DEEP IN THE WATERS OF LOVE

 Joan Stephens

 

Sitting beside the Mirror Pool, Vincent watched a leaf float down from the chimney tunnel that led to the Upper World and drift into the water. It remained suspended on the surface for several minutes, but as the water slowly over-lapped the edges of the leaf, it slid leisurely below the surface and began to glide backwards and forwards unhurriedly deeper into the depths of the pool.

He had been thinking of Catherine and how much he missed her and needed to see her. He had only known her for ten short days before she returned Above, and it was now eight months since he had seen her to the underground entrance to her apartment building. When she had laid her head on his shoulder and snuggled into his mane, he had experienced an ecstasy that he had thought was to be forever denied him. As he tentatively put an arm around her, he knew then that she had found a place in his heart that no one else had ever discovered and that could never be filled by anyone else.

As he watched the leaf sink lower and lower in the water, it came to him that he was like the fallen leaf, falling deeper and deeper into the waters of love. But he had no desire to halt the descent, whatever the future held for him and the woman he loved.

Fini