Forever

Maria was looking in the mirror at the final product.

“What’s the significance?” the artist asked Maria.

Maria went into a blank stare, which she had been doing a lot lately. She hadn’t been sleeping as of late and this was clearly taking its toll. Her mother said this was normal for what she had just been through, so she wasn’t worried.

Her blank stares usually accompanied a memory of him.

She thought of the summer they went to Little Lake. This was her favorite vacation spot for only being one and a half hours from home, and she thought of herself as being well travelled. Usually she chose places that were as far away form her life as possible to vacation. Some place to escape, but not this time. The weather was perfect that summer, rainy days usually came when they needed them the most. Its like the weather was linked to their subconscious plans of the day. Sunny when they were on the lake and shady when they had enough of the sun. Perfect.

This was the first trip they had went on together, an entire week of just the two of them. He had come here a lot when he was younger as the place had belonged to his grandparents.

There was particularly one funny encounter that they ended up laughing about all week. He was opening the barn to find the bikes they would use all week. He had opened the doors and not five minutes later he was screaming and running out of the barn to find cover. There was a barn owl that was protecting its young. He ended up not being able to get to the bikes, because after the fourth try he said “This is their home now. The bikes looked old anyways.”

She remembered later that night when they were enjoying a warm glass of red wine at the camp fire and after a few glasses she says to him. “You are just like that barn owl.”

She remembered explaining to him owls are nocturnal, as is he, working late at night as the majority of his clients are in another time zone. She further explained that owls are clearly protective, as proven today. She loved this about him, she explained that he was always protective over her and that was another reason she loved him. She ended up blurting out “Did you know owls also mate for life?” Then stopped herself as she felt this was very presumptuous of her as they had been dating less than a year. She had drunk a little too much and didn’t want to scare him. She laughed it off and shortly after excused herself to bed due to her embarrassment. She remembered thinking ‘What if he didn’t want to be her mate for life?’

The next morning, he had brought her breakfast in bed accompanied by medication, as he knew a couple glasses of wine would give her a mild headache in the morning. He knew her so well already. She loved that he knew these little things about her.

He woke her up with a kiss on the forehead and when she opened her eyes she saw him kneeling at her bedside with an open box with a ring inside, a beautiful one. All he said was “Owls do mate for life.”

Obviously, her answer was yes. They were married shortly after.

Her mind went to the last year of their life together. They had been married for 3 years when he was diagnosed with cancer. He battled for two years, fought it with everything he had. Everything.

Today would have been their fifth wedding anniversary.

She snapped back to reality to answer the artist’s question.

“My late husband Michael.” Is all she could manage.

She welled up in tears looking at the artists finished product of an owl that was tattooed on her shoulder, and would be, forever.