L) Lovers [of course]: A Lullabye [of sorts]

3 Kids. Babysitter rustling them down to tell them a story before bed. It's past bed time. Bed is a word these three kids use for sleep. Both a noun and a verb. I have homework to do.

Once upon a time

What time? Bed time? Day time? Nite time?

Ok you're right. This story didn't take place up on a time. This was before the wind. Before the rain. Not so long before the day or the night.

Before the moon and sun?

No, they were out there, listen. It was dark. It was dark. The mountain was alone in the dark until he heard the sea. She was humming a song and she shined with the rays of the sun across her surface. She shined and she sang and she was lovely.

The specific ocean?

There was only one. One sea and she was all things, she was a raging torment and as clear as a dream, all at the same time. Since there was only one of her, she could be all things, and so she was. All things simultaneously, that means at the same time.

But the mountain couldn't know this because he had always only been alone. There had not even been any other mountains for as long as he could remember. For all he knew, she was just another mountain, and he treated her just like he would treat another mountain.

Now mountains long ago were very tall and they were very far apart. They didn't say much to each other because it wasn't considered polite, and so even as the mountain grew to be more and more in love with the sea, he treated her almost as if she was invisible to him. Luckily, the sea had seen the mountain, too.

The sea doesn't have eyes.

Sure it does.

It does?

Yes. Go to sleep. But you're right in that the sea didn't see the mountain on her own. The fish told her about him.

The fish?

Yes there were many fish of all shapes and sizes and colors who swam from her depths to her shallows and they were her friends. The fish saw the mountain watching the sea, and they heard him talking to his friends about how he would like to meet her.

Who were his friends?

Goats. There were goats who climbed from his rocky heights down to the crags and caves near the tideplain which led to the shore, and they kept him company even though sometimes they annoyed him because they were as stubborn as he was. But he considered them his friends.

And then the sun came through the clouds and it was daytime, and the sun set after a time and it was night. And after many days and nights of watching each other the sea finally broke the ice and she waved at the mountain and said “Hello. You are very tall.”

“Yes,” said the mountain, a little more coldly than he intended, “I am. I am a mountain. Mountains are very tall.”

"I am the sea," she said and “I would like to be very tall, too."

So the mountain thought about this and said, “why don't you come up here and be tall with me?”

And she did. She stretched out her fingers and wrapped her arms around him and pulled herself up to reach the very height of his height. This caused a great wind to blow when she did this. The whole sea moved and a great gust of wind blew in one direction all around the world.

The mountain liked being surrounded by the sea. He liked the colors under the water, and all the little fishes that danced around. He liked the way the sea was all around him, and everywhere he looked she was there, over and under, inside and out, shining and dancing in the light. He could not see anything that was not within the sea. “You are very deep.” he said to the sea one day.

“Oh yes!” she said, suddenly remembering that there was more to life than being up very high. “Yes," she said sadly, "I am very very deep. But you would like it, being deep I mean. Would you like to try it?”

The mountain thought about this and said he would. So he took a deep breath and down they went together, he spread out his rocks, going deeper and deeper, and he fanned out his legs and stretched out his toes and lay back his head until he was at the very bottom where it was very dark, and very quiet, and it even hurt his ears a little bit to be down there, but the sea was with him and it was magical.

It was so very deep. The goats swam around and around like fishes, and the fishes went in and out of his caves like the goats. The sea laughed at him, stretched out down there, and he laughed too. It was nice to be deep. But then he got scared.

“I'm scared that I might drown if I stay down here too long,” he said.

“No, no, there's nothing to be scared of. You won't drown,” she sang happily.

“But I'm scared,” he said, and he really was scared, but the sea just laughed and danced and sang.

“Look at me, I've never drowned down here, you'll be fine.”

But he did not feel fine. He leaned his head up and he picked up his things and he raised himself back up out of the sea and onto the land where it was dry and he could breathe. This caused a great wind to blow when he did this. A great wind blowing in the other direction around the world. And when the two winds collided they picked up some of the fish, and they picked up some of the goats, and these became birds. Birds flying in all around the sky between the sea and the mountain.

“I miss you,” said the sea, “ please come back into the deep with me?” But he could not hear her for the wind blowing all around him. She waved and waved and screamed and cried. And he cried too, because he missed being surrounded by the sea. “Come up here and talk to me!” he cried, “please come here and we'll see how high up we can go together!” But she could not hear him for the wind. And their cries became the first rains, and when it rained the sun did not come out for days and days. And the mountain missed the sea when the rain kissed him, and the sea stretched out her hands, reaching up to the clouds where the rain was coming from. And it was very sad.

But when the rains stopped and the sun came out again, the mountain looked around and saw that the rains had washed a river into his side. All the loose little rocks flowed down the river from him into the sea. And the sea saw that all the rains had lifted her up, and her shore was lifted right to the edge of the mountain, and she smiled.

But they could not hear each other because of the wind.

The sea waved at the mountain, to tell him that she loved him. And the mountain smiled, and thought about this, and he loved the sea right back. “I love you,” he whispered to the goats, and the goats whispered it to the fishes, and the fishes giggled and danced and laughed and played and forgot all about it by the time it was time to go to bed.

And the sea said to the fishes, as she was tucking them all in before she turned out the lights, “how was your day? Did anything happen? Did you hear anything from the mountain?” But the fishes had all gone to sleep, little fish smiles on their little fish lips, and behind their little fish eyes, little fish dreams swimming through their little fish minds.