Dinner by Candlelight

The sun is just setting as the table is laid. Two places are set with special plates, cutlery, and glassware, brought from their cupboard only on this one, special Night of the year.

At the center of the table stands a single red candle, hand dipped and infused with sandalwood, your favourite.

I've spent the entire day preparing for tonight's dinner. I put as much time into preparing all your favourite dishes as I did in preparing myself. I even made sure to trim my beard the way you like it and put on that one shirt you always say you like best. Everything has to be perfect, it has to be.

It's Our Anniversary, after all.

The grandfather clock in the hall tolls the hour just as I begin plating the food. Like Magick, you sweep into the room, a vision to make poets weep. The room could burst into flames and I wouldn't notice.

You float past me, your dress a dream of black and burgundy silk. You pause just long enough to brush my cheek with your lips as you go by, a fleeting kiss for which kings would give their crowns if it meant it might linger one second longer. Gathering my stunned wits and smiling like a bewitched schoolboy, I pull out your chair and see you seated before sitting across from you.

"How many years, my Love?" you ask. Your eyes capture the single candle's flame and draw it into themselves, fire dancing with sapphire.

"Four," I say, "and I Love you more every day."

You take my hand in yours and lift it to your lips. The gentleness of your touch fills me with an unnameable longing, unless that longing bears your own name, the only one worthy of such deep emotion.

"Has it really been so long?" you wonder. "Four years and still you make all this effort for me. Amazing..." Your sparkling eyes never stray from mine. When We're together, all else ceases; there is only Us. Only Us.

"This Night comes but once a year, Beloved; it should be special."

And it is special. The minutes spin on into hours, and We are happy. In that glowing pool of golden candlelight, We are happy; nothing exists in this benighted world beyond that one candle's stalwart vigil.

Timelessness, by it's very nature, is an absence of time. Without time, a single moment is as eternity; and in that eternity, there exists only Us. But then Time, that merciless juggernaut, intrudes upon Our sanctuary and the Sun touches the horizon.

The Night is coming to an end.

The candle has guttered low, but still your eyes retain their luminosity. I don't want the Night to end, but that is an old battle that has never been won -- not by Lovers nor by poets, not by warriors nor by thieves.

The Night is ending. The candle, drowned its own wax, snuffs out with a soft hiss. The darkness rushes in.

"I Love you." Your voice whispers across the table into my ears, words that echo forever in my heart.

Your hand slips from mine, and I let you go. There are tears on my cheeks, but a wise man once said that not all tears are a sadness. Sunlight peeks through a crack in the curtains and I am sitting alone at a table set for two.

I sit there a few minutes longer, the scent of your perfume still lingering in the air.

Later this morning, I will take a bouquet of your favourite flowers to lay on your headstone. I will bring you flowers and I will read you poetry, and I will remember you. Four years ago today, you passed from this world, but every year on Hallows Eve you come back to me, come back to celebrate Our Anniversary.

One day, I will follow you, and We will be together again; but today is not that day, and until that day comes I will remember you.

Until the day I pass from this life and cross the Veil, I will always remember you.

~FIN~

On Hallows, we remember those who have died. By remembering them, they are never gone. By Loving them, they are immortal.

To all who have crossed the Veil, you are Loved. You are remembered. Blessed Be.