text: A man was lost, hopeless, and alone in a desert that seemed to expand beyond the horizon endlessly. He walked over dune after dune for miles without purpose for he did not know whether he would ever escape this scorched land. He was at the mercy of the fiery wind as were the sand grains that raked his flesh. His thoughts in his wearisome head led him to the belief that this was the whole of his world. No edge, no end, and no escape foreseen. Memory of anywhere but here forsook him then. This was the cruel and merciless world wherein he would inevitably see the Noseless One, he thought, before being dragged into His shadows. His body, emotions, and thoughts were slowly approaching the End. Why weep? Why curse the land? He reflected. By *his own hands* he laid the cobblestones for the road which led him hither. He fell to his knees and felt the sting of the boiling sand. Even in his ascent to the crest of a dune that nearly shrouded the desert with its size, the man only beheld more aimless dunes in the forlorn horizon, condemned to the same lake of sand and fire as his soul. He then noticed some ways yonder a piece of paper that was folded up as if with human care. It lay buried halfway in the sand, becoming gradually unearthed by the wind. The man, now perplexed with its presence, walked to the where paper had hitherto lain and plucked it from the mouth of the sand. He unfolded it and held it delicately as one would hold a talisman. On it was written in large simple handwriting: I love you! The words of this mysterious short letter dumbfounded the man so severely that he was about to cast it away, feeling as he had been struck by a malevolent curse. He checked himself short, however, and reread the handwriting. The words he began to recognize but he knew not how. Warm, sweet, and euphonious were these words to his heart as he read them aloud again and again. He only wished to know its source. He knew not the source of this land--it was eternal as far as he knew in his haze of thoughts--but he wished at least to know the source of this enigmatic letter. Suddenly, as he had been gazing about the once barren desert, his eyes balked at a ribbon of bright colors below. Erelong, the colors manifested in the form of an exotic creature and the man quickly saw that it was a woman. His dull eyes brighten at the sight of her. She had auburn hair, a sun-kissed countenance and green eyes which cared not for the hot and dry hell they were in. Stupefied by the beautiful sight, the man thought time stopped and the earth he felt cool. She usurped the whole of everything he saw. The desert ceased to be his everything. Every light hitting his retina became hers. She appeared as lost as he and laid her gentle eyes on him from afar. She ambled to the summit of the dune whereon the man stood helpless. Every footprint she left in the sand, the man could have sworn, became of quartz. Her presence was unexplainable and the man thought her magical. The woman beamed and walked with grace to the man in a way that bespoke familiarity, whereof the man could not comprehend. Feeling the air chill around him, the man smiled back as a sudden joy began to pour into his vena cavas and fill his parched heart. He was happy to see the woman but he did not know why. Perhaps, because he was no longer lonesome? The man thought and thought but that wasn’t the reason. No. He felt there was something more. They walked to each other until their eyes met at a meter’s distance. “Did you write in that piece of paper?” He asked. The woman giggled then nodded sincerely. The man felt his heart hesitate. “Why, of all places, did you leave it here? Was that for me?” The woman’s cheeks rose and her mouth curved into a bright smile. “Yes, those words were written for you. As for why I chose to leave it here, I have been longing for the day you would find me. This is your last journey and I could not bear to remain hidden from you any longer. I had to show you how I care! You think no one cares about you or loves you but you’re wrong. I love you! O my dear! you have been blind all this time, but now that you can see me,” her eyes widened desperately, “you can see that I exist, right?” The man, overwhelmed by her impassioned words, took a step back. “Who do you happen to be?” The woman gazed blankly at him as her happiness began to fall with a heavy sigh. “Dear, I blame you none for your confusion. This is a strange enchanting land you have wandered into; where no one can follow you but I.” Sadness began cloud her eyes. “Through your calms and storms, sunrises and sunsets, days and nights I know you have felt my spirit. Alas, it pains me to say this, a few trying years have past and you have forgotten me. You no longer called out to me though I was always just a pray away. Can you surmise who I am now?” “Forgive me, miss, for I am a clueless man. I have not an inkling who you are,” the man felt guilty to say. She walked a step forward with forgiving eyes and smiled a sad fainter smile. She took his hands in hers, not taking her gaze off him. “I am Hope. I am what you have lost and what you need right this moment. I am the sustenance of your soul; the reason you live for today and dream for tomorrow; the reason the bees buzz and the birds croon about you. I bring the sunrise to your mornings and the stars to your nights. I rejoice with you and I suffer with you! I care for and love you above any mortal that treads upon the earth! Do you not see, dear? O I bless the heavens that I found you!” “Hope. That is a lovely name you have, miss,” the man began, oddly calmer. Although he was hesitant to believe her to be who she said she was, he felt joy, undeserving joy from the compassionate words her soft voice poured his way. Benigner words have never been spoken to him in all his life but from her. He felt himself unworthy. No. He cannot have a share in this divine. He thought. He with shame and reluctance