She led me around the city for about an hour, and we found ourselves at a very fashionable apartment in the Canal St. Martin. Turns out, her papa worked at the Louvre, and was busy working on restoring some very important exhibits for Versailles. He was a restoration expert so it seems, and leading me up the steps, I could tell this was a well cultured family.
"Well, I guess I am a little under dressed to be meeting family," I chuckled. " Looking down at my faded jeans and sneakers and my dark purple buttoned up shirt, I felt very out of place in this home spattered with paintings, and objects dating back to the Revolution of France.
"It's nothing, he is working, and my sister is in Germany on a holiday. Papa is a lovely man, and even if he does pop in, you are safe. He trusts my judgement, and knows I never bring people home," she reassured me with a wink and a smile.
I sat down on the sofa with her and began to talk in earnest. I told her my fears, I told her what was on my mind, and I told her she was a starburst to my universe, something I never beheld in all my time....and it was causing me worry. She sat still and said something to me that I will never forget for all the years I live. "Justin, we cannot explain the heart, or the brain in any rational sense. Things happen the way they do, your song drew me to you. I wanted to say that and maybe speak with you a minute as I could tell you were foreign. You spoke to me with your eyes, and you spoke to me with your heart without ever opening your lips. Justin, this scares me as well, and I cannot say it. I am in that fear, but I have to push threw it. I feel love for you, I feel a deep love blossoming inside me. I want you, Justin, I want you."
She leaned back on the sofa with tears welling in her eyes. What is it with french women and weeping? But, at that moment, I realized tears were in my eyes. I realized what she said was true, and yes I was very scared. I didn't believe in this love at first sight shit. But, I knew this was what was happening, but I resolved to take it cautiously.
"I want you as well, and not just physically," I said with a clear voice. "There is that aspect, but I feel something for you that transcends that, let me tell you in the way I know how...the only way I can voice it."
I got up and went the piano in their living room and sat down. It had been a while, but I had written a small piece in my head years before, for no reason...I just thought it sounded pretty. Now I feel I know why I wrote it, I wrote it for Rachel, I wrote it, so I could tell her that I already knew I loved her....that I would always be with her, no matter what happened. As I played the piece, words came to me....I sang them aloud to her. "Preciousness of soul, do not defer me. Wretchedness and spite do not control me, as I look into your eyes I can see heaven, awaken out of sleep and I'll lead you into a garden without pain, We'll walk until we bleed, but we'll see lightness of the dawn on the horizon of this fate we have created....from nothing."
"She stepped to the side of the piano and gazed down at me and smiled, "That's beautiful, when did you write this?" She asked me with wonder in her eyes, and a smile on her heart, this question.
"Just now, the words. The music, years ago, I think I was writing this for you." I stood from the piano and looked into her eyes and drew her close to me. I pressed my lips to her forehead, I couldn't bring myself to take that other step. I wanted to so bad, but it seemed all good things die, in a moment of wanton passion. Or, it could have went places I didn't know I could travel.
YOU ARE READING
Across the night, and to the moon we went
NonfiksiA story of how I met a lovely girl, while singing a song in a restaurant. Very real story, unfortunately it's not as sweet as it may seem to be. There is always a catch in life.
