Faerie Truth

Tonight’s episode of True Blood, besides having an exceptional amount of incredible gore, featured a touching funeral scene. In the scene, Sookie Stackhouse, who is a central figure in the world of True Blood, a normal person who can read minds and is a faerie, which she has only recently come to realize, got up to speak to the mourners because she sensed that the widow, Arlene, wasn’t ready to say her final goodbyes to her dead husband, Terry Bellefleur, an ex-Marine whose longtime battle with PTSD ended with his life being taken (trust me, it’s too complicated to explain here because I would have to get into the whole concept of glamouring and you might lose patience as a reader, as if you haven’t already).

Anyway, Arlene really loved Terry and even though they had been married only a short time, theirs seemed like a wonderful romance which had been able, up to that point, to beat back the horrible effects of Terry’s PTSD. It’s a sad, sad story and, unfortunately, one that didn’t need a lot of fictionalizing since PTSD is so common among veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

So as the mourners, other faeries, shape shifters, regular people, the Marine Corps, and Terry’s relatives listened, Sookie told a sweet story of when Arlene and Terry first met. They had a brief little exchange as Arlene, a waitress, waited for Terry, a line cook at the restaurant where they both worked, to bring up her order. When Arlene walked away, Sookie read Terry’s mind and knew that he basically had fallen in love with Arlene at first sight.

“Not many people can say they were ever truly loved, but you were, right from that moment.” (Or words to that effect.) And from the look on her face, that knowledge very obviously meant the world to Arlene. It made her feel better, I think, by separating Terry’s death from their love for each other. That was a precious gift that our fictional Sookie gave to our fictional Arlene. I wonder if people living in the real world get the same gift or if they are given the same gift, they agree to open it and accept it.

My husband always says he fell for me the first time he saw me. He remembers what I was wearing, jeans, boots and a white hoodie, and what I was doing, putting stamps on envelopes in a campaign office. I remember what he was wearing, too, jeans, Frye boots, and a black leather jacket, but I thought he was a punk. I didn’t feel any electricity, just a little bit of aggravation as he joked with my ten-year old daughter. When she rolled her eyes, I agreed with her.

But if he died tomorrow, heaven forbid, I’d be a very lucky person to have someone like Sookie stand up and remind me that he always said he fell in love with me at first sight. It would be lovely to have someone describe the scene in that messy campaign office, someone who could remember who said what, and who looked at who how, someone who could capture that one moment.

Because a moment can make all the difference. That’s what I learned from Sookie tonight. Just one moment can be the gift of a lifetime. I believe that. Besides a faerie said it so it must be true.