Party Three

She was beautiful, in a form not unlike that of men. But hers did not
boast, defy, command, but had received the best qualities that wisdom
deigned to create. Her form was as reasuring and comforting to the
life around her as she was when she was a star in the sky. All that
beheld her beauty was well pleased, for she was as perfect a
compliment one could pay to life’s majestic design.

Then Venus began to dance. She saw all things as a mirror to reflect
the beauty she felt, and she reflected it back. In the motion of her
form her hands imitated the waves. Leaping, she mimicked the plumes
of the waves that were thrown high into the air by the rocks. Her
hair was like the wings of an albatross in graceful slow-motion
flight as she pranced like a horse into the water, then arching her
back, she dove into its depths. Her strong tapered legs like mating
porpoises raised her to the surface. Then, standing in the pristine
sea she wiggled her toes like fish playing with other fish, all the
time not letting go of the two halves of the shellfish that born her.

Suddenly she heard a quiet voice inside her, and looked brightly
about to see what other wonders were before her.

“Oh, Daughter Star. Tell me why you hold those shells so tight, and
never let them go?”

Venus looked up and beheld a sliver of moon peeking at her in the
sky, and asked;
“Is it you who spoke to me and gave me a name?”

“Yes Venus I did. We are dear friends. I have cradled you since the
dawn of time.”
Venus smiled at ther lofty faraway friend, and then dearly at her
shells.

“I carry these shells for they are my mother and father and I care
about them so very much.”

Venus closed her eye as the world sighed at her innocence. She now
knew who she was talking to. It was the Dream in the Night, the dream
of long ago that took her places she could not go, but somehow, she
knew those places well. For the day-moon was whispering all its
secrets to her, reassuring her, that life would always be a wonderful
mystery.