The 12th Kiss

❁drifting Winds

"Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own."

― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

❣ Drifting Winds

The wind chimes tinkered. Gently. Ever so beautifully. The trees, sunflowers glowed in the early morning sunlight. John stood in the back porch. His head resting on the wooden pillar. He inhaled deeply.

The dusk of dawn singled a new beginning. Perhaps a beginning without him.

He looked at his empty hands. The gruff skin that stubbornly clung to his bones and how once upon a time, a hand perfectly enveloped his.

"John" Metilda running around their small garden. "No, you wouldn't dare." She was laughing, loudly as though the world had gifted her every ounce of happiness. .

John grinned, his hands dripping with paint. "I would."

"No." She breathlessly huffed, hiding behind the oak tree. "The baby doesn't approve."

"I'm sure our baby doesn't mind daddy giving mommy a little color."

"JOHN!" Before Metilda had the chance to react, John had pressed his hands against her face.

She pouted at him. "Look at what you've done. Happy now?"

John laughed. "Very happy!"

A moment later she joined him.

John could still hear their laughter as he stood under the slanting roof. It echoed off the walls. On the oak tree's trunk, the paint splatters still adorned it. The garden had soaked in their moments. It still held them in its safety even when he had forgotten them.

❣❣❣

John wandered aimlessly through their house. He stopped at Metilda's room. It used be the spare guest room. She had taken it up when John had spilled beans about Jannet.

He ran his hands along the bedspread. The flower designs reminded him of the time he and Metilda went to shop for household items and how she had wanted floral prints on everything -from cookware to the drapery.

"Flowers, flowers." She swung their adjoined hands back and forth. "They lose themselves for others. It's like they have a sense of sacrifice. Their petals wither away once they turn into fruits. Beauty gives way for love."

"That doesn't make any sense."

"Not everything has to."

John smiled to himself.

He made his way to the living room. His eyes taking in everything yet leaving everything. Tears dripped from his face.

He loved her. He loved her. He love them, his son and his wife.

After one final glance, John picked up his bags and left. The remaining memories in the house beckoning him to return but he held it all in and ignored the call of his heart.

❣❣❣

"Louis is a little bunny. Bunnies like to hop-hop and..."

Louis jumped up and down on the hospital's bed, giggling as he went up. The nurse trying to ease him back down so she could administer the medicines.

"Louis sit back down. Louis!"

Metilda was in a middle of a fit when Mark entered the room. He looked broodier than ever. Black strands of hair strewn carelessly across his forehead.

"Hey Louis! All good?" Mark instantly smiled.

Whenever Mark saw kids, his usual broody self-changed into something cheery. He felt pretty happy when he talked to Metilda as well who looked absolutely beautiful, even in her dismantled state, with hair falling out of her bun, tired lines across her forehead.

"Louis is a bunny. With cute lil'ears and a big nose." Louis pointedly scrunched his noise. "See Louis is a bunny."

Mark placed a reassuring hand on Metilda's shoulder. "He's okay. Metilda. We've got him."

She closed her eyes for a moment and when she opened them, she seemed more relaxed.

"Hey bunny." Metilda smiled at Louis. A blue cap was wrapped around his head. "If you don't come back down then mommy won't take you to the carnival."

Louis perked up at the mention of carnival.

"Mhm, pink cotton candy and gummy bears."

Metilda rolled her eyes at Mark's childlike tone but laughed nevertheless.

"Okay. Louis will eat medicine." He plopped back down on the bed and held his mouth wide open. Metilda helped him drink the cap filled with a brown colored liquid. Louis made a gagging face before swallowing the liquid.

"Louis go to carnival with mommy and daddy." He yawned, nestled his head against the stuffed bunny with two buttons for eyes. "Mommy, daddy, and Louis go the..."

He dozed into sleep. Metilda sighed.

"Can I have word with you?" Mark whispered in her ear.

She looked at him, confused. "Of-course.

❣❣❣

Mark and Metilda sat outside in the hospital's garden. The grass was being mowed in a distance. Few couples were strolling along the concrete fountain circle.

The sun was bright in the sky. The winds were gentle, the birds were chirping. Few strands of hair flew across Metilda's face. Mark leaned forward and tucked them behind her ear. Metilda felt wry at the action.

"There's something I have been meaning to ask you."

Something twisted inside her gut. A feeling she knew quite well. The temperature of her skin rose few notches.

Mark bent down on his knees and looked up at her.

"Will you marry me?"

A velvet box lay in his palm in which shone a gold band.

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Note:

ONE more chapter left. +bonus chapter

I'm crying too. Okay? I don't even know how Mark ended proposing to Metilda.

Reading over the comments, I've realized that many people thought Metilda would die. It looks like a-lot of you fell into the trap. Metilda showed the signs of depression. In some ways, I wanted to raise awareness about depression. People who are depressed often have physical symptoms like upset stomach, changed digestive patterns, increase or decrease in appetite, pain in various regions of the body.

I might hold a one shot contest for the 12th kiss (only if you guys want to participate)