Chapter Three: "Dispiriting World"
By: Sokai
Disclaimer: I, Sokai, do not claim ownership to the workings of W.I.T.C.H. -- I leave that honor up to Elisabetta Gnone. However, I can and DO claim to own this story and its inspired ideas FROM said series, as well as the original character, Sitara Vandom.
Note: Okay: why did I name Gabriel and Cato what I had? Cato, for nothing really significant, as he is not, himself. It just means "wise" in Latin, and was the surname of Marcus Porcius Cato, or "Cato the Elder," who lived during the times of Ancient Rome. ANYWAY, I see MY Cato as just the "head honcho" or the "Papa Smurf" of the underground city of Barinak, so that's why I named him Cato, etc. Gabriel, I chose that to be "ironic," in a way. Like I've said before, I know a lot about names and its meanings to the point of obsession. So I thought it'd be "fun" to, since I'm obviously kinda getting "Bible-ish" with this story (but not too much), that I'd name him (whose name means "strong man of God") after one of the seven archangels in Hebrew tradition. You can kind of see his faith that things will improve back in chapter two and that there is still a God even after all that's happened to the world – AND to his daughter, Esmé (which of COURSE Gina already has suspicions of . . . Why do you read my stories, seriously, hun? You always speculate too much LoL), which I will explain in this chapter. Anyway, enjoy! LoL
WARNING: PLEASE READ THIS STORY AT YOUR OWN RISK, ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE EXTREMELY RELIGIOUS. WHILE I AM NOT TRYING TO BE DISRESPECTFUL OR SACRILEGIOUS, I MAY STILL END UP DOING SO FOR SOME OF YOU -- HENCE, THE WARNING, UNDERSTANDING, AND APOLOGY IN ADVANCE.
This chapter was created/written in July 2006.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might." -- II Thessalonians 1:9
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After having taken a few minutes to collect herself as well as her bearings, Wilhelmina slowly rose from the slightly itchy, straw-made bed and followed the foreign man, Gabriel's advice to get dressed.
". . . I'd better, shouldn't I? Considering how I'm practically giving the whole world a free 'peep show . . .'" she softly whispered to herself, still feeling a bit groggy from what felt like a ten-year nap.
To tell the truth, the crimson haired being could not recall what had happened to her, or even where she had been prior to having fallen asleep. Moreover, she hadn't the slightest inkling as to where she was now, who those two people were, or why her tatterdemalion pajamas were now torn beyond repair.
Did that father and his daughter have something to do with it?
No, that can't be. I mean, assuming I was kidnapped by them or something, why would that Gabriel guy give me new clothes to wear and then rush off with his kid to fix me breakfast? Wilhelmina mentally reasoned after carelessly tossing aside her old pajamas and carefully pulled on the white colored, off-the-shoulder cotton-textured clothing.
It was actually rather flattering and unlike any other type of clothing she'd come across, with its unique sort of cross between Red Indian and Medieval-style peasant clothing. Wilhelmina especially liked the extremely comfortable white travel slippers, in addition to the black leather wide belt that fit so snugly around her (curiously slimmer as well as lengthier, she'd noted) waist while gazing down at her bare legs that her dress gave no shelter to.
It was at that very moment that Wilhelmina had at last focused upon her . . . long hair?
"What the --? My . . . my hair! I . . . it's a freaking forest!" she cried out in alarm, her voice gaining more strength as she gripped some of her flaming red locks within both of her hands. She eyeballed the rest that showered straight down to her ankles and slightly curled at the tips. "The last time I'd checked, I still had my bob-styled hairdo! When did I suddenly become a Chia Pet?"
Suddenly, her brown eyes widened at the same time that her soft mouth hung open as her foggy mind began to at last unravel:
"From this point on, you will no longer merely be known as the 'Keeper of the Heart of Candracar,' but as the 'Ultimate Savior,' fighting alongside the 'Protector of the Earth.' After you awaken from your dormancy, you will embark upon your search for your sister, and then the two of you will find 'the others.' Do not fear, for the Heart and the Core will guide you in your quest. Good luck, my young Guardian . . ."
So that's why I remembered some "warmth" and "bright lights," thought Wilhelmina, while beginning to recall her encounter with the mystical Oracle during the last night before her eighteenth birthday and . . .
