then, were those strange thornless ones that the king had grown. Why was I brought to our place in this vivid and beautiful dream?

      I am sure you have plenty of suggestions already, but this is no dialogue, my friend. This is a monologue, like all dreams are. Remember the days that others would come across the gardens? With such wonder they would wander about. So often they would whisper sweet words of Paradise. Were we in Eden without realizing?

      There was no snake that forced us to leave. Oh I apologize! Lucifer forced no one to leave the garden. They did it out of their own free will. Oh yes we made that choice, if not by accident. I remained for some time after you were thrown from the grounds for crimes that could have been easily avoided and pardoned. You did not return, despite all of my lonely wishes. Eventually even I left the gardens. It is strange, but no other plants seem quite as beautiful anymore. The fruits are dry. The vegetables are tasteless. Even the tea leaves do not grow well.

      Winter comes and I expect for my travels to be halted for the time being. I do not quite know if you will receive this letter. I plan to post it soon, but where I am, there is none but myself to send. To the nearby town I will walk in hope that this letter will reach you. Dear friend, take care, for good friends like you are hard to find. I hope my short narrative will give you a reason to find me.

      Until only our ends remain,

      Sincerely, your friend.

-Zero