Blogpost 12: Free Short Story – The Token Part 2

I am without excuse. As I remove myself from the last vestiges of normality and the relationship I have known for more years then I care to admit, I cannot but feel a pang of regret. But I shall calibrate my rationalisation of reality with the balances and weights of passion; for only thus will I be able to justify to myself, in the long lonely nights to come, my chosen course of action. And thus, with burden unremoved I extricate myself from the inconvenience of a love long borne. I choose to devote myself to a younger, fresher predilectionAs always, the dawn awaits my coming. I hold in my hand the token. I know that she will not have me if I do not bring it. And I know full well to whom it is rightfully belongs. Sophie, who has loved me faithfully more years then I would care to count is entitled to the gift I carry. It is not without significance to me that with not one word of complaint she has borne my burden faithfully for so very long. I would not be a man if I were not torn between the morality of consistency and the passion of new born love. I am beyond help. Caught in the grip of urges and sensations that I have not known in so very long, I compromise my integrity. Sophie will never know. I will return, changed but she will not see it. She will trust me yet. But in the meanwhile a darker love will possess my heart. It is alien to me that the token I carry can stir to passion the urges of both the one I do love and the one I have loved. Yet despite my disbelief I know that it is so. And it seems to me a mere male, that the female of the species is so fickle. I could not begin to imagine a masculine predisposition to such passing trinkets in quite the same way.I make my way hurriedly to the meeting point. She knows I will come. There has been no doubt in her heart. There has been no betrayal of uncertainty in her bearing these days past. I approach the appointed place at the appointed time. There is no question in my mind that she will be waiting. And my anticipation is not disappointed. I round the turn and see her, standing, patiently in full and certain trust.At my arrival she betrays herself. The signals, the signs, are those that only I can read. Another would deem them insignificant. But I know her. She cannot hide her secrets from me. She is expectant of my love. Yet it would not seem the same if I brought no token. And with the gift I betray my faithful lover of yesteryear.And yet I remain safe.Asleep at home in her stable, Sophie will never know of the carrot I bring to the wild forest pony.