Week 2 Story: The Tangled Web of Love We Weave

(Zig Ziglar quote; internet source, anonymousartofrevolution)

Jacob Crutchfield would often daydream about meeting the perfect woman to take as his bride. More often than not he thought "Maybe there is something about me that deters women." for he always wound up alone. In fact, alone was basically all he'd ever known. Although he'd had many love interests throughout the years, something always seemed to get in the way of his love life moving forward. Marietta had moved away with her parents before he got up the courage to ask her out, the girl at the local coffee shop "wasn't interested in dating right now", and Charlotte's father supposedly forbade her to see boys until she was forty (although oddly, he fully funded her nuptials to a rich entrepreneur whom she had known for only 9 months before taking the vows). The more Jacob's love life stagnated, the more he would dwell on the future and the idea that he may never have a woman to call his wife; may never have a child or children to carry on his legacy. Jacob began to feel bitter about his situation, which would eventually prove to aid in his own self destruction.

Nola was a beautiful young journalist, traveling in hopes of finding the inspiration she needed to write.  She was beginning to believe she wouldn't find the ingenuity she was looking for when she stopped in at a small town grocery store on the way to her hotel. There just behind the store was a calm, steady flowing creek tracing the outer edge of a quiet quaint little park begging for a visitor to pilfer the radiant beauty of the surroundings. It was an odd little place with features screaming of antiquity but Nola instantly knew that this was what she had been searching for. She would sit out on the rickety little bench by the creek and listen to the song birds sing and she would see the characters of her novel spring to life before her eyes. Walking around the outside of the store in a daze, she didn't see the young man she would wind up bumping into. Awkwardly, she walked right into his arms without realizing what was happening until the mortification had set in.

Jacob saw Nola at the little park behind his regular grocery store frequently after their ignominious first encounter. She would come into the store occasionally and Jacob would say hello and crack a joke about her first day in town and the way they first met. They formed a friendship of sorts before long. Jacob began to recover hope and decided that maybe he would take another shot at love. Nola soon realized that she couldn't afford to live out of a hotel here for much longer, but didn't want to leave this place where she had finally found the inspiration she had been searching for. She decided to take a chance and ask Jacob if she could stay with him for a while. Jacob, thinking that this was a chance to spin things in his favor agreed, with one condition. Nola had to agree to go on a date with him. "In fact, I'd like you to go on one date a week with me as long as you stay here." he added.

Weeks let to months and somewhere along the line, their arrangement turned into a more serious thing. Jacob wanted nothing more than to have a woman to call his wife. Nola wasn't completely opposed to the idea but she wasn't sure she was really looking for a serious thing either. However, she needed a place to stay and Jacob was willing to provide that place so she went along with the arrangement. Soon enough, she found herself feeling obligated to accept his marriage proposal because he had done so much for her in the beginning. Jacob, began to feel comfortable and didn't show Nola the affection he did in the beginning. He allowed his bitterness of being alone for so long to effect the way he treated his wife and he didn't appreciate her as he should. Eventually, Nola feeling underappreciated, began to think her marriage was a mistake and Jacob was taking advantage of her. Finally having the wife he'd always yearned for, Jacob no longer worked to earn her. Their marriage would soon fall apart but each would leave with a harsh lesson learned.

"You can only reap the goods of the seeds you have sown." Jacob realized. "Perhaps if I had continued to show her the affection she deserved, I would have kept my wife happily by my side."

"If you allow a man to use you for your own benefit, he will also see fit to use you for his." was Nola's realization. "Maybe I should not have used Jacob for my own benefit when I wasn't ready to accept his side of commands. I could have found a happy life with a husband by my side if I had shown myself the respect I expected from him."

Author's note. My inspiration for Jacob came from the Dog and the Wolf (6th story, here). I really like the message that you need to put in the work and effort for the things you want in life. In the original story, by Joseph Jacobs, a starving wolf wants the spoils afforded to his canine friend. The dog kindly agrees to show him the ropes, working for his master and share his rewards. The wolf agrees, however, as soon as he realized that he would have to be chained up at night and would be required to do work for the master, he decides that he would rather starve and be "free" than to live the way of the dog. Then for Nola, my inspiration came from The Horse, The Hunter, and The Stag (1st story, here). In this story, a horse has a disagreement with a stag and wishes to get revenge. So, he goes to a hunter and asks him for help. The hunter agrees to help the horse if only the horse will allow him to saddle him and use a bridle to control him. After conquering the stag, the horse wishes to be freed but the hunter now has control over him and uses the horse for his own benefit. So mostly my story took inspiration from the broad message that I took home from these two stories.

Biography. "The Dog and the Wolf" and "The Horse, The Hunter, and The Stag" from Aesop's fables by Joseph Jacobs