Another brilliant piece from a GUNNAS WRITING MASTERCLASS writer.
‘ONCE UPON A TIME, a girl walking through the forest came across a man, sitting beneath a tree, crying like a child.The man did not look up, but continued to weep, his head in his hands, his body heaved, up and down, up and down.
The girl looked at the man for a long while, and feeling sorry for his spilled tears thought to herself, “What makes a grown man cry? Is he lost? Is he sad? The girl decided to pluck up the courage to ask, but did not know which question she should ask first, ONE DAY this would not be a problem, she would feel brave enough to speak up and say what was in her thoughts, but just now, she felt far too small and insignificant to speak up before she was spoken to… She let out an long sigh, frustrated at her own lack of courage.
“I’m sorry, so sorry, I hope I didn’t frighten you.” The crying man spluttered between sobs… the girl’s sigh had distracted the man from his tears and he lifted his head.
“Oh,” said the girl, “you didn’t frighten me, it’s, it’s, it’s, you’re crying. Why are you trying?”
The man raised his shoulders, and straightened a little, pointing at his chest… “It’s these, these hideous things, these man boobs, they make my life miserable, everyone laughs at me, teases me, throw stones at me and make me feel so sad, that’s why I’m sitting here beneath this tree, feeling sorry for myself.”
“Are you lonely asked the girl?”
“Terribly” heaved the man, with a great sigh that escaped his body with such force it shook the leaves on the tree he sat beneath.
“Why do they make you cry?” asked the girl, “I’ve seen lots of people with them.”
“Men are not allowed to have such things, the people of the town have chased me from my home, calling after me, ‘man boobs, man boobs'”, he sobbed, poking himself accusingly in the chest. “Even my mother is ashamed of me, it breaks my heart, yet it’s something I cannot change.”
The whole time the man had been telling his tale, he’d not once looked the girl fully in the face, too scared, too ashamed to see the scorn and horror in her eyes, the same look the townspeople had.
The girl touched him on the shoulder, her touch was gentle and understanding… he lifted his eyes and seen this was no girl, no child, but a woman, a small, small woman. She was as small as he was large, so why wasn’t she afraid of him? For the first time, he looked at her, there was such understanding in her eyes, he felt she truly understood his pain, it was then, in that moment, that he knew they would live HAPPILY EVER AFTER.