10 Minutes

"Please Sanem...Please don't leave Me"

The warm breeze that drifted across the meadow and toward the garden smelled of wildflowers and pine needles and of the wet soil and the herbs in the small garden behind the hut. He walked around the small enclosure casually eyeing the tomato plants and glancing at the heads of lettuce that would soon be ready to harvest. He set down the logs he had just chopped down to smaller pieces and set them near the side of the hut. What started out as just another project to keep himself occupied and fed from time to time at his private getaway had turned into a secret luxury and a place to ground himself. He never envisioned it as it was now. A veritable farmers market. That was in no small way thanks to Sanem. She had a green thumb that seemed to coerce seeds into vegetables from thin air and music. He walked over to the hammock, picked up his camera and made himself comfortable. He enjoyed laying back in the hammock while watching her when she watered her "friends" as she called them, while she moved about from plant to plant humming and talking to them. Her belly had begun to show several months back, it seemed from one day to the next it had "popped" out. She was now just over seven months pregnant with a very round belly and breasts that were pushing against the soft cotton fabric of her halter top. He oggled them every chance he got. He tilted his head to the side and considered his bride. He frowned at the thought of their quickie marriage. It wasn't what he wanted for her but she had insisted and wouldn't take no for an answer. She wanted to be Mrs. Divit as soon as his mother had been released from the hospital with a prognosis that left them with some little hope. Metin asked a friend and magistrate to perform the ceremony in his parent's garden so that his mother could be present. While her cancer had been treated even before he knew of it her heart had been weakened by the medications and all the stress she had endured. She was fragile and under a doctor's care but they remained hopeful and chose to see every day as a gift to have her with them. As he watched Sanem move about the garden he thought back to the time his mother would do the same in their family home. These two women who loved him endlessly had more in common with each other than he first thought. They were both fighters and they were both strong defenders of their families. They were also women with hearts of gold and willing to give everything for the people they loved. He took the cap off the lens of his camera brought it up and focused on Sanem as the afternoon light streamed all around her. She looked just like a fairy princess in the woods. Her hair had grown long and the curls swirled around her shoulders and down her back as she moved slowly back and forth amongst the plants. When she turned to her left she was in perfect profile and he snapped her picture a few times before she noticed. She turned directly toward him and he took a few more as she smiled at him and then another round as she made goofy faces while giggling and bobbing her head. He smiled back at her slowly, fully immersed in the moment. His life was a miracle. He was loved by a woman who had tried diligently to cast him from her side but who in the end opened up her tattered heart to him once more. A heart he had torn to shreds with his actions. The feeling of shame and disapproval hovered over him like a dark cloud. If he could take back all the hurt and suffering he had caused her he would do it in an instant no matter the cost to him. Although they rarely talked about it now, she had an uncanny knack for spotting him in a brooding moment and would hug him tight and remind him that their love was deeper than the ocean and more vast than space and time. They were here now partly because of what they had gone through. They were stronger for it and more committed to one another than they might have been otherwise. Perhaps there would come a day when he no longer remembered that part of their story but it had indeed left a scar. One that they wore on each of their hearts. She tilted her head in her knowing way and he quickly shook off the thoughts that had started to fill his head and stood up. He had no right to be this happy and certainly no right to have her by his side as his wife and yet he did, so he would celebrate it rather than mourn a time that had passed. He marveled as she stood there,  lighting up his life in more ways than one. She was his soulmate and would always be, even when they took their last breath. "Sanem... Bebeck are you hungry? I can get you a small snack while I prepare dinner?" He watched her face as she nodded up and down and grinned at her when she pronounced she was "starving". His phone rang and he stood up and moved to the small wooden table that served as their outdoor dining area. The screen lit up with Metins name and his stomach tightened in expectation of bad news or at best worrying news. He sighed and answered it greeting his old friend with a halfhearted hello.