"The end of the world . . ." she murmured somberly to herself after releasing her river of hair from her grasp. "What a wonderful birthday present to wake up to . . ."
But then, as she thought of how the world now looked, Wilhelmina also reflected upon the one good news that the Oracle had delivered onto her:
Her twin sister was alive and out there, somewhere, waiting for her . . .
"Ah! Will! I see that you have gotten dressed! It looks very becoming on you," complimented Gabriel, interrupting her thoughts as he and his daughter, Esmé, suddenly returned back into the room.
Within Esmé's tiny hands was cradled an equally small and cracked wooden bowl, filled to the rim with a mushy concoction that Wilhelmina hopefully assumed was porridge.
"Oh! I, um . . . t-thanks . . . Gabriel, was it?" responded Wilhelmina, feeling her cheeks flush with embarrassment as she took in both father and daughter gape at her with extreme fascination and wonder.
You'd think they'd never seen another human being before, she thought inertly as she watched Esmé happily approach her and extend the bowl of food to her.
"Is this for me? Thank you, Esmé," said Wilhelmina in honest gratitude, her stomach, right on cue, beginning to growl uncontrollably in spite of her weariness of the meal's contents. ". . . Um, may I ask what's in it? I, uh . . . might be allergic," she added so as not to offend the family of her hesitance to ingest the alien dish.
"Oh, no worries, Will," replied Gabriel cheerfully, motioning his strong hand towards her to go right ahead and eat. "It's a milk pudding called 'Keşkül.' My grandfather used to make it for me all the time when I was a little boy . . . Of course, his Keşkül was a lot better than this one, considering that we are greatly limited in ingredients . . ."
Smiling softly in acknowledgment, Wilhelmina slowly looked away from Gabriel and the ever-grinning Esmé, and back down at the bowl of slightly lumpy Keşkül, this time with renewed interest. Licking her moderately dry lips, Wilhelmina raised the bowl to them, took a small sip and swallowed.
While she'd never eaten Keşkül before and was usually up for trying new dishes, she instantly regretted having done so. Gabriel's dish tasted like nothing more than faintly sweet and watery dirt.
As they watched Wilhelmina immediately scrunch her tawny hued face in distaste, Gabriel could not help but to lightly chuckle at the same time that Esmé clapped her hands repeatedly with amused glee.
"Well, as I said, it isn't exactly as flavorful as my grandfather's original recipe -- if flavorful at all," snickered Gabriel as he affectionately tickled his daughter's sides, who continued to clap and peer up at Wilhelmina with happy eyes. "However, it has been said that 'hunger adds its own spice.'"
Blushing once more in embarrassment, Wilhelmina nodded slowly in agreement after coughing up a bit of the Keşkül.
". . . Y-yeah, I suppose that is true," she replied wholeheartedly, smiling gently in reassurance at the older man and his daughter. "Because despite its . . . 'colorful' taste, I'm far too hungry to decline eating the rest."
True to form, Wilhelmina found herself practically inhaling and savoring every drop of the rest of her bitter-tasting breakfast meal with a vengeance.
". . . Thank you for breakfast, Gabriel and Esmé -- I appreciate the generous hospitality," said Wilhelmina genuinely after handing the empty bowl back to the only male in the room and blindly wiped her mouth clean of food residue with the back of her hand. "But I hope that I didn't interrupt your breakfast, though, by my intrusion . . ."
Gabriel merely shook his head.
"N-no, Will! To be honest, Esme and I were getting rather tired of having Keşkul, and so thought that we'd try having something else," he responded, smiling warmly at her while holding onto the bowl with both hands. ". . . Of course, there isn't actually anything else to eat, but --"
"-- Wait a minute," interrupted Wilhelmina upon hearing this, her newly sedated and for once content insides now beginning to churn with discomfort and oncoming guilt, ". . . Are you trying to tell me that this was the last of your food?"
Sighing, Gabriel nodded slowly at the same time that Esmé had moved closer to Wilhelmina, her tiny, slightly dirtied face reflecting the red head's newfound remorse.
". . . You truly must not be from around here to be so surprised by this, Will," he remarked, motioning for both her to sit back down upon the straw-riddled bed. "This leads me to believe that . . . either you have somehow lost your memories, or . . . you were not here at the time of this new world's conception . . ."
