I've had this one on my mind for some time. I finally sorted out the best way in which to share it with the world, enjoy. Pictures are by Mikael Owunna, I do not claim any rights to his photographs. I simply felt they would illustrate the story well. Please support him.
“I was Cleopatra?”
He responded, his voice monotone. “A fraction of you found temporary abode in Cleopatra.”
Bridgette considered this as she watched the man that stood in front of her. Man, if he could be called such. The voice was deep and rumbled from the chest with the baritone of a male lion’s roar and the shoulders, broad and well rounded, implied Samsonite strength. Yet there was nothing obvious that identified him as a man. Though he wore nothing, there hung no genitalia between what appeared to be legs. In fact his appearance could only be described as negative space in which she saw an inky blackness dotted by a field of stars, planets, and galaxies of different sizes swirling within his form as if he held the heavens themselves. It was too fantastical to be real, yet here she was.
She continued. “And I was Josephine Baker?”
His monotone response continued. “ A fraction of you – “
“Found a temporary home, yeah I got it,” Bridgette had tirelessly asked the same question trying to piece together everything he’d told her, all somehow familiar but too fantastical to be embraced. “So you’re telling me, a part of me has been all of these people, throughout time, and I’m now my most complete form?”
He nodded seriously and in turn Bridgette broke out with hysterical laughter. From what she’d understood, she’d basically been a part of some of the most influential women in history; from Cleopatra, to Joan of Arc, to Josephine Baker and so on. She, an ex-drug addict barely making a living and preparing to be evicted from her rat infested apartment. If only the revelation that she was a celestial being could pay the rent.
“So you’re telling me I’ve lived all these amazing past lives only to find my ultimate existence in who I am now?” Bridgette didn’t stop laughing. She didn’t know why but the sheer audacity that she’d been anything great was too amusing.
“They are not your past, they’re parts of you,” His voice was somber as he spoke. No hint of humor to indicate he was in on her joke. Instead he spoke as though he carried a heavy burden, one he wanted to release. His eyes, well what should be eyes but were in fact blank white spaces, peered into Bridgette hoping that she would understand his persistence and so she sobered.
“Earlier you said you are Omega and I am Alpha, that you’d returned to give me a gift,” She hesitated, overcoming a shiver before continuing. “I want my gift now.”
“Are you open to receiving it?” He asked tentatively as if to a child that did not understand the full ramifications of what they asked for.
She thought about his words, placing two fingers to her face as she peered up to the ceiling, pondering. What could be the worse outcome of this man, who was like no other man, gifting her something? She was curious. “Yeah, I’m ready.”
With that he stepped towards her, the celestial bodies within his own increasing the speed of their orbits as they rotated faster with each step. He reached out hands, that did or did not exist, a light beginning to emanate from his body as he closed the gap. The fingers of his hands reached for either side of her face as Bridgette watched frozen in awe.
His hands met Bridgette’s skin and as they did he transferred millions of thoughts and images to her causing her to relive thousands of lifetimes all at once. Then Bridgette saw. This universal being, they were one, then split into two in the beginning before beginnings. From there they lived on until man was created. Bridgette experienced her own growing fascination with mankind. How she became so concerned with their plight that she tore herself into pieces that she sprinkled into what humans called “time” in order to enlighten each generation. She watched as she ushered in new eras, in different forms, inspiring new thoughts and helped to create a wave of brilliance. Then, just like that, she was back in the room with him, crumpled on the floor as tears of triumph and defeat painted the experience across her face.
“What did you do to me?” She asked with a tremble.
“I gave back to you the one thing you left with me,” He replied looking on with concern. “We vowed to love each other until the never-ending. When you decided to leave you asked me to safeguard one part of you and to give it back when you would need it most.”
She felt compelled, she wanted to know, and so she aked. “What part was that?”
“Your heart,” He replied simply and smiled for the first time since he appeared in her living room. His smile was beautiful like the sun appearing after a thunderstorm had passed.
Suddenly Bridgette felt her body tingle and she knew somehow what it meant.
“I have loved you forever, always, waiting for you return,” He stated and as he spoke Bridgette watched as her body was engulfed by light until she couldn’t see him any longer. The sound of his voice remaining clear. “Though we parted you are still the best part of me and I only wish to give back to you all that you gave to me.”
The light blinding Bridgette dimmed and he came back into focus.
His smile still shone brightly as he spoke. “ I have waited so long, watching you grow.”
The form that was once Bridgette looked down to her own hands and saw that they were now like his as shooting stars became her veins and the inky blackness of space became her skin.
And then when she spoke her voice was new and she understood. “We are alpha and omega, we are balance.”
He nodded, his smile fixed, and with that they embraced and dissipated as they held each other returning once more to the universe.
He nodded, his smile fixed, and with that they embraced and dissipated as they held each other returning once more to the universe.
Photo by Mikael Owunna
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