I NEED YOUR LOVE

Present Day

Sky drove and drove and drove, just interstates, cutting north, then west, then north again, stopping occasionally for gas and at rest stops to sleep.

Some rest stops would have trails through wooded areas where she would walk.  Such walks would bring peace to her mind.  Slowly, day after day, her wits were being restored.  A Will seemed to be growing inside of her, a self she could only very faintly remember from early childhood.  But where were the gods?  Surely the whole thing must have sparked their attention, but for days her travels had been without incident.  This thought bothered her at first, she thought it must be the calm before the storm.  She had thoroughly prepared herself psychologically for their tactics, and now, nothing…  As the days went by she paid less and less attention to these kinds of thoughts, for the Will that was growing in her was free, she knew it, she felt it.

One night, asleep in her car, she dreamt again of the cat.  She was happy to see it this time.  She had something she wanted to tell it.

“Hey, you…  I’ve been thinking about the Why…  that reason why anything exists at all…  What that reason is, I really don’t know, at least not intellectually…  but it does mean that everything, from the very beginning, is that Why – the gods, Derek, flowers, hawks, sparrows, fish, the moon…  all this, everything… there is a reason for it… … And for me!  There is a reason for me, even me, this tiny little confused animal floating on some big rock through space…  There is a reason… for everything… and it’s all part of the same reason… We are that reason!”

The cat smiled and responded, “It’s a refreshing thought to say the least… isn’t it?..”

That was it.  It was a short dream, but it brought much joy to Sky upon its remembrance.

Meanwhile, back to the first day when Sky left… Derek had gotten home from work to find half-empty closets and dresser drawers.  Had he broken her?  He could not know, and he dared not try to predict what fate would naturally bring.  Besides, he knew what she was going through.  He too had gone through it from the days when the gods targeted him.  He also understood too well by this point, from a combination of age-old deeply-ingrained experience and just plain-and-simple reasoning, that she could not and should not be persuaded one way or the other.  He too wanted her to find herself.  This he desired more than anything in the world.  Furthermore, today, the tattoos on his arms were constant reminders…  Respect …  Patience …

His heart swelled, and tears welled up in his eyes.  He gathered his strength, trusting in the unknown and putting his faith in love itself, which must be free and if it isn’t free then it can’t be love.  A single tear ran down his cheek, burning its trail as a bolt of lightning might burn through the air.  Neither he nor Sky understood then that it was his will that would protect and hide her from the gods in the days to come, as even she would begin to threaten their control.

Derek went about his routine as usual that first night – dinner, washing up, and going to sleep.  The days lost meaning.  At home he wanted to write, but words would barely find a way into his lost, empty mind, much less onto paper.

His second night alone, he could only write one word:

Oh

Another meaningless day… and another…  And now by the seventh or eighth day (he hadn’t enough sense about him to keep count), he had written just a few simple lines¹:

Oh, my love
my darling
I’ve hungered for your touch
a long, lonely time

He repeats these four lines to himself several times, starting quietly and each time getting a little bit louder.  A melody finds its way into his voice, and this time he continues in song:

And time goes by so slowly
And time can do so much
Are you still mine?

I need your love
I need your love
Godspeed your love to me

Now it just so happened that Sky was walking at a rest stop after having made her rounds north, then back south, not fifteen miles from home.  She suddenly remembered a love she once knew.  It was a faint memory, a free memory, from those childhood years when love was so simple and innocent.  A sadness tore at her heart for Derek.  And in that very instant, she made a decision.  This was not like any decision she had ever made in her life, for her will had grown in these days, it was something she had never known, something that hinted at the Why of her existence, the Why of the gods, the Why of the earth, going all the way back to the first Why.  And she made a decision… wholly from herself…  And she ran to her car just as fast as she could.  And now, homeward bound, she sang:

Lonely rivers flow
to the sea, to the sea
to the open arms of the sea

Lonely rivers sigh,
‘Wait for me, wait for me
I’ll be coming home, wait for me’

Sky bursts through the front door of her home and throws her arms around Derek and smothers him with kisses.  They both dance, holding each other close, and they finish singing the song together:

Oh, my Love
my darling
I’ve hungered for your touch
Are you still mine?

I need your love
I need your love
Godspeed your love to me

*       *       *

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