Wilhelmina immediately stopped in her tracks just as she was about to move from her spot.
Was this guy a friend or foe? Despite his generous hospitality, it was still truly hard to decipher. How did he figure out that she had been safely "tucked away" in Candracar during the world's end? Moreover, what plans did he have for her now that she was back on Earth?
"I, uh . . . I'm just still a bit out of it from my nap, and --"
"-- You needn't lie to me, Will. I know my assumptions to be true . . ." reaffirmed Gabriel as he turned to face her. ". . . Because your eyes still shine with life that is no longer seen within the eyes of my fellow inhabitants . . . none who continue bear witness to all of the suffering and torment delivered onto us by the great evil, that has been dwelling here since the start, would still have any kind of hope left . . ."
Narrowing her dull brown eyes, Wilhelmina looked at the back of Gabriel's equally brown head. She'd found it completely ironic that someone -- anyone -- would refer to her eyes as inhabiting any other emotion besides hardening despair, detachment and resentment.
It effectively peeked her curiosity as to exactly how bad the world had become to hear this, in addition to make her feel guilty that she was presumably the only one to have been lucky enough to have been spared being a part of its destruction . . .
". . . Yeah, well . . . I have been through my fair share of heartache, trust me, so I'm really no different than anyone else . . ." remarked Wilhelmina, immediately feeling a bit foolish to have attempted to compare the trials and tribulations of her past to that of the rest of the agonized world.
"A-anyway," she continued, shaking her bright red head as though to jostle her increasingly brooding thoughts away, "Why is it that you seem so positive if 'all is lost?'"
Gabriel smiled warmly at this at the same time that he lightly hugged his daughter from behind.
". . . Because I still have faith for a better tomorrow . . . and because I seem to be the only one who can recall how the old world used to be . . . So, I am continuously conscious as to what has been missing . . ." he revealed, causing Wilhelmina's eyebrows to furrow in confusion.
She could already sense that she was in for a rather extensive explanation by the docile man of the workings of this new world, and so held her tongue as best she could while finally sitting back down upon the straw-made bed.
Clearly Gabriel preferred that his daughter not be privy to the current ongoings, as he'd suddenly and silently handed to Esmé the empty bowl and gourd before gently tapping her behind to scoot her along out of the room.
Waiting until he was certain Esmé was gone (who looked extremely disappointed to do so), Gabriel cleared his throat and opened his mouth to resume his speaking.
"I am often ostracized, because, for whatever reason, I seem to be the only one within my village -- the world, even, perhaps -- capable of remembering the way things used to be . . ." he began solemnly, lightly ringing his hands together as though the current topic of discussion was too hard to reflect upon -- which was precisely what Wilhelmina assumed it was.
"Now . . . whether or not you yourself can recall the ways and days of the old world, I am unsure -- although, the way you seemed so lost and unsettled of everything as it is now perhaps you can . . . I do not honestly believe that anyone could if they had the choice . . . This world . . . and the world of old are so completely unlike the other . . . it breaks my heart to know that my daughter is too young to remember the previous world's glorious nature . . . that this is the only world she truly knows . . ."
Wilhelmina, who had been fighting the urge to interrupt the increasingly open and emotional man standing before her, could no longer do so.
"U-um . . . I'm sorry, here, but . . . I was honestly wondering about Esmé," she began carefully, struggling to find the right words to convey her increasingly curious thoughts in regards to the friendly little girl. "She doesn't . . . well, she doesn't strike me as the shy type, given how she seems to almost want to study me like a science project or something . . . So . . . I was --"
"-- Wondering why she doesn't speak?" Gabriel finished the startled redhead's thoughts, his turn to interrupt.
He smiled sadly at Wilhelmina's flushed face as he sighed lightly.
"Please do not feel bad. It's an honest question, as well as honest observation . . . You see . . . Esmé's larynx has been severed, rendering her mute . . ."
Although not psychic, Wilhelmina had a distinct feeling that the reasons behind the happy child's physical befalling were somehow connected to this new world.
Sure enough, as she finished with her speculations, Gabriel had managed to confirm them.
