Viral Souls

Once upon a time, there was a girl. Like all people at one time or another, she yearned for a grander world and a sense of purpose. Her world was sweet, and simple as one’s world can ever be, and real, but she was affected by what she read and watched and she felt deep in her heart that there was excitement to be had somewhere, elsewhere. And then, when she found no fairytale excitement, she grew up, as most people eventually do. She created a sweet family, and settled into a simple job, and lived a real life. And then her children left, and she retired, and she was alone in a house meant for family.

Once upon a time, there was a woman. She lived across the street from my bedroom window in a house meant for family, the kind with a chimney, and a bathroom and a half, and  screen doors on the patio that expose the living room. When I was younger, like all children, my curiosity controlled my actions: I would peer in through the screen doors from my bedroom window, and although her sons often visited on holidays, I would see she was lonely. And then one day, she was gone. I remember, as I awoke the day she left, I was hit by an all consuming knowledge that settled in the place a soul resides. I knew her, suddenly, as she knew herself. I remembered in my heart all at once every trial and every accomplishment we had ever experienced, every benevolent kindness and every flagrant iniquity, every love and every loss. All at once, I felt her yearning for a grander world, stronger than I had yet felt myself, and I felt us accept the real world. I felt her loneliness as my own for a great while, and finally, I felt how she could not leave peacefully, so she chose me, the girl who peered in through her screen doors when I thought she could not see.

Once upon a time, a fairytale unfolded within a high school. You did not notice, because the tale was not your own; indeed, it could not be, for you chose to grow up early, and accept your sweet, simple, real world for what it was. You did not know that a girl with two souls desecrated her sweet, simple, real world and crafted a grander one, with true love at first sight, and a villain, and a purpose, and comedy and tragedy beyond anything in your world. You did not know that your classmate experienced a great trauma in early childhood, resulting in her two souls, or that she brought so many of your classmates into her grander world. You did not know, when you noticed her at your high school reunion, that she was in her seventh and last happily ever after. When she approached you, you could not know that she had chosen you. But when you finally knew her the way she knew her two selves, you left your sweet, simple, real world, too.