The Lion in the Sky

The Lion in the Sky

By: Chase L. Currie

“I love you . . .”

            I have always loved you, even though you do not know who I am, I still love you. I have seen you every night as you wish on me many times. I smile down at you when you wish for silly things. I cry with you when you wish for a moment of peace in a life falling down around you. I wish onto you the same thing you wish to me. I wish I could touch you, smell you, and kiss you, but I cannot. It might be because of fate or the way the rules of life are written. It might be because you are so far below me and I am so high in the sky. I don't know why. I do not care why because all I do is wish for you.

            And so as it might be I am doomed to never sit beside you. I watch in horror as the passing nights come and go and you fall deeper into your darkness. Until this very night, at the bottom of your wine bottle, you cry out for me. Cry out the wish all lovers would make.

            I pull at my cage. I reach for you. I fight to break free and I fall to the world to save your life.

            I set my place on the ground next to you. Your face is hiding behind your hands trying to stop the rushing flood of tears. I sit beside you in still silence, my big golden eyes fixated on your long brown hair. How do you manage to make your body seem so small? Your knees in your chest and your arms wrapped around them as you cry your pain away. You seem so tiny to me, it would take nothing for me to carry you away. And trust me when I say I gave it some thought.

            Finally, after I made a slight sound you left your head and your blue eyes fill with shock. “There is a lion next to me,” you said, although I am sure it was to me. You might have been talking to yourself. You had to tell yourself what you were really seeing. “A lion with blue and white fur,” you told yourself. It is a shock and I understand. After all, you have never really seen a lion before, not a blue and white that is.

            I smile as a lion can smile, “I am much more than a lion, my love,” I said.

            “And you can speak . . .” Your voice said filling with fear but at the same time, my ears have never heard something so beautiful. I have heard the singing of angels and yet, your voice moves my heart to tears. I wanted to cry but I did not. A lion is strong and a crying lion . . . is, well, something no one wants to see.

            “I can,” I reply. Your feet move, telling me you want to jump away. You want to run through the woods, screaming for your life but you didn't. A part of you believes if you didn't run than I wouldn't eat you. The beast part of me wouldn't see it as a game if you didn't run. But the other part of you knew sitting still didn't matter much either. If the beast part of me was strong then I would eat you anyway.

            “I will not eat you,” I said, as you scooted away from me every so often, hoping I wouldn't notice. I stood up, putting my face next to your while saying, “I am not that kind of lion.”

            “What kind of lion are you?”

            “Not a real one,” I said and you could hear or feel I wasn't breathing. I didn't need to breathe because I was not a part of this world.

            “Then what are you?” A fair question as your body relaxed a little. If I wasn't a real lion then I couldn't eat you. Although, if I was you, I would wonder if I was a demon or an angel. But then again you don't believe in those things, do you?

            “I am,” I said looking up at the sky, where the little star should be. You know the one, the one you wish on. “Someone who always listens to you but never talks back.”

            “Are you?” You question, raising an eye brow but the answer was easy to see, so you did not ask it. “Can I touch you?” You ask instead.

            “By all means,” I said and you reached out touching my cold fur. I smile and my fur becomes warmer like hot running water, you continued to pet me.

            “Why did you come down here for me?” You ask, your voice creaking from the overwhelming feeling of joy mixed with a tad bit of sadness. Sadness, I believe you felt because no one else can wish on me if I am on earth with you.

            “You wish for someone to be here with you,” I said, as you stop petting me, looking me in the eyes. “And I wish to be that person.”

            “I wish for someone I could love,” you said, “someone who would never leave me. A person who knew what they wanted and what they wanted was me. Me, and nothing more. We could wake up every morning holding each other, then have some tea together and need nothing else in life. That is what I wished for. I can't wake up with a lion. I don't even know if a lion can drink tea.”

            “Well,” I reply, keeping the smile on my face, “if you had a really big bed I could wake up with you and I really do love tea.”

            The grin across your red lips made me wish for you to smile. I could only imagine what your smile must look like. I was sure it would send me into tears of joy. What more could I ask for then to see the person I love to smile? There are no greater joys on Earth or in Heaven than a smile from a loved one.

            “My bed is not that big,” You jokingly said.

            “Ah, yes, but here I am now and you are not alone.”