removed his hands from hers. “I’m afraid I’m not who you want. You should go along now. I-it’s not safe here in this wretched heat.” At this the woman stepped a foot closer to the man, to his great surprise, and with angelic gentleness place her hands at his shoulders. “You are not who I want; you are who I need. Dear, I am a part of you! Don’t you see? The death of man is also the death of man’s hope.” His body began to lose its senses, beginning at his legs which by this time were weighing him numb. The man squinted over her shoulder and dark portentous clouds rolling over the distant dunes, consuming them whole, came in sight. The man was oddly mesmerized by the moving shapes of yon clouds and wanted to go closer to them, to see whether he may find his peace in the black fog. “I will never stop loving you,” the woman went on with mist in her eyes. “I will never stop believing in you. Do you believe in me? It is bad enough that you are lost in heart, mind, and spirit. The reality beyond as you may know, is worse. You are a lost man in a lost world. You have lost much in that world, I know. Things that you once believed in: Beauty, Truth, Hope, and Love. And I know the world has flogged and skinned your soul again and a-again.” Upon saying this, as an ill-fated dam, her rivers of tears broke forth. “But I beseech you to listen. You are not hopeless! Your only fault was losing sight of me but I forgive you. I know you see those approaching clouds, but please relinquish your want of going there! You have me, okay? As long as you have me, they can never harm us. I bid you rid yourself of these pains!” She threw her arms suddenly around the man, whose icy heart began to thaw from the new fire of emotions that had ignited from within. He was at a loss for words. Even in the pain she felt for him she smiled and her bedewed eyes shimmered at his with serenity; however the man’s state, she was happy to be there with him. She embraced him warmly and the fires of the Sun beating down on them tamed thence. He saw his eyes reflect brilliantly in her emerald orbs and the icy sheath of his heart evaporated at last in flames of love which now danced joyfully for this woman. “I-I love you,” the man spoke breathlessly. Upon hearing this, the woman’s countenance blossomed as a midsummer rose. Traces of her tears from minutes ago vanished in her sidereal eyes. The man thought it impossible but she did smile a smile more hopeful and beautiful than all she bestowed him before. He could have believed her to be a star who had taken the form of a woman--nay--a goddess beyond compare. Had he discovered something of after death or of before life? He pondered. For how could a woman steeped in utmost beauty walk before a miserable wight in a miserable land and wish him goodness and love without return? O how he wished her to be his to cherish forever! His agonized soul finally calmed when the woman lifted her palm up to his cheek. “Thank you, for letting me into your heart again.” With her arms still woven around the man, she kept him alive amid the scorched dunes. Dry winds began to violently stir the biting sand as the inexorable pale orb in the sky swelled. The black clouds were rolling closer and the land was slowly killing the man’s body yet his soul was preserved in the arms of Hope. He clinged to her as the winds roared and tore at his limbs and buried his head in her shoulders as tears fell down his face. The woman’s hair had the softness of feathers and the man cherished the embrace of this divinity until the whole wasteland became consumed in a storm of sand and darkness. The man screamed for his life as he felt the desert under his feet being swept away by the clouds. “Do not be afraid, dear.” The woman whispered to his ears. Somehow, the man heard her through the deafening storm and immediately calmed. The sandstorm raged on and all was silent but her voice. “I will give you a kiss so you will never forget me.” The last thing he remembered was her kiss upon his unworthy lips. He had glimpsed into the ninth sphere, he thought, of paradise. The man awoke from his sleep. He crawled out of his bed and stumbled toward the nearest window and beheld from his apartment room the smoggy city with dark skyscrapers looming ominously before a gray sun. He looked four storeys below and saw Pandemonium. It was hard to believe that he would have preferred to remain among the unsullied sand dunes, as a monarch of a desert land with Hope as his queen, over the the comforts of his apartment, but the truth could not have been clearer. The man wept for he felt lost, hopeless, and alone in a dark corrupt world. The ring of a doorbell abruptly startled the man out of his bout of misery, and he rushed to the sink, washed himself and tamed his disheveled hair before approaching the door which rung once more. As he slowly unbarred the door, his capacity to speak was lost. On the other side was a woman. She had auburn hair and green eyes which cared not for the smoggy city they were in. “Hi! I’m your new neighbor. I just moved in yesterday a few doors down and I, uh, wanted to give you this!” She held out a salad bowl. “I-I made it this morning,” she said with a warm smile, a smile the man thought uncannily familiar. The man, smitten with awe, could not but smile, receive her offering, and nod to her gratefully. The woman required nothing more from his response to be happy and went on, “I hope to see you again! You’re welcome to come by later for dinner.” She departed from the man but not before gazing back at him and waving her hand as she returned to her room down the corridor. His smile did not fade. He did not know how but he knew then that the flames of Hope still danced and rejoiced within him. He was not hopeless anymore; he was lost in darkness but now he found a candlelight and can begin finding his way; and although he was alone in that moment, by dinnertime he will be alone no more.