Hello, readers! To those of you in the US, happy Fourth of July! To everyone else, happy Thursday. This week is my modern version of Sidapa and Bulan. I think it turned out pretty well. I guess I should always write from the perspective of a god of the dead.
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| Isn't he beautiful? |
Although I may be king of the land of the dead, from time to time it weighs on me. So, I make the journey to the land of mortals. I've made enough of these journeys that I can change my appearance to blend in with them. Yet, there is always something that will give me away, and the more perceptive mortals find themselves avoiding me without even knowing why. It's a lonely vacation.
I find myself drawn to the spaces where mortals alter their reality. Movie theaters, plays, night clubs, 24 hour stores in the early hours of the morning, all of these places are just a little changed because of the mortals that gather there. Tonight, I was at a club. Occasionally, someone would pull me onto the dance floor, but after awhile they would fade back into the crowd and leave me alone again. I couldn't blame them. No mortal wants to be faced with their mortality, particularly not on a night when they feel so young and immortal.
It was just after another young woman had left me dancing alone that I saw him. At first glance, he looked barely old enough to be in this club, but from his eyes I could tell he had seen more than these mortals could ever dream of. I confess my breath caught in my throat. I hadn't expected to see another god and certainly not one as beautiful as him. "One as beautiful as him deserves all the praise mortals could heap on him," I whispered to myself.
Immediately, he turned to look at me. I cursed myself for not thinking he could hear me. Tentatively, I smiled at him. He smiled back and then began to move through the crowd. I sighed and tried to shake off the thought of him. Even though we were both gods, he could have any mortal in this club he wanted. Few chose to pass them up to be with someone like me. Even the gods don't like to think about death, you see.
I was shocked to find him next to me, smiling up at me coyly. "Join me in a dance?" he asked.
I recovered quickly. "Of course," I managed. He pulled me onto the dance floor and we soon had a circle of empty space around us. One thing I know how to do is dance, but this glowing god blew me out of the water. While we danced, I recognized him as the moon god. And I understood why his dances tended to take him in circles around me. And why he would dance with me at all. After all, the moon dies every month, but always comes back.
Eventually, without a word spoken, we both agreed to leave the club and retreat to the nicest hotel in town, such as it was. However, that night neither of us were concerned with the interior decorating of that room. I must admit I don't remember what it looked like, except to remember what his glowing light looked like moving over the walls.
We met often after that. Although I was still king of the underworld, he brought out a tenderness in me I thought had long ago been worn away. As for him, he confessed that he was more comfortable with me than he'd been with anyone else. I accepted him as he was and didn't expect more from him simply because he was beautiful. And he didn't expect less from me because I was not.
We had been meeting in a small college town, but I had begun to feel that something was wrong with that town. Something creeping and deliberate. I rarely meddle with these things, so when we were scheduled to meet that sultry summer night, I planned on suggesting meeting in a new town to my lover. I walked into the bar we were to meet at, a cozy underground bar with a jazz band. The Velvet Tango Lounge. As soon as I stepped through the door, I knew this was the center of that creeping maleficence. I searched the small room quickly for my lover and found him sitting at the bar in conversation with another man.
I am not jealous, I have too much trust in my relationships for that, but the depth of wrongness I sensed coming from this new man had me stop and reconsider. Was I sensing that this man was the actor behind this foreboding feeling, or was it simply that I didn't like the way he was looking at my lover? I composed myself and headed over to them.
"There you are," my lover said, his smile for me glowing as it always did. I released a bit of tension. Whatever else happened, I had no cause to be jealous.
"You must be Sidapa," the newcomer said. "My name is Luke." He held out his hand, expecting me to shake it.
I turned to my lover. As a practice, neither of us used those names these days. I could tell Luke was more than a mortal, but I did not appreciate my name falling from his lips. "You two seemed deep in discussion," I noted, draping an arm around my lover's shoulders. "What was it about?"
"Luke wants to change the world." My lover said this in even tones, but from his eyes, I could tell he was excited by what Luke had been telling him. No doubt Luke expected to pull my lover into his schemes. He would be disappointed.
Luke laughed easily. "Oh, Bulan. Your youth betrays you. The world has been changed so many times already. No, I wish to do something grander and make it better."
My grip tightened around Bulan's shoulders. "And you would like his assistance, no doubt."
"I ask for whatever help is given," Luke said, spreading his hands wide with a winning smile.
"I hate con men," I told him bluntly, "and I do not get along well with tricksters. Have you told him what price this change will cost?"
Luke laughed easily. "Every change has a price." His eyes glinted at me.
"Don't you want to hear more about it?" Bulan asked me, his face turning up toward mine.
I resisted the urge to kiss his forehead. "The more you listen to a snake like him, the tighter his coils wrap around you. You see that he is more than what he appears to be, but can you see what else he is hiding about himself?" Sometimes I must remind myself that although we are of a similar age, I am familiar with every trick mankind has thought to pull, but sweet Bulan only looked down on mankind from above and is not familiar with such cunning.
Bulan looked at Luke for a moment.
Luke gave him a dazzling smile. "Your cautious companion is correct. I am more than I appear to be. As are you." He reached out toward Bulan. Bulan flinched away from him and turned to me.
"You may have a silver tongue when you choose, but it is forked," I said to Luke. "Would you like to leave?" I asked Bulan.
Bulan stood and grabbed my hand.
"So long, Luke. Pray we do not meet again."
Luke shrugged. "Never is a long time," he said, sliding back into a laid-back manner. "Perhaps we may meet again as friends."
I decided not to respond and instead left with Bulan.
Once we were outside, Bulan shivered and looked up at me. "I have been ignoring a bad feeling about this town," he admitted to me. "Perhaps it is time we move on."
"I couldn't agree more," I said. I leaned down to kiss him, and then we vanished together into the night.
