Smile...

While the smell of freshly washed linen fills his nostrils, his mind works and weaves a dream like none other he ever had. His senses were oblivious to the milieu and the occasional tantrums of the passing vehicles. Warm and snuggled up in the comfort of his bedroom his subconscious plays pranks on his conscious, seemingly giving in to his desires for that familiar scent of hers and that familiar touch. Making him hallucinate, like a desert mirage that engulfs a thirsty traveller’s mind. But only here, it is in the comfort of his sheets and in the comfort of a dream, a lie that she was there next to him holding him, touching him and looking at him with those eyes that sparkled like a million diamonds crushed into fragments and daylight glistening off the shrapnel. That comfort in those eyes he saw calmed his tumultuous mind and made peace with his very soul. Her voice made him wish he knew poetry so he may attempt to describe the warmth it gave him through flowered words and sugar coated sentences....but then reality was...she wasn’t there. Miles away...gallons of water and millions of homes in between the reality was that she was far away. He wished only that he had spent another ten minutes just memorizing how she looked, how she smiled and how she smelled. Her images are still vivid, but the distance created a void. How he wished for another moment in her presence just holding her and feeling her warmth. Though he knows that this reality will change and soon the distance will be gone and then bliss sets in again, the unwavering heart cannot help but wish for time to run quickly for once so that he may hold her again...in his arms and in his eyes....

How the years went by his mind cannot fathom but now every minute seems like a dagger to the chest for when the distance is in between he cannot help but worry and wonder about her. Knowing that the skies are like the blanket that hovers above them but yet he can’t see, smell or touch her pulls him into this deafening state of silence. Yet, everyday goes by with a smile on his lips and he lives a life reminiscent of her. How she looks when her arms are folded and resting on her knees, how her face seems placid when she is pondering, how she shields the light for when he is sleeping, how she holds his hand with the occasional squeeze of faith, trust and comfort and how she seems to want so little but yet wants him to be her world. It is not in everyday life where we find comfort in being with another but here, he knew it was more than comfort. The very image of her seems like daylight to a man trapped in his own darkness, lifting him from the imbroglio of his past. Little does she know her worth but she doesn’t have to, because he will remind her in his own ways.

It is amazing how life weaves and then unfolds itself. Where once the platonic relationships were nothing more than a bout of care and concern on the exterior now spawns one that is deeper and meaningful rooted from within. The journey had begun years ago, but only now...he found a meaning for that journey...and he will tread towards that destiny with care, adoration and love... -32-