A Pond full of Lilly

10-43 

https://open.spotify.com/track/2buMhH0G437UoNzRpZGIKk?si=00f76d9a05d94481

There are no lies in eyes.

Hers were deep, dark, shyly whispering between the harsh breaths and stifled moans of the weekend.

His were trying not to fall but nearly hitting terminal velocity. Oh sure strong but she cleaved right through to the weak.

They sat across from each other in a diner so like any other.

It didn’t matter where.

They were here.

They were the only people in the eye of the storm, hyper real, and the very busy diner was nothing but a Monet all around them.

A blur,

a beautiful tableau of smeared faces and water lilies.

Life was a master painting and yet none of it remembered.

Proximity of this before, been swept away, drunk on this dare say, love. When you spend a weekend in whispers, telling secrets over pillows, talking through giggles and shyly unafraid maybe, food is not important. You could live on these feelings. They are nourishment for starving souls.

He pushed his fork through things he didn’t want and her gentle hand touched his.

“James?” Her voice a lilt of anxious and concerned.

He looked under lids that had 34 years behind them. The truth was that we crush our own sandcastles.

“Lily?”

Even their voices wrapped around each other in a clutter of air filled with all the common noises of places and things.

“James, are you feeling like it’s all swirling?” She had honest concern on her face.

He shied, “Well Lil…” and then actually looked around and it was. The entire scene of the diner, the people, muted and melting like a hand had swept across a fresh painting. He looked back at her with confusion and a bit of panic.

She continued to hold his hand, firmer now. With more calm than she should have, Lily looked him square in the face and the world collapsed around her.

“Hold your breath.” James stopped panting and looked into her eyes. Those deep and dark reaches.

“It’s always hard the first time.” That light, soft voice. The last thing before the darkness.

You would think that bending the universe would be more dramatic.

Nope.

It lands you in the middle of a park with families, people walking, laughing, talking and who do not suddenly notice a man standing right there which they would not have noticed anyway.

James looked to Lily who was still holding his hand tight. Her one eyebrow raised in quiet question; there were so many. Yet, he breathed slowly and let the punctuation seep out of him. He held her hand back just as tight and did the difficult; he trusted her.

She grinned widely and with a coy look shot a glance over her shoulder, “Come on, we don’t have long.”

Her grip pulled so he chased and watched all the light in her hair, trying to catch every one of her glances. Each moment stretched and though he didn’t look he saw the grass cuddling up to the trees, the way the walking path meandered lazily around the slightly rolling but very green hillocks, the air full of smiles.

Within a heartbeat they were at the edge of the pond. White flowers floating and begging him to pay attention for just one more moment. The beauty of it all gripped him tight and he turned to Lily barely able to contain himself, but her face was now shadowed and carried seriousness. She whispered, “meet me there James.”

Darkness came again.