A violent earthquake struck the town before dawn. Argonar's house collapsed in a heap of rubble.

Argonar's two loved ones departed for that distant other world before they could awaken frm their deep sleep & without ever having had a chance to say 'Good morning' to him...

The morning sun rose on a town that had been destroyed in an instant. Amid the rubble, the flowers were blooming~the white flower that Argonar's daughter had wanted so badly to see.

Argonar thought to lay a flower in offering on his daughter's cold corpse bt abandoned the idea.

He could nt bring himself to pick a flower.

No one~no living being on the face of the earth, he realized had the right to snatch the life of a flower that possessed that life for only one short day.

Argonar could nvr say to his daughter,
'You go first to heaven & wait for me. I'll be there before long'

Nor would he ever know the joy of reunion with his loved ones.

To live for a thousand years meant bearing the pain of a thousand years of partings..

Argonar continued his long journey.

A dizzying number of years & months flowed by years & months during which numberless wars & natural calamities scourged ther earth. Ppl were born & they died. They loved each other & were parted frm ones they loved. There were joys beyond measure & sorrows just as measureless. Ppl fought & argued without end but they also loved & forgave each other endlessly. Thus was history built up as the tears of the past evolved gradually into prayers for the future.

Argonar continued his long journey.

After a while, he rarely thought about the wife & daughter with whom he had spent those few short days in the harbor town but never forgot them.

Argonar continued his long journey.

& in the course of his travels he stopped by this harbor town again..

He offer up a prayer. Argonar closed his eyes come the smiling face of his dead wife & daughter. Why are they so beautiful & so sad, these faces that believe with all their hearts that tomorrow is sure to come?

200 years had passed. The white flower had changed. Where before they would bloom & wither in the space of a single day, now they hold their blooms for three & four days at a time.

Moistened by the dew of night, bthed in the light of the sun, the white flowers strive to live their lives to thf fullest, beautifying the town as if rtriving to live out the portion of life denied to whose 'tomorrows' were snatched away from them forever...

Labels: Fairytale