�How Soon is Now�

Eris was walking to her favorite place: the lake.  She loved it there because she could be alone, away from the distractions of her parents and the town of Alodia.  Only open fields of lush green grass surrounded her.  She was the focus of an imaginary people.  She walked to her spot: a throne-like boulder beneath an old oak tree.  Her spot was not entirely hers, for she shared it with a family of birds. 
    Eris didn’t mind the presence of the birds.  In fact, she admired them because they cared for each other.  They were a real family.  They didn’t force their child to go out with rich, snobby, and insensitive guys, expecting them to marry, like hers did. 
    She sat listening to the birds’ song.  She almost felt like they were singing either for her or to her.  It was almost as if they could sense how she was feeling and would sing songs to cheer her up.  But the song she heard was definitely not coming from a bird.  It wasn’t a chirp, but rather a hum. 
    Appearing from behind the tree was her husband Jason.  Like the birds, he could sense how Eris was feeling, even without looking at her.  It was in this way that he had a way of cheering her up.  He wasn’t like the other guys whom Eris’s parents tried to set her up with.  What they wanted was for her to marry a rich man from the community so that the family’s reputation was protected.  But those worthless guys were all the same: snobby, selfish, ignorant, cold, egotistic, and xenophobic.  They had no respect for anyone except people who were practically mirror images of themselves.  Jason was different.  He was funny, caring, honest, selfless, and loved her for whom she was.  These qualities were what led Eris to marry Jason.   She had said yes almost immediately,without even thinking about the fact that she would have to tell her parents.  It wasn’t until the recent weeks that the realization hit her, and she constantly brooded over the situation.  She had married out of love, but married against her parents’ wishes.  This realization made her heart sink to the deepest regions within her.  She loved Jason and was proud of her decision, but her lack of confidence made her more and more reluctant about telling her parents the truth about her marriage to Jason.
    “Jason, I hate to say it, but you’ll never sound as pretty as the birds,” Eris said jokingly as she smiled at him.
    “It’s not the sound, it’s the message,” he said half sarcastically and half philosophically, smiling back at her.  “I knew you would be down here,” he said as he walked over to her, taking a seat on the ground next to the rock.  “I know you want to be alone, but I wanted to see how you were doing, and I brought you this,” he pulled out a daisy from behind his back and handed it to her. 
    “Thank you,” Eris said, sighing.  She was thankful for his concern, but she was too focused on her parents to truly appreciate it.  She stared out over the lake, reflecting on her situation.  She would normally talk to him openly about anything.  That was one of the other traits that he possessed that the other guys didn’t.  He actually listened to what she had to say, willingly.  He actively listened to what she had to say.  His open minded listening was what truly captured her hear.  But the fact that he listened at all was enough to please her.   He listened actively, not passively.  But the fact that he listened at all was enough to please her.
“I’m not forcing you to tell your parents now.  They are your parents, not mine.  I
know I’ve never met them, but if there’s one thing I do know, it’s that all parents love
their children.  It may not be obvious, but it’s true.  It’s your decision, and I know you’ll make the right choice.  But I just hope that I can be a real part of your life, and your
family and not just a secret.  I hate knowing that you’re seeing other guys.  I know you don’t want to, and you don’t have to.  Remember that,” Jason said, compassionately.  He stood up, turned to her, leaned over, kissed her on the head, and left, feeling a sense of accomplishment.
    “He’s right,” she said, the birds chirping in agreement.  Eris fiddled with the daisy in her hands. “I guess you’re my last hope,” she said to the flower, “at least you’ll give me a definitive answer, with no questions asked.”  She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, the birds happily chirping in the background.  “Okay,” she finally said, “here we go.”
    “I should tell them,” she said as she picked the first petal off the helpless flower, playing her own version of the childish “he loves me, he loves me not” game.
    “I shouldn’t tell them,” she said, picking off the second petal.
The pattern continued until she reached the thirteenth and final petal.  “I should tell them.” An awkward silence fell over the bare surroundings of the lake.  Eris sat and stared at the stem of the flower in her left hand and the petal in her right.  “What do you know?” she said angrily as she crumbled the stem and petal in her hands, her nails digging into the palm of her hand and her knuckles turning white.  “You’re just a stupid flower,” she yelled as she tossed the crushed remains aside.  She walked to the lakeside and peered down at her reflection.  “What do you know?” she asked again, this time to  her reflection, as she bent down and picked up a rock, “Nothing!” she yelled hurling the rock at her reflection. 
She walked back to the boulder and collapsed into her seat.  Her face fell into her hands, and she began to cry.  “What’s wrong with me?  Even a stupid daisy knows what I should do.”
Her neighbors in the tree began singing another song.  She looked up and stared at the birds, curiously.  Instead of a song to her, it was a song to the baby bird.  She saw the baby bird and her mother.  The mother was teaching the baby bird to fly, but the baby was clearly too scared to fly alone.  “You can do it, you’re grown up now,” Eris said, “You’re going to have to act like it if you want to be independent.”  And just like that, the bird flew into the clear blue sky, happily chirping her song.  Eris smiled as she watched the bird, but her smile quickly faded into a frown.
“Look at that,” she said, “look at me.  All I have to do is tell my parents that I got married.  Those birds have helped me all this time, and I haven’t even helped myself.  That bird’s got more to lose than I do.  I’m eighteen!  What’s wrong with me?  I can’t do anything!  I’m an adult and I’m scared of my own parents?”  She stood up, “That’s it!  I can’t take this anymore!  I’m sick of being treated like a baby!  I’m not going to end up like my parents and marry out of fake love.  I’m not listening to their stupid directions any more.  I control my life, not them.”
The birds remaining in the nest sang another song: a song of congratulations.  She didn’t know if it was for her or the baby bird, but she knew its meaning, and that’s all that mattered.  She picked up the crushed remains of the flower, and began to walk home.  She stopped, turned around, and saw the baby bird flying across the setting sun.  “Thanks,” she said as she turned to continue her journey home.