". . . I can still remember, so vividly, the day of the Conception," he began shakily, rubbing the back of his neck a bit vigorously. "We were returning home from visiting relatives -- that is, my wife, Gilda, Esmé and myself were returning home from our visit . . . Gilda had made the passing comment that the weather had grown 'a bit peculiar,' despite it having been Wintertime . . . But because we were nearly home and it had snowed and sleeted earlier on that week, I had thought nothing of it and had told her to do the same . . . I had no idea that Gilda would be right to be concerned . . . Never did make it home before . . . before it had happened . . ."
". . . The end . . ." murmured Wilhelmina, causing Gabriel to nod slowly in acknowledgment. "How . . . how did it all start? How did it occur?"
For the first time since interacting with the disheveled man, Wilhelmina saw that Gabriel's green eyes had grown vacant and glazed over with reflective sadness and despair, causing her to feel guilty once more for forcing him to delve into an obviously painful happening.
But if she had any chance of surviving within this new world, she figured that she had better find out as much about it as possible.
". . . Then you truly were somehow spared from witnessing its destruction, after all . . . I do not know whether to regard you as 'lucky' or 'unfortunate,' now that you have returned . . ." remarked Gabriel with a heavy heart, moving from his spot to take an awkward seat next to Wilhelmina.
". . . I am just thankful that Esmé had been able to have one last peaceful slumber before . . . before the sky had turned blood red and the ground suddenly grew boiling hot and exploded . . . Before the snow immediately began to melt away once the sea of molten lava flooded over the ground . . .
It was a good thing that I had stopped my car at a red light and was able to safely evacuate my family from out of it as a result -- who knows what would have happened had the car been in motion during this time . . ."
Wilhelmina lightly inclined her head in understanding at this, while her mind rapidly tried to process what had been said.
Molten lava? The ground exploding? Suddenly, I'm almost feeling a little less pissed off and disgusted by the Oracle for "whisking" me away from Earth in the nick of time -- almost . . . she thought with mixed emotion, before asking an increasingly flustered Gabriel,
"S-so . . . that sounded pretty dangerous, Gabriel. How did . . . did you manage to survive?"
Gabriel sighed once more, slowly shaking his head.
"I don't honestly know, Will -- fate, I suppose . . . Because as I was rushing to get my family to higher, safer ground alongside other terrified families, that's when . . . when 'they' began to appear . . ."
"They?" queried Wilhelmina, unconsciously leaning closer to the older individual in anxious anticipation.
". . . Demons," Gabriel revealed with intermingled bitterness and fear, causing the crimson haired beauty to gasp in honest surprise.
"Whoa! What? D-demons? As in, the kind you only see in movies, or read about in fictional books, and make you thankful that they don't really exist? Those kind?" gushed Wilhelmina, beginning to feel sick to her stomach.
True, she was not and still was not thrilled to reprise her role as a Guardian. However, she had surmised that whatever new, major evil that the Oracle unfortunately wanted her to face would be nothing more than yet another power-hungry individual that she would eventually bring down.
But this changes everything. How in the hell am I supposed to take down demons? she thought with increased nerves, worrying for not only herself but for her twin -- wherever she happened to be.
I hope she's safe . . .
"H-how are you able to coexist with actual, real live demons, Gabriel?" Wilhelmina pressed on, her head swimming.
". . . Just barely, Will. Just barely . . ." the middle aged man replied tightly, while Wilhelmina continued to search his face for more answers. "A lot of us -- the human race, that is -- did not survive that first night when the demons began their reign . . . Those with wings swooped down from the eerily crimson-painted sky and picked us off one by one . . . While those without wings effortlessly pounced upon the remaining humans struggling to get as far away from impending doom as possible.
That was the last thing that I can recall -- and saw of the old world -- before my family and I had suddenly fallen through the ground while fleeing for our lives . . . into a rather large burrow of some sort, I suppose. After that . . . when I had come to, I was surrounded by other survivors who'd decided to take refuge there with us.
And that was when we had all begun our new lives -- such as they were -- underground. I do not really know why, but it seems that, so long as we cover our scent -- with dirt or what have you -- then the demons are unable to track us . . . I guess that is why I hadn't woken up in Heaven instead that night . . ."
Wilhelmina breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this news.
All right. So then all I have to do is carry a sack of dirt with me at all times and make sure to stay below ground and I should be just fine . . .
