Thirteen Years

Love's Aftermath

It wasn’t yet dawn when I woke up. I raised my gaze to the darkened sky – an angry mess of swirling clouds, smeared with streaks of golden to the east. A cold wind gushed in my ear, whipping strands of stray black hair across my forehead.

I got up, ignoring the waves of fatigue racking my body. A quick look around told me I was on a huge boulder perched precariously atop a hill. I had little memory of how I got there, but that didn’t matter. I could work things out as I moved.

I took a step forward, but the pain in my chest made me bend over, panting. With my left hand on my knee, I wiped the sweat from my brow and looked up. There was a pink fringe above the distant hills that announced the arrival of a new day. I trudged down the hill slope, one painful step at a time. A straggling band of pine trees gave me company along the way, thinning out as I descended.

Like a drowning voice deep within my mind, the memory of her face came unbidden to me.

Elena – so young, so beautiful, so innocent. Ever since I first saw her thirteen years ago, I could not tear my eyes away from her countenance. I knew I was smitten even before we said our first ‘Hi’. With apprehension, I had gone up to talk to her; she was flustered that her employer wished to speak to her just on the day she had joined. When her lips parted to speak, her voice was soft, the cadence so melodious that I was mesmerized.
There had been no looking back since.

That was how our story began, it was beautiful beyond words – wild, passionate, and full of so much love that it left me breathless every time I met her.

***

Daylight was advancing with haste. The wind had grown to a gale so strong that it made the pines in the forest sway, and my long overcoat flap loudly behind me as I trundled on. The birds screeched and wailed above, seeking shelter from the approaching storm.

The trail beneath me had gotten wider, now covered with a thick green carpet of dew-laden moss. I walked on, my moccasins a whisper on the cobblestones. I heard a bell chiming in the distance, heralding the arrival of a new day.

The sight of the blue-tiled roof in the distance filled me with a familiar twinge of excitement. In a few minutes, I would be home! I imagined the first rays of the sun caressing her cheeks as Elena lay on the bed, smiling softly in her sleep. I could almost see her stirring, stifling a yawn, tying the strings of her night gown tighter around her waist as she got out of bed and walked down the stairs, the kitchen below demanding her attention. In my mind’s eye, she was beautiful beyond compare. Even after ten years of marriage, she was still young; still so achingly beautiful that a single look at her was bound to make my heart flutter.

I closed the remaining distance between me and my love. The familiar wooden double doors were locked. I didn’t pause to knock. Taking a deep breath, I entered my own house.

***

The sound of pots and pans clanging together greeted me as I walked in. Just as I had hoped, Elena was in the kitchen preparing breakfast. I walked up towards the door and stood in the shadows cast by the curtain fluttering in the wind. I looked at my wife working in the kitchen, unaware of the surprise visit I had planned.

Her thick black hair was tied in a messy bun behind her head and a starched apron with red geometrical shapes printed on it covered most of her body. Her silk gown clung to her soft curves, accentuating her slender figure. Her lips were pursed together, whistling softly. With a pang, I realized it was the tune of the song that had played on the day of our wedding. The familiar notes of music made me fall into a trance so deep that I had to make considerable effort to bring myself back to reality. I cleared my throat.