A Valentine’s Day story – for lovers, friends and all the crazies out there. 🙂 - Roselee

 

They say that once [upon a time] all the emotions and qualities of men were gathered together in one place on earth. When Boredom had yawned for the third time, Madness, crazy as usual, proposed to them:

“Let us play hide-and-seek!”

Intrigue raised an intrigued eyebrow and Curiosity, unable to contain herself, asked: “Hide-and-seek? And? What is that?

“It is a game”, explained Madness, “in which I cover my eyes and start to count from one to a million while others hide, and when I have finished counting, I must go and find them all.

Enthusiasm danced and was immediately followed by Euphoria. Joy performed too many leaps that ended up convincing Doubt, and even Apathy, who is never interested in anything fun. But not everyone wanted to participate. Truth chose not to hide, “for what?”, if in the end they will find her (Truth is female because I will be her in our play!!!), and Pride thought it was a foolish game (deep down it bothered her that the idea had not been hers), and Cowardice preferred not to take a risk.

“One, two, three …” Madness started to count.

The first to hide was Sloth (can be Laziness, but I like Sloth better) that, as always, fell down behind the first stone she saw along the road. Faith rose to the sky, and Envy hid behind the shadow of Triumph, who with his own effort, had managed to climb to the top of the highest tree.

Generosity was barely able to hide; every place she found seemed wonderful for one of her friends: a crystal clear lake, ideal for Beauty; the bottom of a tree, perfect for Timidity; the flight of butterflies, the best for Voluptuousness; a gust of wind, magnificent for Freedom. So she ended up hiding in a ray of the sun.

Selfishness, meanwhile, found a very good place from the very start, ventilated, comfortable, but only for himself. Lie (or Falsehood?) hid in the bottom of the oceans. Lies! She actually hid behind the rainbow, and Passion and Desire [hid] in the center of volcanoes.

Forgetfulness … well, he forgot to hide! When Madness counted 999,999, Love had not yet found a place to hide because every place was taken, then he spotted a rosebush and, carefully, decided to hide among the flowers.

“One million!”, counted Madness and started to look for others.

The first to be found was Sloth, only three steps from the stone. Then, she heard Faith discussing Theology with God in the heaven. And Passion and Desire, she felt them in the vibrations of the volcanoes. In an oversight, she found Envy, and, of course, could deduce where Triumph would be.

She did not have to look for Selfishness; he ran out of his hiding place, which turned out to be a nest of wasps. She felt thirsty from all the walking and, as she neared the lake, she discovered Beauty. It was even easier finding Doubt, whom she found sitting on a fence having failed to decide which side of the lake to hide. She found them all: Talent, among the fresh grass, Anguish, in a dark cave, Lie, behind the rainbow, and even Forgetfulness, who had already forgotten that he was playing hide-and-seek.

Only Love did not appear in any place she searched. Madness looked behind each tree, beneath every rivulet on the planet, on top of the mountains and, when she was about to give up, she spotted a rosebush and the roses…She took a pitchfork and started to move the branches, when suddenly a painful cry was heard.

The thorns had injured the eyes of Love. Madness did not know what to do to apologize; she cried, begged, implored and finally promised Love to be his guide. Since then, since the first time he played hide-and-seek on the ground, Love is blind and Madness always accompanies him.

*This story is my English translation of a Spanish short story called “Por Qué el Amor es Ciego y la Locura lo Acompaña Siempre”, so all mistakes are mine. I changed some words to make them sound less awkward in English. Our professor gave it to us four days ago, and we will have a class presentation on February 18, 2017, Saturday. 🙂

I gave the emotions and qualities genders according to their Spanish genders.