Advance/or Afterward “Winter is Coming”:

We all seem to have been born in an era of ‘Once upon a time,’ and feel and hope fairy tales can reach out to us at any time. Nowadays, age becomes less of a factor, less than mood, and we venture back onto the stage to the play, the facts behind us are really nothing when we become old, no one can raise the dead, so mental processes start, we want to grab the spirit of romance, perhaps once, just once more. Sometimes we leap, for cupid or Psyche, for the gothic mind, old people dream, just like young people, but old people are at the end of the road, not the beginning. The harps are playing, the invisible harps–when they will stop, a daily guess. Too often the old die feeling unwelcome on earth, choosing to die, I fear without a filled heart. They realize there are softer winds in heaven, and so they let go of the useless pain they endure here on earth trying to please. Sweet ones, dear ones, they go, thus seeking harmony in another world.

In this story, “Winter is Coming” I try to bring a short delay, so a few people could refine their last days, true and obedient to their hearts. For they all know, from the first paragraph to the last, someone will have to carry them to the tomb, soon. I do believe Roberta in the story realizes her smiles can turn into weeping, but perhaps there might be some joy in grief, but I suppose she still wants to see the face of her husband, in her death. Sammy has found his true heart I do believe, and it pleases him, and he wants to leave that thought grow, leave it there; he doesn’t want anyone to take it away, perhaps he feels he will not have time to find it again, wittingly he loves, desires, trays to conquer. Ezra, is perhaps thinking he adores beauty, laughter, he endures Sammy, even though Sammy is shy, but he doesn’t try much, he’s perhaps tired of it all, if it happens, it happens, and stale in comparisons to him is Sammy, yet Sammy takes the intuitive step to have a last romance. But should he leave? He’s comfortable. And at the end, God’s plan takes care of it all. Simplicity for the inadequate, you could say, numbered we are among the earthly many.