"I see . . . But . . . that still doesn't explain why Esmé is mute," she said slowly, witnessing Gabriel's body turn rigid.
"Yes, Will . . . it most certainly does," he breathed tiredly, burying his face within his calloused hands for few moments before returning his attention back onto the redhead at his side. "Obviously, we need nourishment to survive, and so while continuing to burrow, a few of us had courageously volunteered to go above ground to see if food could not be found. However, that was when it had gone horribly, horribly wrong . . .
A demon -- small in size, but fierce in strength, it had been -- had caught sight of the individuals searching for food, and . . . completely shredded and devoured them . . . However, one had managed to make it back here, unwittingly leading the demon straight to the rest of us by following his scent . . .
We were all forced to once more scramble for our lives, as the fiend made its way down into the burrow and tried to have at all of us . . . I had immediately sent Gilda on ahead of me with Esmé, as those two are my life . . . were my life . . ." Gabriel trailed off as his voice cracked, a dry sob escaping from his cracked lips.
Wilhelmina furrowed her brows, her normally closed off heart beginning to reach out to the obviously brokenhearted man. She was all too familiar with heartache and loss, and it was clear to her that that was exactly what Gabriel had been unfortunate to experience on that day . . .
True enough . . .
"I do not know what possessed us -- possessed me to have Esmé try to run instead of just carrying her . . . Her little legs could not have possibly kept up with the rest of us while trying to escape," whispered Gabriel as his emerald eyes began to water.
". . . In our scurry, Esmé had fallen down . . . God, she was so scared . . . I do not know if that . . . beast preferred 'live young' as its ideal feast in comparison to the rest of us who were older, but it had completely bypassed the people surrounding it and went straight for her . . .
And Gilda . . . B . . . Before I could even react, she had gotten to Esmé before I had . . . and had managed to pick up and push Esmé out of harms' way -- out of the demon's way . . . But not before its spiked tail had whipped around and slashed against her throat, while it . . . it had descended upon Gilda instead and . . . and . . ."
Gabriel could no longer carry on, and quite frankly, Wilhelmina did not even want him to try. If there was one thing that was truly universal among the living and could be understood fluently without fail, it was death and of the pain as well as anguish it bestowed upon those left behind to endure.
As she was forced to watch the older man completely break down and mourn the tragic loss of wife to something so utterly inhuman, Wilhelmina suddenly found that she could honestly compare herself to poor little Esmé.
The two of them had both lost their mothers at such a young age. Granted, Wilhelmina had been approximately ten years older than Esmé when her mother had died, and so Wilhelmina most likely had far more memories as a result.
Regardless, it still did not subtract away from the emotional affliction or the bouts of loneliness . . .
At least I'm still able to remember Mom, Wilhelmina thought sadly with a sigh. I doubt that Esmé can do the same . . .
"I . . . I'm sorry for your loss, Gabriel -- really," she said with great sympathy, hesitantly reaching out to pat the back of the sobbing man's tattered back.
"T . . . Thank you, Will. Oh, gosh, it has been . . . been so long since I'd openly spoken about my wife . . . It feels wondrous to let it all out . . ." whispered Gabriel, wiping away his fallen tears away from his face.
"But . . . I feel most sorry for Esmé's loss . . . True, she was lucky that we had been able to stop the bleeding of her wound and there is miraculously minimal to no visible scarring . . . Still, that does not diminish the costs, or the fact that she will live the rest of her life without the use of her wonderful voice, as well as without her glorious mother . . .
She was about . . . four when the old world had ended and when her mother had died . . . Time seems to go far slower than normal within this new world, so I could be mistaken, but . . . I believe that that was about three and a half years ago . . ."
Wilhelmina felt herself grow nauseous by this news. Three and a half years ago? She'd been asleep and away from the Earth for three and half years?
Well, that certainly explains the excessive hair and body growth, she thought in disbelief. Happy belated nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first birthday to me . . .
"Uh . . . T-true, G-Gabriel," Wilhelmina murmured in a bit of a daze from the startling revelation, trying to shake off her shock and upset as she returned to the original topic of conversation. ". . . Mother is God in the eyes of a child . . ."
At this, both Gabriel and Wilhelmina gasped in surprise.
