It was a normal sunny afternoon, I was on my porch just eating
a bone and watching the activity of the neighborhood around me. Down the street
lived the most beautiful girl on the block, everyone was extremely jealous of her
beauty. Many men tried to court her but none could hold her attention and most
found that dating her led to many struggles of keeping other men off of her. No
one seemed to be up for the challenge of marrying this beautiful handful of a
woman. This led her into a depression, every night I would watch her come
outside contemplating suicide I would do my best to console her but it was
getting very old. One afternoon an as equally a handsome of a man strolled into
town. I watched him as he drove down the street to the woman’s home. She seemed
overjoyed that this handsome man wanted to have her hand in marriage. As she
was running around telling everyone of her engagement I overheard him on the
phone. He seemed to be fighting with someone and finally I heard him say “Fine
Mother, I will not marry her” then he hung up and when back to the woman’s
home. The day went on and I fell asleep in my usual spot on the porch. Late in
the night I was awoke by the sound of a car starting up I looked up quickly
enough to see the young man and woman taking off down the road. My curiosity
was at am all time high so I started howling or my friend, Hawk, to come visit.
When he arrived I told him of the day’s activities and asked for him to follow
the couple and send me updates. Hawk was instantly on board, he loved a good
case of eavesdropping. He hurried to catch up to the couple’s car.
{Dog} The next day the woman’s family was so distraught at
her running away with the man that they fell into a dark depression. The
parents and the sisters were overwhelmed with pain. It was so hard to watch
them in so much pain.
{Hawk} I followed them up on to a hill to a beautiful little
cabin hidden back in the trees. The man kept telling the women that this would
be the only way they could be together and she could not tell anyone of their
hiding spot or ask him about his background. She seemed nervous but willing to
do anything for this man. He gave her the best foods and all the gold and jewelry
she could ever dream of. They go on seemingly happy for a few days. After a
while she begins to become depressed and miss her family. She again becomes
suicidal. He eventually gives in telling her she may go see her sisters in
private. She scurries out in the middle of the night to see her sisters.
{Dog} It is very late as I see the girl sprinting down the
road. She drags her sisters out of the house telling them of her adventure. She
leaves before daybreak and that is when things become interesting. Her sisters immediately
become jealous and devise a plan to break them up. They call up his mother and
tell her of their marriage! She sounds outraged over the phone and knows
exactly where they are hiding. I am sure she is headed their right now.
{Hawk} As I am watching the happy couple I see an outraged
older woman coming up the path. She bursts in yelling at the two. She is angry
her son disobeyed her wishes and she feels the girl is no good, just after his
riches. She soon devises a series of tasks for her to prove her love for him.
The girl struggles but eventually completes the tasks but that is not good
enough for the mother. The boy has to confront his grandfather to help him
convince the mother the marriage is good. After much fighting the mother finally
gives in.
{Dog} When Hawk returned he told me everything he saw. What
a crazy story?! It has been weeks since the event and we hear the girl is
pregnant now and knows how devious her sisters are. She has not come home since
the event and keeps to just her beautiful little family.
Author's Note: The story is based off the crazy love story of Cupid and Psyche. To sum it up, Cupid and Psyche were in a forbidden love affair. Cupid's mother disapproved and was jealous of Psyche's beauty feeling it took away from her own. Cupid's mother is the goddess Venus, better known as Aphrodite. Psyche has two sisters who were jealous and devious and tried to ruin Psyche and Cupid's marriage. They had to go through many trials and tribulations to keep their marriage together and prove their love to Venus. I wanted to tell the story from an outside point of view so I had two curious animals report what they saw and heard happening. A dog seemed the best choice because most stories seem to have that lazy dog that just lays on the porch all day. So it seemed he would know what is going on around the town at all times. Then I added a hawk because the dog needed a helpful companion to follow the adventure when it left the neighborhood. I loved the entire story of Cupid and Psyche, so I felt I wanted to just give a broad version of the tale instead of picking out one element and going into a lot of detail. This way the readers can still know generally know everything.
Apuleius's Golden Ass, as translated into English by Tony Kline (2013).
 |
| The Nosy Dog from Google Images |
