A Young Girl Involved in a Scandal

A Young Girl Involved in a Scandal

fiction
edward w pritchard

One Only Life's Myopic Prospective

Love unfolded quickly,
like a origami puzzle when I saw your face.
I thought bliss was eternal,
later after dissolution and deaths
I saw instead that the puzzle unfolded geometrically,
and your face and the hand that I thought I held
were actually myself and filled all of space.
As I now float through eternity alone,
sometimes I remember your eyes,
and for a few moments remember how, before enlightenment,
I thought there were others in vast space besides myself.

A scandal had occurred in the village and of course the old women had uncovered it. They cooked in a group upwind from the village and had been the first to see the young couple returning together to the village and the old women had first observed how the couple were dressed.

Normally the matter while it would be subject of gossip would have been of little general interest after a day or two and anyone with their own problems would have forgot the incident by now and assumed the families of the young brave and girl involved would handle the matter in private where it belonged.

However, since the girl involved uncle was the chief's counselor and adviser the matter dragged on publicly long beyond what was appropriate for a sexual matter.

One bright morning following a long heavy rain the night before a young couple had went for a walk along the river. There was nothing per say wrong with that but it was frowned upon because that is where braves often took young girls and in respectable families a brother or cousin with a strong arm and a quick temper would follow as the families eyes in the matter.

However on this day the sky was very blue, the girl was beautiful and delicate and had went voluntarily with the brave. When they got to a grove of trees along the river, a light breeze had picked up and the wind in the trees overhanging the path along the river, had caused the rain from the leaves high up in the trees to gently drop in a small waterfall on the couple walking beneath. With the bright sun, blue sky, warm breeze, and murmur from the rushing river, both the brave and the girl had removed their shirts and stood a few moments together in the dropping water.

Later when they returned to the village the old women cooking had noticed something seemed amiss and spread the word through the village, although it was none of their business.

The girl involved had a Father who loved her very much, and remembering how he had been with her mother was inclined to forget the matter after scaring the brave a little for face saving, by visiting the brave with a couple of his sons.

However, because of political considerations and the turmoil of the times at this moment the scandal refused to die down and the girl involved was sent from [Ohio] to another part of the tribe in [Georgia] to live with relatives there.

Remembering the incident, the very old woman, who had once been that beautiful girl looked up at those same trees today as she walked along the River, and heard the River's murmur and relived in her mind the incident with the raindrops; before she limped back to her place in the village. As she returned to the cooking area, upwind of camp, the other cooking women noticed she had a particular smile on he face, and that smile remained on her wrinkled old face as she resumed her cooking duties.
end
part 1