Valentine

" I love you," he said softly.

"I know,"

" What can I do?" he asked

"You can't do anything."

The man looked up at the sky in despair. " I would travel the seven
realms - just to spend a single evening with you."

" But an evening is never enough. " she said. " You would only want our
time together to be longer. What's the point?"

" The point is I can't live a whole lifetime thinking about you knowing
I will never be with you. I would trade my whole life just to spend
that time with you."

She smiled sweetly at him, her image growing transparent and beginning
to fade.

" You can't go, not now," he said.

"I have to."

"Then tell me how to get to you&;#8230; please."

"When the moon is full on the eve of the fourteenth, a door will open
between my realm and yours. If you really want to come here and be with
me; then go to the lake at that time and I will be
waiting&;#8230;"

Her image faded and all that remained was the reflection of the scenery
in the water. He touched the water tenderly and whispered, " I'll be
there, my love."

***

The eve of the fourteenth.

He stood by the lake and waited patiently as the moon rose clear and
full in the cloudless sky. The surface of the lake began to ripple, and
he watched it eagerly, expectantly.

Slowly she rose from the water, resplendent in a long white gown that
shimmered with an ethereal light; her eyes sparkling like the morning
dew, her hair the golden colour of Autumn leaves; she was exactly as
she looked in his dreams: beautiful, and he longed for her.

She held out her hand to him, and he stepped into the lake and waded
out to her.

They embraced in the poetic moonlight as a comet trailed across the
sky; and slowly, very slowly, sank together into the lake - as
one.

***

The fisherman sat there shaking, and fumbled in his pocket for a
cigrette, when he found one, he lit it hastily. He'd never seen
anything quite like that in his life before.

What he had just witnessed couldn't have been real: the muddy weed
ridden skeleton rising supernaturally from the water and holding out
it's bony hand. He had dropped his sandwich and gazed in disbelief, as
the young man waded out into the lake and embraced it.

But the thing that had got him most was the strange moment when the two
slowly sank into the water together. It was the way they sank, it
seemed unnatural, like something out of a weird dream.

He puffed on his cigrette nervously; should he tell anyone about this,
or should he just keep quiet?

I mean who would believe such a story?

He decided he would keep quiet, and reached into his pocket for
another cigrette.