Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd, Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn'd.
--William Congreve, The Mourning Bride

Party People,

Dig. She pulled herself through that strange grey artificial layer they paved here. It was easy and quick, she just needed to apply pressure, then a low crack like bones. Her fingers were digging passed, flexing and rendering these fragments of asphalt in a slow shattering. The cool cool earth was next and nothing else to get in the way.



She whispered to the earth. It has been too long. The earth whispered back. Yes. The earth had spun around in the darkness, waiting and waiting. Holding on to her voice and and to the moments that transpired ages ago between them. Her fingers all over him so amazingly the same as when last they were together. Dig.

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This is what happened to this man earth and lady tree.

They awoke holding one another. This was their first memory. And for the longest time they stayed this way, clinging and listening to the other breathe. Earth's belly inflated and burred, deflated and the lady tree could feel his heart beat. when she breathed, her branches shivered and some leaves sprouted and some fell. They tickled. The loam was soft and always gentle. The leaves always caressed and brushed at his body as they swayed in the wind.

One day, the lady tree told him to watch, as she stretched over his body and crawled a for a few.



She stood, reaching up to the sun stretching a little more. Then she danced. Her slender legs carried her off scissoring. The roots trailing like ribbons. When she leaped into the air, the wind caught under her and lifted her even higher as her leaves all at her back a waving flag. She landed and bent over. She spun. Her head whipped around and her arms outstretched and she took on the shape of a star.

I'm watching, the man earth said. My eyes are open.

I know, she said.

There was another time she went to sleep lullibied by the small snores his chest made. Then she was awoken by explosions. In the shock she stood straight up and she could hear him laughing. When she turned, he was quaking offering up the brightest red fireworks. He boomed. He cracked open and revealed the glowing orange core of him.

This is for you.

Then the booming was done and an awful smoke appeared overhead, thick. He was all black for the gift he gave her.

She shook her head.

Wait. Turn around.

She saw the ocean waters reaching higher than her. Then they slapping down and behind the waves spinning torrents shot down from the sky. And above were the darkest clouds she ever saw. Suddenly a loud snap and the brightest of lights. She felt full of heat and energy and she couldn't stop breathing and things moved so much faster - her eyes her movements her thoughts she saw all the storms of this man earth all the animals that swam around the torrents all that swam in the air and it was all beautiful.

Thank you.



Your welcome.

This went on for some time until time dissolved. Just days and nights. Breathing. And all throughout their dancing and quaking they loved one another.

Then smoke out of the distance a grey tendril ever rising and curling. The earth saw this. He didn't know what was happening, it wasn't him who made it.

The winds soon reported a new storm, something not caused by the air or the waters or his sister moon. The winds called it peapul. It wasn't long before earth learned their language. People. He learned more. He learned that in all their storming, they were killing things and one another. They were damming up the waters and giving things names.

You have to go.

What?

You have to leave me.

Why? I don't want to leave you.

You have to go because they take everything and claim it as their own. They set things down to pinions and kill things and themselves. They will claim you and kill you. You must go.

Where do I go?

The earth looked back at the smoke getting closer. These People are stupid and unaware of a lot of things. Disguise yourself as one of them. I will teach you how.

Then this man earth did as he said he would, and sadly as he knew soon enough they were going to part. He was teaching her how to look like them and act like them. As he did, he cried and rivers veined from his cheeks the clearest and most sparkling blue.

He taught her to forget him.

I will do everything you tell me to but I won't forget you.

He was quiet.

I will come back to you.

He was quiet.

I will come back.

Okay, he said, closing his eyes. He would die hoping she would come back.

For all that the People did to him, this hope was the only prison that made him feel confined and unable to move, the only torture that brought pain. And for the longest time he hoped and waited. Hoped and waited.

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Now. Digging.

I will never let you go again, she said.

I know.

I am stronger now. There's no need for me to run or hide. There's no more need for you to yield to anyone again. Except to me, she said.

I know. I know. He was happy again.

She was almost there. She dug.