All summer long the sun sets over the pond that lies between our family home and Mr. Smith's cornfield. The reflected golden light floods my bedroom window, and during the long summer months the lopsided rectangle drifts lazily across Kermit speckled wall of my childhood bedroom.
When I was twelve years old I charted the path of the sun. I took a red pencil and marked a line every night at exactly 9 o'clock. I only missed ten nights the whole summer.
Every summer since then I've spent a certain number of nights checking to make sure the sun hasn't left its appointed course. In the least I like to make sure that our house isn't sliding down the hill towards the farm.
I guess I should explain that the orange light didn't only move across my wall. I mean if it were that simple I probably would never have noticed the thing.
The rippling colors that appeared on certain evenings struck up a morbid fascination inside me. I was a little frightened by the mysterious colors.
Somewhere around my seventh birthday I asked my father why the lights moved the way they did.
My father, in his off-handed know-it-all sort of way, told me to look down at the pond. He explained that the water was moving and rippling and that was why the light being reflected off it was always moving and changing.
This was just the kind of answer one comes to expect from an engineer right.
I believed my father perfectly well, but I began to wonder what it was that lie under the water. What was making it move and ripple? It frightened me more now than it had been before.
I had another disturbing thought. Why had my father chosen not to explain what was down there? Could it have simply slipped his mind? Or was there some sort of adult plot going on?
So a few days later I dragged by father down to the pond, under some sort of false pretense. I asked my father what was under there that made it jiggle around so much. I hadn't felt anything in there with me while Billy and I had been skinny dipping, and no one had ever thought to warn me before now.
No, no, my father explained, it's the wind that blows the surface of the water into those little waves.
Again an answer that seemed appropriate yet vague.
I looked at the pond in confusion. I can't recall now how my father changed the subject, but we were suddenly trudging back up the hill towards home.
A year or so later I was sitting beside the pond with Billy and I decided to ask him about this mystery. Billy was two years older than I was, so maybe he could help me understand why the wind didn't just blow all the water out of the little pond.
Billy seemed confused. He then quickly stood me up and marched me down to the water's edge to see something.
Billy pointed out the little bugs that skimmed across the top of the pond. Then he grabbed at the tiny fish that swam below the surface of the pond. He even attempted to chase the frogs that jumped in and out of the pond.
I watched in wonder as Billy touched the water and showed me how even his own hand could create a little rippled wave.
See, Billy explained, a wave travels back and forth across the top of the water all the time. Each wave slows down and dies after a very long time. A long, long time, longer than a little boy could sit and watch it. And every time a bug, or a fish, or a frog touches the surface of the water, it causes that specific wave to get larger and travel farther.
Then Billy showed me how two different waves could collide and split into lots of little waves. It was getting too complex now. Billy explained that when a bunch of Frogs are having a wild party, we can sometimes hear them partying during the hot summer evenings, they cause the waves to get really big.
And then other times, said Billy, it's just sort of a freak occurrence, like a lot of little waves suddenly getting together into one big wave. It's all a matter of where the waves meet.
Billy and I argued for a time on the difference between a wave created by a fish and a wave created by a frog. I tried to prove through prolonged tests that the frog's wave was a cresting wave, and that a fish's wave was a sinking wave.
It didn't matter. We just jumped back into the water, all my fears finally dissipated. That was the last time that Billy and I skinny dipped together.
A few years later, I had learned that my father hadn't been completely wrong.
I was sitting in the darkened grasses above the pond with my new best friend Michael. Michael's father had bought the drug store downtown and was running for mayor too. I had begun bringing Michael here shortly after Billy joined the football team, and lost interest in swimming. Now the pond was mine and Michael's hang out.
Michael and I lay together in the rushes on the side of the pond that faces the woods. Curling into each other awkwardly to avoid the cold it suddenly occurred to me to get us out of the wind somehow. It was after all the wind that was making us cold. And when I looked out at the pond, to try to find a better place for us to lie together, I noticed that the wind was blowing the reeds, and the trees, and the birds, and the weeds, and the little rippled waves on the pond in the same direction.
I had learned about gravity in school recently so it was a simple thing now to understand why the wind couldn't blow all the water out of the pond. Boy isn't it strange how distorted the facts can become when you listen to engineers and football players.
Later that evening Michael and I lay on the bed in my room looking up at the rectangle of golden light from our little pond. I told Michael about my earlier misconceptions about the waves in the pond. Michael enjoyed my story and told me a story so much that he immediately began telling me about his father's version of the story.
It seems that in ancient times there had been a powerful and strikingly beautiful young man named Narcissus.
Narcissus was so beautiful that all the women of the world adored him. And, so attractive to women that all the men of the world were either extremely jealous of him, or adored him just the way the women had (this was Michael's addition I think).
Narcissus had stolen so many women from their men, and so many men from their women, that the gods were angry at him for his interference. They had intended for things to go a certain way, and Narcissus was really screwing everything up.
