by catherine carrigan

Created on: February 13, 2009

the Kiss

It had been years in coming. The tension between us was at times so palpable, that others around us would stare in confusion.

...but they could guess. At least, most kept it to themselves. Most.

I agreed to meet him one early Spring morning. It was the only time I had. It was the only day he had.

I drove out to the countryside, early in the morning, nothing but fields for miles, and a fresh green tint to the land starting to bloom.

I drove up to the house, isolated, down a country road; in the middle of a field, it was; surrounded by mature trees. The weather was as unpredictable as it gets during a Texas Spring; the sky was getting cloudy, the wind was blowing against the tall trees. It almost sounded like a deep river flowing by. A late front.

But I had arrived. I saw his truck, parked behind the home; I drove and parked next to it. I got out and closed the car door; it still sounded loud, though the wind was blowing. I could hear the crunching of the gravel beneath my feet, as I walked up to the door.

It opened before I could knock. He had been watching me the whole time.

I felt as if in a dream, it was surreal, to finally be alone with him.

He greeted me and I went into the house. It was an airy, roomy home, decorated tastefully. I did not ask whose it was. I chose not to know. He asked if I had trouble finding the house, I answered no. It was a nice drive, I said. I like it out here.

I walked over to a huge picture window in the living room, overlooking the beautiful fields and trees in the distance. The clouds were gathering, it was turning darker. Storm brewing, I said.

Then I felt his hand on my shoulder, he was behind me, now. I touched his hand with mine, and brushed my cheek against his skin. We could have lit up a city with the electricity between us. He turned me towards him. I tried small talk. Don't you want to see the papers I brought you to read? I asked. He held me closer. Forget the bloody papers, he answered. I looked into his eyes and saw them as they first looked at me, years ago; like it happens in the movies, when you spot each other in a crowded place and everything and everyone around you blurs: all you see is each other. The eyes say everything. He first kissed me with his eyes that day.

Now, he kissed me gently, tentatively; this was not something casual. this was years in the making. Through good times, bad times, times of long separations when we didn't know if we would get to see each other again, through marriage to others, keeping our distance, and divorce; trips overseas, always separated, but never forgetting the one left behind. Living in a society that forbade our being together. It was a huge roll of the dice. But we were both gamblers.

The storm outside raged along with our hearts. The kiss was everything I thought it would be and much more, it defied time, it was brilliant life energy, it filled our very being. The same life energy feeding the storm, drove our passion, drove the wild hunger for more.

Nature abhors a vacuum. For years we kept our distance. The kiss filled the vacuum, filled our world, filled our souls. The kiss could be denied no longer. And then, the world disappeared.

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