The Magpie without Wings
“I am from the future.”
“Are you? You look like someone from the past!”
“Yes. Then I am from the past.”
“You cannot be from both the past and the future. If that were so, two opposite worlds would have collided and we would have perished. This conversation would not take place.”
“Then I am neither from the past nor from the future.”
“But you're not from the present either…”
“Can't I be someone above time? Someone beyond the three phases?”
I smiled. “No, you can't. In a world full of time-keepers, you must be in one. You must.”
“How about being time itself? If I can't be anything -- why not be everything, all at once?”
I stared at The Magpie Without Wings. It/he/she was of a bright blue; black on his beak, brown on her claws and a red stripe down the tail. A festival of colors -- a festival without end.
It would be then that I would come to know what it truly means to fly. Wings? No, you don't need wings to fly. Wings are merely an illusion, a deception, a soft veil between those who flew and those who didn't.
Yes, I flew with the Magpie, without wings. The clouds drifted apart, the wind rushed beside us, serenity was no longer a luxury and we…we aimed for the zenith, Magpie and I. And in the midst of flight I realized why time was never relevant.
The Magpie flew boldly, as if all had bowed down to him, and I with a hint of fear inside me, as if something would rise within the clouds and turn this heaven to a graveyard of solitude. But no, that would not happen. The one beside me would protect me and nothing, absolutely nothing could come in between. I smiled once again.
“You put too much faith in me.”
“Yes. You seem to have given the impression that I could.”
“All of it is unreasonable.”
“Faith is anything but reasonable.”
“What happens when I fail?”
“When you fail, the temptation of life will be no more, I fail with you.”
“What if... what if you went on without me? What if I depart now...? Would that change things?”
“It would only be waste of your courage. I cannot last without you. I shall lose my purpose.”
The Magpie Without Wings stared at me. I, in utter despair, stared back. Afraid that if I looked away it/he/she would no longer be there. And in that very moment... time stopped.
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