It's a Love Story

   He sat upright straight and tall on a tree limb. His legs swung back and forth purposelessly. One hand wrapped around the tree trunk, the other resting on his knee. He threw his head back laughing at something ridiculous I did. I still don't remember what it was. All I know is that it was beautiful this moment in time, this memory stick that glows in my mind. The sun was setting on this glorious summer day. The tree line soon became a piece of art, and the last few chirps heard over head from rogue birds, and the beginning choir of crickets were performing their opening act. I inhaled and the smells were beautiful if that is even possible. It was indescribable. A left over grill smell in the air, the late summer night scent. The feeling though it is dark, a new feeling comes to life inside of a person. I remember, he leans in wraps his arms around my waist and whispers in my ear, "What are you thinking about my dear?"

I smile at the tickle of his voice and turn to face him so that our noses are inches from each other. "This moment. I never want it to end. I don't want you to go." I remember my voice became desperate with this sentence, "Please promise to never leave me." I always smile at this point of my innocent childhood.

A cool summer breeze went through our bones and delicately placed goosebumps onto our skin. It was just cold enough to keep us awake and just warm enough to remind us of the freedom of summer and the meaning of a late night.

"My sweetest Rose, I promise to never leave you as long as I live. I will go where you go." His lips softly proclaimed.

I answered in harmony, "And I will go where you go."

I nestled my head into his chest breathing in the summer air like it was my life line. Without it this moment would die. If I didn't breathe it in, or soak it into my skin it would disappear from my mind. I refused to let this happen.

"You are the most beautiful girl I have ever met and will ever meet. You are the sweetest smelling Rose I have ever encountered, I want to be your one and only." He said proudly speaking out into the horizon as if writing it in ink.

I smiled into his shirt, and clenched my hold around his body harder and longer, and he repeated my motion. We sat there for what felt like minutes were hours, sealing our pact.

Time moved by, our friendship grew more real and intimate than ever before. Moments like these were forever frozen in my mind. My brain fast forward to our junior year in high school. We began growing apart. The temptations that hide in the walls of a high school began tearing us apart. He became rebellious, and I refused to be. Sometimes I wish I was a little so that maybe just maybe I never would have lost those few years with him. I'd have given anything to get those 3 years back. He began experimenting with alcohol, parties and girls. When I refused to join him he stopped inviting me, and joining me on our weekly coffee dates, sitting in our oak tree and watching the stars take shape together. He had created a new life for himself, and I was no longer a piece of it. I longed for him to come back to me. I dreamed it, imagined it, and prayed for it.

On one particular peaceful, late, Saturday night, I had an unexpected restless sleep. The moon was full, and the stars were brighter than usual. The street lights weren't necessary, the luminescence of the moon lit up the world that night. The shadows of the trees stretched across the back yard like haunted monsters with crooked smile, the stray cats wandering along the streets walked with poise each paw planted on the pavement was calculated and precise. This was a night designed to wander aimlessly under. The moon and the stars revealed all the evil lurking in the darkness. The battle between good and evil that rages on every night when the sun turns it's back on the world didn't happen on this fall night. Evil never showed to the battlefield it knew that good had already taken over the dreams of the people on this eve. To appear would be to forfeit. The oak tree that protected the window of my room swayed to the rhythm of the wind that night. It creaked and moaned, but never complained. The oak stood strong and firm swaying, yes, but never giving into the forces of the wind.