Now back then the gods took their jobs very seriously. They would have to do something to prevent this young mortal from influencing too many people. One ugly old god suggested that they turn Narcissus into an ugly old man to punish him for his indulgences. This god had lost the favor of many of his mortal mistresses, and two of his young sons as well.
Then another god suggested that they leave him just as beautiful as he had always been, but give him a really foul body odor. This god did not have bad body odor himself, but his wife did.
In fact all but one god suggested different ways of taking revenge on Narcissus. Apollo, the son of Zeus, kept his mouth shut because he knew that he was alone in his admiration of the powerful Narcissus. He knew that it wouldn't do to make enemies over the lovely young mortal, no matter how beautiful he might have been.
Finally a decision was made based upon the suggestion of a beautiful young goddess. THis goddess was as beautiful as Narcissus could claim to be, but was unjustly jealous that while she sat up here alone in Olympus he got to have his way with many mortal women.
Her suggestion was simple and elegant. She proposed that they place a magical pond in Narcissus' path so that he would look into the pond and fall passionately in love with the image of himself that was reflected there.
When asked what kind of punishment this would be, she simply replied, he will sit at that pond and stare at himself until he is old enough, and worn enough, to fall out of love with life, and he will die. The gods applauded her ingenuity. No one else had come up with a suggestion so cleverly appropriate.
Several of the gods worked together to build the little magic pond that was needed for the trick. They worked for days without stopping so that the pond would be complete precisely the moment before Narcissus was due to pass the valley they had chosen for their trap.
Narcissus was traveling along towards his homeland, having spent a fortnight at his uncles home in the mountains when he came upon his favorite little valley. He had always stopped in this valley as a child, and had rested here upon many journeys since then. This time however there was something strange and wonderful in the center of his green valley. A golden pond with water lilies and sunflowers around it sat perched amongst shimmering white rocks.
Narcissus had never seen anything as beautiful as this little pond, and completely absorbed in his admiration of the pond he did not question its sudden appearance, for it had not been here when he stopped here only weeks before.
Narcissus went to the pond's edge and enticed by the cool mist and the reflected clouds he stripped off his armor and robes and settled down into the water to rinse the dust of the journey from himself.
The gods were above him looking down, waiting impatiently, for him to look down into the pond and become frozen there. They had expected that he would look immediately.
What they didn't know was that Narcissus didn't actually consider himself all that attractive. He tended to avoid looking at his reflection, and considered it rather boring that some many other people set such importance on his appearance.
Unfortunately once Narcissus felt clean and refreshed he did take the opportunity pull out his shaving kit. The moment he looked down into his reflection he became trapped in the pond's magical spell.
Before the Gods had even dispersed Apollo was already planning a rescue attempt.
Apollo's father, Zeus was the god of storms, so Apollo knew that he could also control the weather a little. He could even create it when he needed to.
Until now, there hadn't been much weather of interest created.
There was rain, but it only happened up in the mountains so that the streams would always be full.
There was snow, but that was also in the mountains, and it was used solely to keep the mortals from traveling on up to Olympus.
There was lightening, but that was primarily used as a weapon, to scare people, and to destroy things that were no longer useful.
Apollo decided, quite logically, that he had to use the weather to disturb this little pond only enough to break the spell.
He knew he couldn't use lightening, because his father would immediately notice it missing. Zeus kept lightening by his side at all times.
Apollo thought about snow, but the clouds that accompanied snow would attract every God in the hemisphere. Rain had the same drawback.
Apollo was beginning to flounder. He wasn't sure, but he suddenly felt certain that he was going to have to go about inventing something new if he wanted the right results. The problem, as he saw it, was that even his father avoided creating weather. Apollo just couldn't put his finger on exactly what it was that he should be concerned about.
But then a thought hit him. What if he created just a little tiny movement in the air. Rain and snow were just movements of water, and lightning was a movement of electricity, so why couldn't air be moved just the same way.
If the air touched the water, then a little air movement might just be enough to cause the little pond lose its magic spell over Narcissus. It was worth a try.
Apollo began working on his "wind". That was the name he had chosen for his little air movement.
It took Apollo weeks and weeks of work to find the right little ingredients he needed to create the wind. He had to go away and search for some of the things, and every time something was especially difficult to find he would consider giving up, but then he would look again at young Narcissus and continue on.
Finally Apollo finished his creation. Everything was in place. As far as Apollo could tell, he had thought of every possible problem that could occur.
Apollo sat down across from Narcissus to study his beauty. Who could say when he might again have the chance to study the mortal from so close. After all, there were but a few moments when Narcissus was not surrounded by his fellow mortals.
So Apollo studied Narcissus. He painted pictures, and pined over him, until he had completely exhausted himself. Then he simply sat back on the rocks and reached out to switch on the wind.
Now Apollo was not a stupid God. In fact, he was considered to be the most intelligent of all his kin. He had put considerable thought into all the important variables.
Apollo had put a control on the wind so that he could adjust how fast it would blow.
Apollo had put a nozzle on it so that he could adjust its direction.
