Once touched by the King, you are never the same again. It is not something I can adequately put into words. Only those who wear the green ribbon can commune with the King. The other members of the land of liquid gold—those who moved on two or four legs, the jealous ones—cannot commune with Him. They can talk to Him, they can sit with Him, and they can delight in Him. But they cannot commune with Him. That is for the wearers of the green ribbon, only.
 |
| The green ribbon. |
It is as if your outward covering, your skin, is
completely porous, but the only thing that can enter is the King. The water dancer tries her best to do
so. The gentle breezes nudge and
push. The delicious earth hugs and
squeezes. Yet none can enter but the
King. It is a true communion. The liquid gold enters in an eternal embrace,
and a feeling of absolute power ensues.
It is a reaching out to the ends of the universe and beyond, but as I
said, it is not something I can adequately put into words.
It is a direct transference of power and energy, and
while it is happening, the entire universe is at your command. Then the King leaves without warning, and the
world seems black, indeed. Gone is the
universe in the palm of your hand, like a fleeting dream, a wisp of
spirit. The memory of ultimate power
fades almost instantly, an unsure fantasy.
So I took the gold the King gave me and I hid it in tiny
places where I hoped he would never see.
Tiny fractions of energy and power, they were, and I took them and greedily
hid them. I was energized by them,
entranced by them, empowered by them. I
used them to grow exponentially. My body
ripped and tore itself as it grew rapidly upward toward the realm of the
King. It was my intention to enter His
palace and claim Him for my own, so I did not care when my skin was stretched
and ripped and twisted. I laughed at the
pain because I knew that it brought me that much closer to Him.
But there were things in this new world that were not as
kind as the King. The two-leggeds and
the four-leggeds were terrible, indeed.
They would often destroy many of my green-ribboned brethren, and I
feared they would destroy me as well.
But they did not. The King
protected me, I told myself.
Just as I ate incessantly in the Underworld on my way to
the land of liquid gold, so too did these terrible creatures eat of the
green-ribboned brethren. I decided it
was a jealousy they had because they could not commune with the King
directly. In order to receive the King’s
power, they had to consume those of us who did
commune with the King. The King loved
them, but He did not share Himself with them.
He shared Himself only with the green-ribboned brethren, and so the
creatures came and stole His gold. But
like water in their fingers, it would eventually drip out completely and they
would have to steal more.
So far I had managed to avoid them. I heard some of the other green-ribboned
brethren talking, and they said that we were completely immobile because of our
unique relationship with the King. Some
said it was so that He could always easily find us. Others said it was a punishment for storing
his power deep within. (Yes, they were doing it, too!) Still others said it was a gift to the
two-leggeds and four-leggeds from the King Himself.
I didn’t care what the reason was. I hated the creatures and the fact that I was
immobile and they were not. I watched in
rapt fascination and horror as they consumed many of the green-ribboned
brethren. Did they know—did they see—the
tiny flashes of liquid gold in their mouths as they consumed? I could see them all like flashes of
lightning, and it frightened me to the core.
I did not want to lose even one tiny bit of my secret liquid gold.
But the nature of this bizarre world was
inescapable. It happened one day as I
was growing strong and tall and sure. I
felt a breach in my energy field.
Something was taking my gold. I
looked down and saw a yellow and black and white striped creature with black
antennas sitting comfortably on one of my beautiful green leaves. And she was voraciously eating my beautiful
green leaf. Every bite she took was so
very painful.
“Stop that!” I yelled at her, but she only laughed.
“Stop, I say!”
“I will not,” was all she said. Then she smiled and kept eating.
Tiny bits of liquid gold poured out of me
with every agonizing bite, and she hungrily devoured them all. She was a thief of the worst kind. But then, we all were, weren’t we?
[Click here for Part VI.]
