"October, why have you left September so far behind? Where has she gone, my September? Do not let her stray from me! What a friend she has been! Beautiful at heart and soul! Can't you bring her back to me?"
"It was a beautiful September, m'lady," sighs the October. "She was constant, loving indeed, enduring to the end. But sweet one, we've a curse, we seasons. When the wicked one fell to the depths of the sea, he put a curse on all the beauty. But m'lady, twas we who deserved the curse."
My eyes have brimmed with tears as the wind swirls the dead leaves round. I listen to the howl it makes, an icy dart pierces my soul. "How wicked indeed he must have been!"
October looks down at me. "Tis a sad tale, m'lady, but it's we who earned our fate. I myself am shamed for the pride that was bound in my heart."
I look up to see his face drawn sad. "Surely, you have not been so horrible!" I cry. His own tears answer for him, flushing the earth with a torrent of wind and rain. "Tell me the story," I whisper softly and October lifts his head. He nods to me and I know it pains him so.
"We seasons were a selfish lot. But we were not always so, for the Good Man made us fine and lovely. But then came the day when the wicked one rebelled against the Good Man. He renounced the Good Man's name and hated him! The Good Man banished him to the depths of the sea. But when he fell his curse fell upon all the land, to man and beast, to all. The Spring disobeyed, along with March and April, and we all were soon to follow. Selfish creatures, we loved ourselves more than we loved the Good Man, the one who had given us life. We forgot that it was the Good Man who had made us beautiful and claimed our beauty as our own and not that of the Good Man's. Our beauty we thought much more than others and we flooded the earth with our seasons, allowing no other to enter the earth lest we should be spoiled or wrecked. Wicked things we were, for everyone did as they pleased, even lovely September, and I myself was the first!"
The October pauses and his face is sad and worn. I watch his pain filled gaze stretch to the horizon and wait for him to go on.
"The want for beauty and adoration, m'lady, drove us mad! We had forsaken the Good Man who loved us and we demanded more beauty for ourselves. So selfish we became, so loved we our season, we wanted each of our own to be the one season of all, to be the season of the best! Quarrel we did and we hated each other! But then in anger, sorrow and hurt the Good Man bound us forever and ever to the clock and it's menacing Time. It laughed in our ears and wailed in our sleep and we begged to be set free! But Time held us strong and we were never released. Now each must carry on in turn, bound to the days allowed us while Time laughs in our ears. Death has now enveloped us. We live a little while and then we die away. We kill and show no mercy, for we are bound solely to our fate. We live, but we cannot be constant. We are there, but we can make no promises to stay."
I feel my heart beat slow within as the October cries his tears. Once more they fill my eyes. "Can nothing be done to set you free?" I say. "Can you not beg the Good Man for one more chance?"
Sadly the October shakes his head. "We are only mere seasons, m'lady, we have no souls such as thee. We weep now for forgetting the Good Man, for doing him a wrong. We may never return to the way that we were, for now it is too late. Beautiful outside we are, but empty and hollow inside."
Through his tears he looks at me and suddenly a smile brightens his face. "But you, m'lady, weep no more for us! You have been given true life, to be lived for no one but the Good Man. Live it well and love him, m'lady, for it is he who has set you free. The bonds of time and wickedness hold you no longer. One day you shall live forever. Take heed now, m'lady, to these words I have spoken, and do not forsake the Good Man."
~Kaitlyn MacKenzie~
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