Apr 214 min read

Turtle - short story

Updated: Sep 14

May 9th, 2022

story from the book: NOT EVERYTHING IS LIKE IT SEEMS Life-written Fairy Tales for Adults

by Katarzyna Nowocin-Kowalczyk

I saw Him from afar. On the way to the parking lot. I got out of the way. I sat quietly on the grass and watched him for a while. He used to run away. This time he stayed. As if the fear had passed.

At some point, I realized that I had stopped motionless like Him. I stopped in life. I stopped on the way to the parking lot. Between the bench, trees and water. Away from the world. There was only Nature, He and I. Time stopped and I stopped. Zero thoughts, no unnecessary emotions. Total silence inside. Serenity. Harmony. Unity. And I thought, "It's good. So good. This is our moment.”

And He seemed to hear my thoughts. At one point, slowly, without haste, at his tortoise pace, he stretched his neck even more, turned his head towards me and, seemingly without looking, began to observe me. First, just with one eye. Apparently casually. The other eye was looking at the water. I looked too.

And I saw a Mirror. And emotions in this Mirror. And this Mirror was as if divided in half. Part of the mirror, on the other side of the lake, as if far from us, was wrinkled by a gust of wind. It seemed to flow. As if the water was chasing itself. The wave chased the wave. Emotion chased emotion. The second part of the Mirror, the one on our side, was perfectly smooth. Silence. Serenity. Balance.

And in this whole mirror were reflected trees, sky, clouds, sun, birds. The entire world. However, the image on our side seemed to be clear and harmonious compared to the crooked image reflected in the emotionally wrinkled water, somewhere far away from us. As if in another world, although in the same one.

And suddenly, as if awakened from reflections, I heard that I thought, “This water is uneven. On one side the surface seems to have a bulge.” I smiled to myself as if I answered myself. “That's what Illusion is. The illusion of life. A crooked mirror.”

I looked at Him again. As if I wanted to tell him this. But it turned out that it was He who looked at me with a playful twinkle in his eye. And as if he were saying, "I already know that.” Then he blinked and slowly, without haste, at his tortoise pace turned his head towards the water. Again he froze motionless, and I with him.

And again we were looking in the same direction. Towards the sun. We observed the same thing. We were next to each other, but as if connected by an invisible thread of light energy. Time seemed to have stopped again. “It's good. So good.” A white bird sang. “This is our moment.” The second bird sang. The wind carried these words further. “It's good. So good.” The water hummed. “Good...” The tree branches rustled. Two white birds performed a love dance in the air.

After a while, though it is difficult to say how long it took, He turned his head again. He looked at me as if confused and ashamed. As if awakened from a deep sleep. Shy in his shyness, but confident in his confidence in what he is doing. As if with an apology and an invitation at the same time. As if he were saying, "I'm sorry it took so long. I'm sorry I slept so long. Sorry I didn't listen. I'm sorry I ran away. I don't want to look at you from afar anymore? Shake my hand, girl. Stand next to me. Stand by me. Let's dance together. The road is wide and beautiful ahead of us. Bright. We will walk this path together holding hands. Looking in the same direction. We are not afraid of storms, because the storms stayed far behind us. In another world. There is only the Wisdom of experience and the Love of the heart. You are. I am. We are. A One. I already know. I understood.

Two white birds made another full circle above our heads. “It's good. So good.” The bird sang. “This is our moment.” The second bird sang. The wind carried these words further. “It's good. So good.” The water hummed. “Good...” The tree branches rustled. And again time stopped, but as if it was flowing at its own pace. As if in another dimension. As if time wanted to give us time. But a different time. Time without storms. A time of sun and joy. A time of love. “This is our moment,” He said. “I already know that. I already understand. And I'll never let you go again. This moment is eternity. This moment is Unity. This moment is Harmony. This moment is our life.”

- Katarzyna NK (Catherine)

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