"Mr.
and Mrs. Noax"
Time: One of Innocence
Medium: True Love
Jeremy
Noax was a mature boy, for his age. He had been so all the years of his
short life, and by the age of seven he found that he had completely surpassed
his peers in reason, social skills, and the arts. A successful essayist,
poet, and political advisor in his free time, Jeremy was still forced
to deal with what were, to him, the indignities of youth: reading, writing,
'rithmatic, playgrounds, juice boxes. "Jukeboxes!" he exclaims in his
memoirs, "When all I wanted was to appreciate the full body of a ripe
20 year old Cabernet!"
He longed to feel himself among equals, to be allowed to pursue his distinctive
interests and sophisticated tastes openly. At first he tried to find other
youth his own age, to whom he could bare his soul, children who could
understand the unique trials and tribulations of a genius trapped in a
child's body. Unsurprisingly, he had little luck in this endeavor. From
time to time, he would try to speak with adults as equals, but he was
usually beaten for his troubles and sent to his room hungry. Such was
Jeremy's sad existence.
And
then, one day, while the rest of the class was napping and Jeremy was
composing sestinas in his head, the school's principal came into the classroom
with the most beautiful woman Jeremy had ever seen in his life. Her name,
the class was informed, was "Ms. Fundabrunder", and she was to be their
substitute teacher. The class's normal teacher had gone on an extended
leave to Vienna, where she was undergoing treatment by an up-and-coming
young doctor who was making a name for himself with his "talking cure."
Jeremy did not know what god had brought this angel into his life, but
he did not care. He only knew that he had to make this woman his own,
to show her the love she brought up inside of him. And oh, if she only
loved him back, why then everyone else could go to rot! With her by his
side, he would need no other.
Thus did Jeremy begin a siege of Ms. Fundabrunder's ingrown better judgment,
attempting to dazzle her with his brilliance. At first, he left her anonymous
love notes, and, then slowly but surely, he began a campaign of winks
and smiles, a subtle showering of attention upon Ms. Fundabrunder. He
would climb into her lap at story time, often brought her apples and other
goodies, and stayed after class to help her tidy up the classroom.
Once Ms. Fundabrunder became aware of Jeremy's intentions, she was at
first (understandably) apprehensive: "This type of thing is surely not
done, not by civilized, rational people!" But Jeremy slowly broke down
her defenses, telling her tales of Grecian philosophers, Nipponese Samurai,
and child brides in Arabia. "Surely a practice common to so many of the
world's civilizations could not be wrong?" he reassured her, "especially
when it feels so right!"
And Ms. Fundabrunder was slowly brought around, by Jeremy's persistence
and by the obvious purity of his love for her. As she and Jeremy fell
deeper and deeper in love with each other, they began to realize that,
while Greeks, Nipponese, and Arabians were all well and good, their own
society was not as welcoming of such behavior. Rather than allowing themselves
to be parted in the name of what Jeremy called "horrible, blinded, common
decency" the young lovers decided to run away together, to live a life
of constant movement, always on the road together, content as long as
each had the other.
Before embarking on this lifelong journey of true love, they commissioned
the above painting, to be left behind as an explanation for those few
who might care to try and understand their beautiful, forbidden love.
And we bring it to you here this week, in celebration of the Day of St.
Valentine.
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