            “I guess I am not, huh?” You said, looking up at the sky. “What is it like up there?”

            I followed your head and studied the sky, seeing the spot where I should be. “It's big,” I said. “So big it's easy to get lost. You forget there are other people out there. You look around and all you can see is darkness until you look down and beneath your eyes is the world full of burning lights. A world of people looking back at you, whispering all kind of dreams to you. So you smile and you wish,” I look back down at you, “to make every one of those wishes come true.”

            “But you can't make them all come true,” you told me with a hint of a pessimistic tone.

            “I made this one come true, didn't I?”

            You rolled your head over to me as I lie down. You fall to the ground beside me, studying my eyes, my head, my powerful body. “Why me then? Why did you come all the way down here for me?” You ask.

            “Because,” I said, “I love you. I've always loved you.”

            “How?” You ask. “You don't even know me.”

            “I wouldn't say that,” I reply. “I remember when you were six and you wish you could have a puppy and the next weekend your father got you one. I remember the first kiss you had under the moon light, you were eleven. Then I remember when you wished for me to make the pain in your chest go away, a boy just broke up with you after you gave him everything you had. And I remember when you made love the roof in Paris while you were spending a year there. And that man wasn't even your boyfriend. You see, I have been with you all your life. I have watched you, understood you, and believed in you. I have loved you more then you know, then anyone else.”

            “But I know nothing about you.”

            “What do you need to know? Other than the fact I want to love you and I just ask you do the same thing back,” I said to you, as the smile fades from my lips, your eyes said unspeakable things to me. You were lost in my words, wishing to believe them but the blackness in you said not to. It whispers to you, telling you I was a liar. My words were dark lies and you should not fall for them. You smile but I could not tell if the smile was a lie or not.

            “You have always loved me,” you said, “but will you always do so?”

            “I will,” I told you. “There is no deed you can commit which will rip my love from you. I may not always be happy with the action you chose to take but I will always love you.”

            “I don't know,” you said sitting up. “That is a tall order to fill.”

            “Might I remind you,” I grin. “You are talking to a blue lion from the stars. You have no idea what orders I can fill.”

            “Fair enough. So what do we tell people when I walk around with you?”

            I sit up, looking up at the stars, not wishing to tell you what will happen but I must. So I speak the words that will fill you with sadness, a sadness that cuts at me like knife against my flesh. “When the sun rises, I will return to the sky,” I told you, not looking at your eyes.

            “So you're going to leave me?”

            “I must do so,” I said.

            You shot to your feet, throwing your hands to your side, and tears rushing down your face. “You're going to leave me alone! Alone, again! You out of everyone know how much I fear being locked inside myself. You know how much I need someone like you in my life. So why did even show yourself, if you're just going to leave me, like everyone else?”

            I understand it was the wine talking but it did not make it any easier to hear. Your words cut deeper than they should. “I am leaving you because I have to,” I said. “Those are the rules, but know I am waiting for you. Every night, I will return to this spot. Every night, I will drop from the Heavens to be by your side. And you must understand I will never truly leave you. I will always be here.”

            “How do I know you are not lying?”

            “You don't know that,” I said, looking up at you with all the belief in me. Hoping you can see that I am telling you the truth. “You'll just have to have faith in me.”

            “I don't have faith in people anymore,” you scream at me.

            “But I'm not a person, I'm a lion.”

            You smile and the smile was the brightest thing I have ever seen. You smile because you understood the joke and the fact it was true. I was like no other person on Earth because I wasn't of Earth. When I gave you my word I meant it. I am going to return to you every night.

            You sat down beside me, putting your arm around me, petting me. We talked the night away. I told you about more stars. You told me about what your life was like during the day. We talked until the sun came up and I returned home.

            I waited for the next night and went down to the world, but you were not there. The boy who broke your heart the very night we met was sitting at your house when you return home. You fell back in love with him; the kiss was hard and long. You stepped in to your house, shutting the door, falling for him again.

            You never came back to me but I still waited because I love you and I will always be here for you. I will never step away from you because I know, you will always need me. It may only be for a couple of hours. It may only be to cry on my shoulder when life is falling part. I understand that and I understand your smile, your laugh and your love is for someone else and I am just a wishing star. But I will always be here because for you. Because you always have another wish to tell me. And . . .

            I love you . . .