". . . My Gilda used to say the very same thing . . . How uncanny . . ." he said softly as he gazed up at her with a small smile upon his fatigued visage, obviously beginning to feel comforted by the redhead's familiar words.
Wilhelmina, on the other hand, as she realized what she had said, felt a bit embarrassed by it.
"Oh! Sorry, I . . . It was just something that my mother used to say to me -- especially whenever we would fight. I suppose she meant it as a joke or to make me feel guilty that I would be mad at her for even a second . . . I haven't thought about that saying of hers in such a long while . . ." she quietly explained, drawing her eyebrows down into an uneasy frown as she felt her brown eyes tearing up.
Drying the rest of his own tears, Gabriel nodded in understanding at the same time that the life that had been formerly housed within his eyes began to return.
"Your mother sounds like a very smart woman, Will . . . Come to think of it, why is she not with you?" he asked curiously, at the same moment that Wilhelmina immediately rose from her spot on the bed and faced away from the inquiring man.
Oh, God, not now . . . No tears, Will! You haven't cried, period in the longest time! Don't start now! she mentally scolded as she took a deep breath and furiously batted away her unshed tears with her eyelids.
". . . My mother is also dead, Gabriel . . ." she replied as solidly as she could, taking another deep breath before turning back around to face the sympathetic man. "And before you ask, it was well before this . . . 'new world' was created . . . My entire family had died before all of this, actually -- well, with the exception of my sister . . . My twin sister . . ."
Standing up from the bed, Gabriel nodded once more as he approached her.
"I owe you my condolences then, Will . . . Family is absolutely everything -- especially within a world as this. I can tell, though, that you are a pretty safeguarded young woman, and so I will not pry as to the whereabouts of your sister. However, I do hope that you find her," he remarked, gently resting a hand upon Wilhelmina's bare shoulder in comfort. "I do not know what I would do if I had ever lost Esmé as well . . ."
Without warning, there came sudden, sharp shrieks of distress resonating throughout the area.
"W-what the --!" cried Gabriel in alarm, as both he and Wilhelmina immediately turned their attention onto the blanketed doorway. "Will! Stay here, please!"
"H-hey! W-wait a second!" Wilhelmina called out to the man in surprise, watching him rush out of the room and towards whatever was the matter outside. ". . . Wonderful. Only been conscious for about forty minutes or so, and already chaos has ensued . . . Story of my life."
Taking in yet another deep inhale, Wilhelmina braced herself as best she could before blindly rushing out of the room to face the unknown.
-- End of Chapter Three
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(A.N. Yep. 'Nother mother-effin' cliffhanger. Annoying, yeah? Meh. LoL But this chapter's kinda long. Not really, no. Seven pages. LoL For ME and MY writing, that's VERY short. But still. It's not bad. Anyway, you will never know the trouble this chapter has caused me, honestly – hence the grand delay in its debut. But I wanted to try to explain how things are now in this sucky, demon-infested world and set the tone, without overloading you readers in one shot. Let's you and Will learn you as go, huh? LoL
Oh, right! Another comment about the name choices. Gabe's wife's name is Gilda also on purpose, because it means "sacrifice," as I understand it. And duh, obviously she sacrificed herself so that both Esmé and Gabriel could escape and live on. Very sad, yes. But, hey. I'm good at doing sad. LoL
One more note. If you haven't or don't check my profile to read about my updates, please do. In it, I've provided the link to Senshi of Valis's own sequel version to my "Requiem for a Dream" story. It's called "The Light and the Dark" and is so far pretty interesting . . . although, admittedly, Sitara's a bit . . . "happier" than I could ever picture her, but oh well. She's my "baby," and deserves happiness. Obviously not by MY hand, but yeah. LoL Anyway, check out that sequel as well. Later!
P.S. Before someone "attacks" me, NO, I am not trying to imply that Keşkül tastes like dirt. I've actually had it before and I find it very tasty. I was simply trying to display the little to no ingredients to make proper food in this new world. Food, period, really. So yeah. Oh, and yes, if the "Mother is God in the eyes of a child" comment seems familiar, you're probably thinking of it from the sadly crappy "Silent Hill" movie. But honestly, my own mommy would sometimes say something to that effect well before I had heard it being said in the movie, so yeah. Plus, there's also that one really interesting poem by the same name that I like and . . . okay. LoL)