Everything seemed to be going perfectly.
Within minutes the pond was beginning to ripple. Just a little at first, but then as Apollo turned up the speed the pond rippled some more.
There seemed to be enough disturbance, but still not enough.
Apollo turned the wind up a little higher, and then pushed it a little closer to the pond for a better effect.
Finally there was enough ripple upon the water to break the spell that held Narcissus frozen. Narcissus stood up. He didn't even notice Apollo standing there. Gods are actually very hard to see with the naked eye.
Then Narcissus packed up the shaving kit that he had been holding. He had no recollection of having kneeled there for several weeks. In fact, he awoke refreshed and excited. And, feeling refreshed he loaded his possessions back into his pack and walked out of the little valley.
Apollo was upset that Narcissus had not seen him. He wasn't upset enough to do anything very rash. He could never have contemplated hurting Narcissus. But, he was upset enough to clench his big fists and smack his palms. And, he was also upset enough to beat upon the nearest object he could lay his hands upon.
Unfortunately, the nearest object at hand was the wind. Apollo struck the wind without really thinking. People do things in anger that they would never do when sober of mind. And, unfortunately, the wind being only a newly created thing, was rather fragile.
When Apollo became aware that he had just struck the wind he became concerned. He had never seen Zeus strike any creation. It somehow seemed to Apollo that striking a creation was a thing that you were definitely supposed to avoid doing.
Apollo immediately inspected the Wind. The first thing he found was the control nozzle for directing the wind. It was twisted at an odd angle, and swung heavily back and forth like a loose fire hose. At first his seemed like it would be okay. The wind wasn't blowing very hard, what kind of damage could a change of direction do.
Then the wind began to speed up and slow down without any sort of input from Apollo. Apollo found the control knob for the speed of the wind lying on the rocks at the edge of the pond, and somehow he had caused a short deep inside the machine as well. This did not look good.
Now the two controls that he had over the wind were both broken, and Apollo was not certain exactly what could be done about broken creations. Apollo sensed that creations, once created, couldn't really be fixed if broken. That seemed to have been the rule right after, don't strike your creations.
Now, as I've said, Apollo was not stupid, he knew it was time to go admit the situation to his father and ask for his father's help. See Apollo wasn't stupid, but he hadn't thought of the obvious solution. This required his father's wisdom and age.
Zeus was angry at his son, but decided that the whole incident had probably put enough fear into Apollo as to not warrant any further punishment. That is until his son showed him what he had created.
At first Zeus was impressed, Apollo's ingenious creation did meet all the criteria set down for good creations: It was interesting, it suited the needs of the moment, it wasn't large or unwieldy. Zeus remembered his other eldest son's creation, the volcano, and laughed at the subtlety of Apollo's little wind.
So just turn it off now, suggested Zeus, having admired the creation for an ample period.
That's when Apollo remembered another of the rules about creations. Always give them a beginning and an end.
Zeus went through the ceiling upon hearing that Apollo had created a wind that no longer had any direction controls, had a short circuited speed control, and couldn't be turned off.
Don't you know that this wind will begin pushing the rain around eventually, he said angrily.
Apollo could see his father's logic, but that didn't really affect the intensity of his guilt.
He knew right off that his wind would blow the snow right off the mountain tops.
He knew with no lack of clarity that rain would be pushed out of its regular valleys and whole rivers would dry up. Other valleys would be flooded.
Zeus had plenty of wonderfully creative punishments in mind as he glared at his handsome son. Instead, he chose to simply add to Apollo's guilt.
Handing Apollo lightning he order Apollo to throw it into a nearby rain cloud to be carried along by his little wind.
Apollo didn't want to do it. He was quite aware of how much damage lightning could do, but his father was looking quite dangerous with anger etched across his broad face.
So Apollo threw the lightning up into the nearest dark rain cloud.
Now you've given away all my weather to your little wind, said Zeus, are you quite satisfied?
Rhetorical question, Apollo decided.
Zeus never mentioned the weather again.
On occasion the wind, the rain, and the lightning would visit Mount Olympus. And, on those days Zeus would snarl, and grimace, and a shout very much like the crack of a whip would escape his vengeful lips in unison with every lightning bolt.
Apollo and Narcissus lived unhappily ever after.
When Michael finished his story I held him tight for a long time.
Michael had always been a wonderful story teller. I wondered how much of that story was actually his fathers, and how much was his own.
I suddenly wondered if Michael's father had ever told him about the rules one should use when creating a story.
I wonder if his father had warned him not to strike at the stories he created. Or what about the rule regarding changing a story once it was created.
I guess not, because I know that Michael's father probably hadn't given Apollo and Narcissus such an interesting relationship.
In fact, Michael's father probably used Athena, or some goddess as the poor scapegoat for the weather.
Of course I liked Michael's story better than I would have liked his father's.
After all, if each frog that jumps into a pond can add a little momentum to a wave then why can't each story teller add a little momentum to a story?
I mean there's no such thing as a dangerous wave, right?
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