Wild Swans by Patricia Snodgrass Read Free Book Online Page B

everywhere else I suppose. Are there any other kind?”
    “Sometimes they flash purple.”
    “I have never heard of such a thing. Violet moiselles .” Althea laughed. “You’re pulling my leg.”
    “It doesn’t happen often,” Lindt admitted. “But if you do happen to see purple fireflies— violet moiselles —will you let me know?”
    “Sure. I’ll even catch some for you if you like.”
    Mr. Lindt laughed. “That won’t be necessary. Just let me know okay?”
    “Althea propped her elbows on the table. “You are a peculiar man, Mr. Lindt. Are all Yankees like you?”
    Again Mr. Lindt laughed. “There aren’t too many like me, no.”
    “Why are you so interested in les moiselles ?”
    “Oh I’m not interested in just fireflies, but life in general.” He uttered a sigh of pure contentment. “Like this beautiful place. It’s so peaceful and serene here. And so alive. Time slows down and a man has a chance to catch his breath.”
    “It’s dull here. I’d like to go to a big city, like New Orleans, or Houston or maybe even Dallas. Or Paris. I’ve always wanted to go to Paris and live in a big house.”
    “If you went, what would you do?”
    “I suppose it don’t matter does it? I’m getting married and then I’ll be stuck in Louisiana forever.”
    “Maybe so, maybe not. Your fiancé is well off, is that correct? If so he could be doing business in London, or maybe even Paris. Think about it, you could be living in France by this time next year.”
    “How can you be so sure?”
    He laughed. “I’m not. Nothing is certain, because everything constantly changes. But it is certainly a possibility, wouldn’t you agree?”
    Althea rested her chin in her hand and gazed out toward the docks. “I don’t know. The bayou stays the same.”
    “It may seem that way now, but will it still be this way ten years from now, or twenty or even fifty?”
    “I suppose it would.”
    “No, sadly it won’t. In the future, loggers will come in and take out all the timber. The bayou will become clogged with silt and debris from clear cutting and will dry up altogether. Then there are robber barons that will never see this as a sanctuary for the soul weary or a paradise for sportsmen but as another opportunity to make themselves richer than they deserve to be. They’d buy up all of this, break it into lots and sell it off to the low minded but affluent who think of nothing but themselves and their—” he cut himself off. “I’m sorry, I must be boring you.”
    “A little,” Althea admitted. “But mostly it sounds perfectly awful.”
    “That’s the nature of change. Just when you think you’ve got everything figured out, or that you’ll think that one thing will last forever it will vanish.” His hazel eyes glinted in the twilight. “Do you understand?”
    Althea laughed, “Not in the slightest.”
    Lindt laughed. “I’m afraid I am a terrible bore.”
    “Not at all,” Althea said leaning forward. “Tell me more.”
    “What I’m trying to say is that everything is in a constant state of flux.” He paused considering. “The future is only seconds ahead; the past is already dead and gone. We live in a cusp between the two extremes, but it’s a very small cusp. You don’t know from one moment to another what’s going to happen. You might marry Hank and live happily ever after, or you might run away with someone else and live unhappily ever after. Or you might decide to leave on your own accord and find love somewhere else with someone you’d never dreamed existed. Did that make it clearer?”
    “Not in the least,” Althea said, laughing.
    Mr. Lindt laughed. “I’m afraid I made a mess out of trying to explain a concept I myself barely understand.”
    Althea bit her lip. A thought was forming but she was too afraid to say it aloud.
    “But then there’s God,” Mr. Lindt said, and Althea got the creepy feeling that he just read her mind. “Even the Great Being is not as infallible as we