Once upon a time, there was a boy, there was a girl. This boy, this girl, loved each other with a firey passion that often exhausted itself in anger and rage. But still, they loved.
As the years passed, their passion grew and so did their anger and rage. This anger, this rage, it drove a wedge between them. Over time the small wedge became a larger gap, a still larger gully, then a large gulf between them. But in their anger and rage, they didn’t notice this gulf between them until stepping out to reach her, he fell into it. Upon hitting the bottom, he looked up and called to her, but she could not hear him.
Sadly, the boy realized there was nothing more he could do, she was simply deaf to his cries. He placed a small package on the ground at her feet and walked away, to see where this gulf would lead him.
Time passed, and the girl noticed that the boy was gone. The firey passion, the anger and rage, all… gone. Then she noticed the gulf, and the package down below. She stood there, looking down at this package for the longest time, wondering what it was and how she could reach it. One day while she was standing at the edge of the gulf, contemplating the package, a wolf came by. He stood quietly next to her and looked down at the package, then asked her what it was.
“My love left it for me, before he left.” she replied. “I do not know what it is.”
The wolf continued looking down into the gulf. Finally he asked her why she had not gone to see what this package was. “I do not know how.” she said, sadly.
The wolf and girl stood there, silent and unmoving, for a long time. The girl began to think about leaving the package there, alone, and wandering off. Things were calm, nice, and the wolf was good, quiet company. She mentioned this to the wolf one day, and he nodded wisely. Then, without warning, he stood on his hind legs and pushed her quickly over the edge of the gulf. She landed hard at the bottom, and looked up to the wolf with tears in her eyes. He looked back at her, and as he turned to leave said “you need to know.”
The girl sat at the bottom of the gulf, staring at the package. It had been so long since he left it there, it was covered in a light layer of dust. She picked it up, it was light and heavy at the same time. Blowing the dust off the top of the package, she opened it. Inside of it was her heart.
Once upon a time, there was a boy, there was a girl. This boy, this girl, loved each other with a firey passion that often exhausted itself in fear and hurt. And finally, this fear and hurt burned out his passion and as he left, he gave her back her heart, her love, her passion.
She held her heart in her hands and wondered what to do with it. She sat like this for a long time. One day, walking down the gulf, the wolf appeared again. He asked what she had in her hands, and she showed him her heart. “Would you like it?” she asked. The wolf smiled and shook his head. “It is not yours to give to me, you’ve already given it to another.”
Tears finally fell from the girls eyes, and she told the wolf that the boy had given her heart back before leaving. “Well then,” said the wolf as he licked the tears from her cheeks, “it sounds like you need to give it back again.”
“But what if he won’t take it?” she cried. The wolf simply smiled and pushed her to her feet. “Go,” the wolf said, pushing her forward. “Go and see.”
She stumbled to her feet, heart cradled in her hands before her. She set off walking down the gulf, following the path the boy had walked before her. Before long she found him, sitting at the edge of a pool. She stopped, unsure of what to say, and held her hands out to him, heart extended. “You left this behind.”
The boy looked up, startled. After a moment, he stood and walked in front of her outstretched hands. Looking down, he smiled sadly and said “No, I gave it back to you.”
“You can’t do that” she told him. “Only I can take this away, and I haven’t. It’s yours.” Before he could refuse her again, she thrust her heart back into his hands. He stared at it in wonder, and after a moment placed it away for safekeeping. She looked at her empty hands, and then remembered. Closing her eyes, she pulled out what she had been keeping safe for him, his own heart. “This,” she said, handing it to him, “is also yours.”
He looked once more at her outstretched hands, holding his heart between them. Smiling, he reached out to her hands and pulled her close to him. “That,” he said, “has not been mine since it became yours.”
Once upon a time, there was a boy, there was a girl. This boy, this girl, they loved each other with a firey passion.