The Gay Icon Classics of the World (8 page)

While Marr approached the slumbering couple, Aleisha took shelter behind a tree, from which she might see what was happening. Before being able to react, her husband had attacked the pair with his murderous sword. Marr swiftly departed after his fratricide, and Aleisha went down to the clearing, and picking up each body tenderly, she gently placed them back inside the golden circle, the symbol of their love. God, seeing the misfortunes of Halo and taking pity on him, lifted up both bodies, granting the loving pair holy ascension into the kingdom of heaven.

In the time following Halo's ascension, his fields lay barren. With the fields producing no food, the beasts of Marr soon withered, starved, and died. Niac saw the desert that had become his estate, and asked his son's wife, “where is Halo?” Aliesha made no reply. Niac then turned his eyes upward, asking God why his lands suffered so. God answered, now through the voice of his blessed angel Halo. Halo said, “father, seek no further than your own son.” Niac, seeing that his beloved son was no longer among the living, eagerly sought his second son, Marr. Upon confronting Marr, Niac called upon his second son to tell him what has happened to his son, calling God to bear witness to Marr's testimony.

With this invocation, Halo once again descended from the heavens, and Marr confessed to all that he had done. Aleisha, who was near, also pleaded with Niac to forgive her for the sin of her unwillingness to help Halo and her silence concerning his death. Both Marr and Aleisha were banished from Niac's estate, and were made to work distant fields that were perpetually barren. Following this banishment, the beasts of Marr faced drought, disease and starvation for what they had done to Halo's fields.

And to Halo, because he forgot God's last command to kiss his lover before sleeping, ensured that no union existed between two men on earth. Such love was left only for the heavens.