• And finally my dream had come true. There with me in morning's embrace. I held my flower. All I remember from the night before was walking along a wooded path. The woman that walked with me, tightly grasping my hand, seemed to disappear without me noticing. Of course, as we walked I had felt her grip loosen. Though I pushed this away as a pessimistic construct. Though the architect continued building, and I felt my grip tighten in reassurance. Little did it do, as I discovered myself a lonely walker. Distraught by my loneliness I looked around at all the previous companions to walk with me. They were all trees dead in the winter, deeply rooted in my path, but crumpling like a dead ashen corpse on touch. I glanced nervously to see a huge willow tree. It was one of the trees that still lived on. Its roots once almost as deep as the very blood path I followed. Every glance brought regret. I had observed it to much. My attempts to connect to it only drew the tree farther from my path. It's roots receding to more fertile land. I looked away and felt my eyes search else where. That's when I saw it. A small scarlet flower. Immediately I knew this was the one whom had just recently disappeared from my side, but the flower was still alive, unlike most of the trees. The flower also grew on the edge of the dirt road, closer than most of the trees that were still alive. A single green stem held up the beautiful bloom on top. It's petals radiant with color. The sight of it alone brought me to my knees. Leaves fell, colors bloomed and others drained, but the death of many others didn't pain me as much as seeing the color start to fade off of that flowers scarlet petals. The petals that had once shown so brightly, now seemed overshadowed by the brilliance of other blooms around. The temptation grew strong and my heart grew weak, as I saw other blooms grow while the scarlet one slowly drained away. She'd leave me alone. She had left me alone, but remained in my life. Why? The single drop made a sound as it landed on the fertile earth, the flower soon absorbing it. The drop resonated through my very being. I reached for the small stem holding the flower up. At first just a gentle touch as to not harm it. Then out of anger I pulled, but found that this one flower was stronger than all the trees I had previously passed. The more I pulled the more I noticed its strength grow, and finally, the more I noticed I had not truly been pulling the plant, but holding on for dear life.The still scarlet radiance from the flower told me it was not affected by my struggles to rip it out of my path, like I had done so many times before. I then realized it was I who was weak. My hands bleeding from the thorns, I released my grip. When I awoke I found her enter-twined in my arms. As I had dreamed of receiving the other night. Only to wake up again, and fine that my dream had not come true, and that my struggling to hold onto the flower had killed it. Yet it still taunted me to stay with it. It's petals still pulled me in. Color deeply hidden in the colorless flower. All it did was tempt me to stay with, even though it had left me. I stood up and walked my path, and dreamed of my flowers morning embrace. I could walk forever in this dream like state.