StoryTime. (rough draft)

there once was a man. for all intents and purposes, his name was J. no one knew where he came from. J was a mysterious sort of a guy. came and went with the wind. he swept into a town. the name unknown. it was sort of isolated, surrounded almost entirely by woods, with a large lake, where many of the townspeople fished. that's not to say there were many townspeople either, but those that fancied a fish dinner, or decided it was the day junior learned the proper fishing techniques, it was ideal. and, like almost any story dealing with a wandering soul of a male, there must be an equally drifting maiden. except she wasn't physically a drifter. nope, she had her mind in places above and beyond the clouds though. she dreamed of far away places and things like that. fairy tales the way they told them around a campfire, or from her grandmother. she had an ideal man in her mind, of course. all fairy tales require at least one. she pictured it differently every time she saw him...how he would enter her life. she had a dream once that he would rise from the lake, or float down from a cloud. or she would be gathering firewood and he would surprise her from behind a tree and sweep her off her feet. one thing that always happened... in these dreams, he would take her away from her family. she would be sad to leave them but so excited to enter the unknown with her hero. it just so happened... that one day... there was a knock at the door. her father answered it, and it was the drifter. J. (for all intents and purposes) he tipped his hat and introduced himself. told her father he was stopping in the town for a short while and needed a place to stay. was willing to work for whatever the family would share. the maiden had heard a strange voice, not her father's, and poked her head out of the kitchen doorway to see who was at the door. it just so happened, that J was a very good looking man, and for a drifter, very well-kept. one sack slung over his shoulder, seemed very strong, and considerably taller than her father, who seemed to be shrinking in his old age. J noticed the maiden in the doorway and tipped his hat once more, knowing the common courtesies when in the presence of a lady. although J seemed straight enough, the maiden's father did not like the looks of him, and told him to look elsewhere for shelter. dismayed but curious nonetheless, the maiden followed behind J as he walked to the next house, keeping her distance of course so as not to be noticed. well finally, J came upon a welcoming house, and was invited inside. it happened to be the butcher, and so J would surely earn his stay by working with him. the butcher only lived a few small houses away from the maiden and her father, so she was very excited. she could watch him working. and he brought some spark to her days that were normally spent daydreaming and working around the house. it turned out that J was a very dilligent worker, and so he and the butcher became fast friends. since the butcher now had less work to do, they would be able to deliver the meats to the surrounding houses. and J would make sure he was the one who visited the house where the maiden lived, because he had taken a fancy to her, and had spotted her plenty of times, trying to spy on him. her father would be sure to not allow her to answer the door. in case it was J. one day, she got very brave and mouthed for him to meet her by the lake. after dinner, she told her father and grandmother she was going for a walk, and met him by the lake. they talked until well after sunset, when her father came calling after her. they quickly went their separate ways, but not before she could tell him to meet her here again tomorrow. they managed to meet each night until just after sunset, for almost a week. one night, J told the maiden he would be leaving soon, as the wind was telling him it was his time. she begged him to take her with him. he had never had company on his ventures, except when he had first started out on his own. with his brother. his brother had died though, tragically, and J had wandered alone ever since. unsure of what they might encounter, and not wanting her father to think ill of either of them, in case the wind lead him back to that small village, he tried to explain to her he had to go alone. they embraced once last time, but she knew she would try and leave with him the following morning. she had no way to wake up early enough, and so she simply decided she would not fall asleep. if she was awake the whole night, then she would still be awake when he left and could follow him, until she was so far away from her home, he had to take her with him. sometime during the night, as hard as she tried to stay awake, the maiden slowly closed her eyes and fell fast asleep. by the time she awoke in the morning, J was long gone, having said goodbye to the friendly villagers he had met during his stay; even to her father and grandmother, who had been wary of him on arrival. it was almost halfday by the time her father came in to wake the maiden up, and she was so distraught that she had fallen asleep, she began to weep. she wept for so long, and so hard, her father thought she would never stop weeping. she slowly walked (still weeping) down to the lake. she heard a noise, and a rock splashed into the water near where she was crying. she stopped suddenly, frightened at first. looking in the direction from where the rock had come. and saw J sitting by one of the trees, hidden from the sight of the villagers. he thought she would never wake up, and she explained how she had tried to stay awake the whole night. he told her he realized he did not want to be without her. she dried her tears, ran back to the house, quickly, left a note for her father who had gone to the market, kissed her grandmother goodbye, and left with J-- dreams and visions of moving with the fleeting wind in her mind.