Fragment
Part of Chapter 4: Villa is Feeling Poor and Lost
It’s evening and Villa is going for a walk alone. He walks up to the hills just outside his village. Being there always makes him feel good, as the hills remind him of his Winngadur.
As he walks, he’s trying to imagine where he and Winngadur could go if his Green Bank and the house corporation idea should fail and the houses on the Main Street should weather away.
Suddenly, Villa feels so poor and lost. He feels like a 12th dimensional with no dime and no future. He begins to wonder. “ why would she choose a life with me? What does she see in me anyway? I have lost so much…. Maybe she stays because she pities me? And not because she loves me? Maybe I ought to let her go…. I could go to Greenland or Alaska. There are no ladybirds there… Winngadur could forget all about me.”
Villa passes a big old tree. Much to his surprise he finds Winngadur hovering there right under the crown. “Hi, Villa” she says. “ I heard you thinking just now. By the way, did you know that on Greenland they may not have ladybirds, but they do have plenty of other little aviators for me to breeze around? “ Winngadur smiles at Villa. But he’s not that easily convinced.
“Ah Winn! you know how much I love you. That’s not it. I’m not contemplating running away. It’s just... Argh! I just don’t know now!” says Villa with a deep sigh. “ Everything is so uncertain. I feel so powerless right now. My village in the 3rd dimension is changing around me. It’s my fault. I should’ve done things differently earlier on. If I had just done something. It’s all falling apart before my very eyes! Maybe we wouldn’t be where we are now if I had done something sooner.” Villa sits down and lets out a huge sigh. His back is bent over as if a ton of bricks had been placed on his shoulders. “ I’m so sorry, Winngadur. I wish things were different. Just like before“ he says sadly.
Winngadur flies down and places herself right in front of Villa. Not only is she standing tall, upright on her feet, she’s also totally visible in this moment. She speaks directly to Villa. “Right here, in your birthplace, there are more ladybirds and other aviators than anywhere else I have ever been! That’s why your place feels like home to me, Villa.”
Winngadur goes on. “Imagine if all of your 12 favourite homes on Main Street really do turn into forgotten places. The gardens will grow wild. Tree roots will grow up under the homes and splinter the floorboards. The glass from the windows will end up shattered on the dirt below. Plant creepers and shrubs will cover the bare walls. Roofs will collapse. And yet. Amongst all of this decay, your Main Street will become green again. There will be even more ladybirds and other small aviators that need me to breeze them around”.
Villa straightens his back. He looks up at her very surprised. Until now he’d never thought of it this way. That this breakdown could ever be of any good. Winngadur continues, “Villa, you and I belong to two places. We belong here in your birthplace as well as in mine. We get to raise our children in the warmth of two different homes. They get to be that much stronger and wiser from it. Don’t you understand how fortunate they will be? Open your mind. See it is all good”.
Villa gets up. Everything is clear to him now. Why hadn’t he seen this until now? The rest of the evening they both walk around the hills together, admiring the human artwork all around them.
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Thuiswinkel Waarborg