[F&R] The Disillusioned Healer.

The old woman sat on her chair at the marketplace, her herbs and oils and trinkets splayed upon the table in front of her. Occasionally a customer would stop, and look, and as she watched them come and go, she felt the pain of being alone again. Yes, she'd had many loves in her life, and she reminisced about each one she had lost. There was one she loved, and still did, and a tear formed at the corner of her eye thinking about him. She had sent him away, years ago, not because she didn't love him, but because she loved him too much. He was so full of life and ideas, yet a simple man, and they formed a connection that was strong and powerful. She sent him off, she remembered, because she knew inside that he had to follow his own path, and she cut off the connection so he could follow it. She knew she was too old now to have connections anymore, having had a full life, so she simply sat and waited, waiting for death to visit her some night while she slept. The old woman was full of knowledge, called a witch by some and a friend by others, but respected by all those around her. When she spoke to you, it was by carefully chosen words, and even the small children could feel her presence.

One day, as she sat, an old hobbled wizard shuffled into view. She wiggled herself upright in her chair, her attention piqued, and sat waiting for him to speak.

“Kind maam, I have a list. I need supplies, and I'm told that you may have what I need. You seem well-respected, and my path has brought me here, to you today.” He looked into her eyes.

She glanced away. Did she really feel that blush? No.

She looked back at him, and he was still looking into her eyes. Their eyes met. They knew.

The old wizard burst into laughter. He laughed heartily for several minutes, tears of joy flushing his eyes. His laughter was contagious, and she joined in, feeling his joy.

“How long has it been,” he asked her, “How many lifetimes?”

“Too many,” she sighed heavily, “I've grown out of touch. I am broken and old. I can't do magic anymore.” She sighed again. “I'm about done, Josh.”

“No, Sam, you're not.”

She sighed.

“I'm working on a temporal dislocation spell, and curious how it brought me back to you. I believe you have the last components I need, and I'd like to invite you on this trip with me.” The old wizard chuckled softly. “Would you believe you have it within you? I do. I'll keep reminding you. I'll remind you of your strengths, and your weaknesses, and eventually you'll realize it too.”

She sighed. She was too old to believe anymore lies. She lashed out at him.

“Josh, you broke my trust once before,” and she stood up from her chair, walking towards him, “and I'm too old to believe anymore. Damn you man,” she said as she walked closer, “Don't do this to me.”

Josh pulled her into his arms and they both wept together, two old people who had their lives blended together. The embrace lasted until they were both empty.

She looked at him, her wrinkled face to him as beautiful as the first day they met, and his wrinkled old lips kissed hers, and he felt the love he'd cherished for years.

“So what's this spell you have, old man?” She chuckled, back to business. “What exactly do you need?”

“Well, since we are temporally dislocated right now, and in the frame of reference of this particular story, in medieval times, I must yield to the fact that I need a balance character in my story line.”

“Which is me.”

“Yes, and thank you. You're a pretty sexy old hag, Sam the Witch, and I just wondered....”

“Not until you tell me what you want. I'm onto you.”

“Well, hun, to be honest, I've learned it takes two people to reset the Multiverse.” He looked at her, and waited for her response.

“Two? Do YOU know how tight that binding would have to be?” She looked at him incredulously.

“I know,” he said, “I know. It's why our paths have crossed again. It's Wyrd.”

She shook her head. “No, I can't believe this.”

“I didn't believe in you when I needed you most, I was afraid so many years ago. You're the one that taught me hope, then set me free, and I've studied everything I could. I've come back now, at the twilight of our love, to offer you a chance to reset the past. This spell, it has many drawbacks. Our memories will become random dreams, and we will be two simple homesteaders with no knowledge of our past interactions. We must give up all we know about one another to complete the spell, and I've hesitated coming back here to you to give you this offer.”

“And I wouldn't be able to remember anything about you?”

“No.”

“Then no. I would rather die of old age with all my memories, and my memories of you I'll never give up. We were lovers long ago, dumb ass, do you think I forgot?”

“And so, I think the risk is worth it. I've tried my own soul, and it says yes.”

“I will be young again?”

“Both of us. Just remember, all of our current memories will be more like dreams. The things we know now will be our own intuition in the future.”

“A confused twist of knowing what we want?”

“No, more like it happening the right way.”

“How can I believe you old man?”

“You can't. You have to know. It feels right inside. It feels right, inside you.”

The winds were picking up around them, and Josh nodded to Sam that it had begun. The winds began to howl, and a vortex of wind swallowed them together, placing them in a different dimension together.

“Hi,” she said.

He looked at her happily.

She winced in pain, briefly.

“What are you feeling?”

“Just a pain, nothing sharp. It must be due to the phase effect of the quantum shift.” He stopped, and looked at her.

“Did I hear that right?”

“Yes you did. Your spell worked. We're back Home.”

“Yeah, we're home, but where?” He looked around at a wooded landscape surrounding them, no highways or cars, and the sounds of birds singing in the air. It smelled like spring, and intuition told him it was the early seventeen hundreds, no technology around. No internet. In the distance he spotted their log cabin, and realized that he was in the middle of working on splitting a pile of logs for firewood, and then he looked at her. She was young and beautiful. He sighed.

She hugged him.

“You goof, Home is being with you.”

Synopsis:

Here was an attempt to explain how Love can be had, lost, and won again. I tried to put an emphasis on trust. If we are ever to forgive anyone, we must learn to re-trust them. That's almost impossible for most people. I've had to learn the hard way, and yes, it's hard to forgive, but once again, the prevalent theme happens to be love.

I also got a chance to use a few technical terms, which was cool as well. The wizard's spell was actually tech that he had been working on his whole life, just to return things to they way they were, a second chance. He spent his whole life researching it, for one sole purpose: to have another chance with the woman he loved, and to re-live the possibilities that might have been. He sacrifices his own knowledge to start again, and wins. I am trying to work around the mere words of "forgiveness", and "reconcile", utilizing terms and themes on those basic concepts.