Perennials

A short story

"That's wild bro!"

"Wipe it again, man!"

He swabbed the tear with a dirty tissue. Within moments a fresh one appeared, carving a path down her marble cheek.

"Whoa…that’s crazy. Absolutely nuts!" He sent a playful punch into his friend’s shoulder.

No one knows exactly when the tears first appeared. Dampness on the cheek of a statue can be attributed to any number of reasonable explanations. Persistent tears aren't easily spotted, especially in such a busy tourist destination where observers are continuously coming and going. As it turned out, the first person to notice that the statue was crying was a little girl who decided to look closely at what was happening.

The July heat had kept her family in their hotel room, safely behind the cooling vapors of the air conditioner. It was her father who guilted everyone into taking a walk in the public garden. He hadn't spent all that money for them to sit inside, had he?

So off they went, the little girl, her mother and father, with her younger brother in tow. Outside, the air was still and humid. Her mother complained it was difficult to breathe, while her father pretended not to notice. They stopped for ice cream and continued on their way through the winding path.

Near the center of the park her brother broke from the group, harassing geese. They would scatter, flapping and squawking, then land a short distance away and he'd renew the chase. Her father filmed the event, his forced laughter draining into the bleating audio. Something to show the folks back home: His boy chasing geese. Her mother sat on a nearby bench hiding behind a parasol, trying to block out both the sun and any perceived connection with her boys.

This is how the girl found herself alone, looking around, searching for...anything really. The ice cream ran down in beads, some pooling at the top of her hand in a sticky mess, some absorbed by the napkin wrapped around the cone.

How exactly the statue drew her attention is unclear. Maybe she found a kinship with the frozen-in-time angel, anchored to the ground, and forced to witness- but not partake in- the perverse ecosystem around her. A green scab in the middle of the city.

Or maybe the statue was the only interesting thing in her proximity.

At any rate, she found herself staring into her pale eyes. The damp, hard cheek made her feel detached. Alone. So, she unwrapped the napkin from her cone and wiped the tear away. Another one took its place. Making a slight frown, the girl wiped again, and again...

That was how it started. Within a week, the whole park was closed, the girl and her family quarantined and tested. Doctors in hazmat suits flooded the area. Thousands of experiments were run. They searched for water sources, tubes, hallucinogens- anything to explain the occurrence rationally.

Religious figures came out of the woodwork too. Petitions were signed and tensions came to a head between the devotees and the skeptics. The most zealous on both sides took it to the courts! One group wanted to preserve the miracle, the others wanted to break it down. They needed to know the cause.

The years passed. One judge would make a ruling. It would be appealed and sent up to a higher court. Then again and again. The issue was held in limbo. By the time it made it to the supreme court, commerce had already ended the debate. All the tests came back negative for anything harmful. There was no danger here, just a bit of saline and a very marketable tourist attraction. A true miracle in our times.

Decades on, people barely talk about it. But the tears still flow. People come to wipe and marvel at their reappearance. Some pray. Some bless the sick with their damp dirty tissues. Some take selfies and laugh. Everyone enjoys it in their own way.

But why is it happening you ask?

"Why" is such a blunt question. Do you mean: "What is causing the statue to cry?" That I cannot tell you. The mechanism is beyond my understanding.

Perhaps, you mean to ask: "What is the statue crying for?" Now that is something I do know, but will not tell.

Why? Because you already know the answer.

If you would like to support my work, you can always buy me a coffee using the link below!