Felicity – A Philosophical Fable [Chapter 12]
It was nice to watch Sunny paint. Especially nice was that first stroke of color on the white wall. This time it was red. A bold red that spiraled upward.
Mimi reclined on a sofa. She heard Wave’s voice. Then Tripp’s. A moment later she saw them. They appeared around the curvature of the walls.
“It doesn’t look like Sunny’s coming,” observed Tripp. “But you’ll come, won’t you Mimi?”
Wave put his hand on an area of the wall that Sunny hadn’t gotten to yet. A doorway opened. Mimi was curious. She nodded.
The doorway led to an inner courtyard. Mimi was delighted. She had never been in the open air before. This was her first time. Though that seemed unlikely. Surely she had been somewhere before she came to be here. But this was the first time that she knew of, so she was delighted.
The stone tiles under her feet were cool and hard. A novelty in contrast to the plush carpeting inside. There were rattan sofas and lounges. Each with white cushions. The cushions were as soft and luxurious as the ones inside. Wave stretched himself out on a lounge chair. Tripp sat on a sofa. Mimi sat down too.
She looked up. There was no moon, no stars. Just a pearly gray sky with a streak of the palest pink. Neither growing nor fading. Twilight.
Was it dusk or dawn? Mimi couldn’t tell. But it was beautiful.
Wave broke the silence. He wanted to hear Tripp’s latest poem and Tripp was happy to recite it to his little audience.
Butterfly of gold
Striped in bands of brilliant hue –
A fragile tiger.
Wave was meditative. His closed his eyes. Slowly he repeated Tripp’s poem aloud. Then he smiled a broad smile and lifted a shakuhachi to his lips. The sound was ethereal.
His melody was simple. It evoked stillness. Stillness and peace. It was a twilight melody. In harmony with the surrounding silence. Mimi and Tripp listened. The lilt of the bamboo flute was like the rustle of leaves in a breeze. Transcendent and pure. The breathy sound of the instrument mingled with the scent of wisteria in the air.
Mimi inhaled deeply the rich floral aroma. It had not been there before. She felt sure of it. She would have noticed. It was too lovely not to notice.
She would have liked to see the flowers, but she couldn’t see very far in the twilight so she got up and took a few steps onto the grass. The grass was lush and tickled her feet pleasantly. She walked towards the center of the courtyard. She meant to walk to the opposite side, though she had no way of knowing how far that might be. If she knew the size of the house she could have known the size of the courtyard, but she didn’t know the size of the house. She didn’t even know if she had ever made a full circuit of the house.
She walked a long time without reaching the other side. It felt good to walk on the grass, smelling the wisteria and hearing the delicate sound of the shakuhachi. No matter how long she walked the sound of Wave’s flute never got any fainter. It was as if she had not walked any distance at all.
When she decided to return to her sofa, it was only a few steps away.
The pink streak of light in the gray sky was just as it was when she first saw it. Neither more nor less. It made Mimi wonder. If she waited, would night fall or would the sun rise? Would the stars appear or would a new day dawn?
She would have liked to find out, but she fell asleep before anything happened.