Saturday, July 28, 2007

Once upon a time, 2


Long ago, there was a baker in a small town. Each morning, he would add butter and sugar to flour and magicks, and hundreds of delicacies would line up in his window, light as air and as fragrant.

On the outskirts of the town was a painter. She lived in what had once been a stable made of stones. All day long she mixed colours and water and imaginings, and canvases gorgeous with sunshine and fields lined the walls.

In the afternoons, after the redemption of morning light and before the dappled forgiveness of later, she would remember that she was hungry. She put her brushes into pots and tuppence in her pocket and walked the old pebbly path to town.

Two cakes, or half a dozen biscuits. Perhaps a twist of sweet bread. Her hands were stained and striped with paint. Green-and-purple trelliswork decorated her fingers, her palms spotted with rose madder, carmine beneath her fingernails, her knuckles a sunset. The baker watched her hands and saw magicks, which he made into cakes as light and golden as the wheat at dawn.

Moral: One never really knows what one's handiwork is.

7 comments:

Pluvialis said...

Beeep!

Xtin said...

:)

It must be a five-e rating system. Two es, good. Three es, very good.

I look forward to my future masterpiece worthy of beeeeep!

RevJen said...

It's a lovely tale, but this

"In the afternoons, after the redemption of morning light and before the dappled forgiveness of later,"

took my breath away.

Anonymous said...

no

Xtin said...

Thanks Jen. Lovely to see you here.

dr. hypercube said...

I came by to thank you for a recommendation and was delighted to discover that the target post had already been pushed off the front page. So - starting in the past and wandering to most current:

- Your Live Free or Die Hard post was the tie-breaker when the boy and I were deciding on a movie yesterday. We had a great evening - thanks for your contribution.

- Re: Bite Me - I've had those guys as housemates. Whatever gloss they try to put on it, it's all about getting laid. If it were just about stating a preference for women as partners, one would think that 'straight' would do as well. My experience indicates that a guy who trys the mysterious, alluring (in general, as opposed to a particular woman) dodge, feels that the most alluring woman is one willing to have sex with him.

- Once upon a time (both) = wonderful. Thanks.

Xtin said...

Thanks, Dr Hypercube -- in the matter of movie recommendations, I live to serve. Or to be obnoxiously and stridently opinionated, or something.

Re: bite me, yeah. And the annoying part is, I have no objection to guys who want to get laid. Or to people who are interested in sex. Perfectly good interest for anyone! I just object to rhetoric which obscures (including in the minds of those who spout it) the fact that getting laid is the reason they think women are interesting at all. Blech.

And thank you for liking my small tales -- I feel a fable-and-mythology period coming on.