"Love will find a way through paths where wolves fear to prey.'
Lord Byron
Beauty looked around the sparsely furnished diner. Then she stared at the now cold bowl of soup. An unenlightened and random observer would think that whatever was in the bowl was meant for scrutiny and not ingestion. The lady continued to gaze into and stir the soup simultaneously. She worked with rapid scoops as if the answer to what puzzled her lay in the swirling mixture of ingredients. Something was terribly wrong! She had not quite connected the dots or the influx of outer wordly disclosures. But from experience, she could feel the mounting sense of foreboding. It did not help that at this point she was deeply and emotionally invested. This daylight nightmare felt like an unauthorized 'deja vu' movie script.
Someone had taken a page from Beauty's life and was letting it play out right before her very eyes. The forces that prey on gifted and called lives. They would read the stars and signs long before the birth and then camp out at the more resourceful and bountiful sites. The greater the destiny, the bigger the war. Every force was dispatched from 'headquarters' to thwart bind and hinder the forseen threat. For any such as Beauty, it became a struggle to have what was already yours. War is always inevitable for things of immense value. And in that bid sometimes the rightful owner must be tenacious. It could be deadly, it almost always was. But Beauty would fight the unseen.... for love she would.
Just then she saw Brain walking towards her. A pleasant surprise indeed, considering she never told him where she was. She was so excited he had found her. He smiled as he hastened his steps towards her. He smiled indeed, that smile that she loved to see. But wait; she suddenly felt terror roll right down her spine as her welcoming smile concurrently froze on her quivering lips. This was not Brain. It was that invasive chauffeur again! And he had appeared as Brain. As ludicrous as the thought may seem, it appeared like he was wearing Brain like an overcoat! Oh 'earthly blunders' (Chioma Onwudiwe 2015).
How did one go around immersed in someone else's life? So much so that they projected the person's image. What happened to the life given to a person, if they instead chose to steal anothers? How does one rid themselves from the clutches of obsession? And if you were the unsuspecting victim, what would be the outcome of a parasitic partnership. Beauty shuddered in veritable disgust as she took a trip down memory lane, to the day she became privy to this 'play of deadly projections'.
Brain breezed by again for the umpteenth time. Then with the same amount of gusto and geniality as the other six times, loudly announced that he was almost ready. They were virtually an hour late for their lunch appointment. So to cool her rising temperature and deviate any anger that may start to seethe, she started counting the chairs in the office waiting area. As she counted, she wondered how long and with how much effort it would take to stack them all in one corner. At least that was what she intended to do, if Brain did one more round of immobile and recapitulative announcement. Yes, she would stack those chairs in that empty corner and then probably set them on fire...
As if on cue to distract, a strange person walked into the waiting area and proceeded right to Beauty's space. He had to use the chair she was sitting on (one strike). He was loud and abrasive and seemingly talked down to Brain (two strikes). Then he launched into these cacophonic tales that sounded like what Beauty would have loved to hear. But unbeknownst to him (and Brain too), Beauty was not just another pretty face.... if at all. As he bellowed and spread false charm, two words flashed on his chest. Words that only Beauty could see at this time. The smile never left Beauty's face as she pensively studied the words 'ALERT; TRAITOR ON ASSIGNMENT!' Here we go again thought Beauty with a heavy yet inaudible sigh. Can the weary get no respite? Her state of reverie and revolt was so encapsulating, she never heard Brain make his seventh and near final announcement for departure.
In the place of dreams, Brain is reading a book. Behind him stands the chauffeur. There are people around him (Brain) who take chunks of him and hand it to the chauffeur. The chauffeur gets fat with every chunk he gets. In comes Beauty and observes this all too familiar scenario. She has also been food for the vultures at some point in her life, not too far away. She had been spared to spare... She steps in the gap between Brain and the chauffeur. The chauffeur throws a big rock on Beauty's head, but it bounces of her unseen helmet. Beauty immediately pulls a sword from a hidden sheath to strike. She hears The Voice of the Commander-in-Chief of these invisible forces. "Wait...!"
Two days later it is Valentine's day and Brain forgot the ritual! Beauty on the other hand was intently watching re-runs on 'how to get away with murder'. LOVE CONQUERS ALL indeed.
To be continued.
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