A Kiss Without Lips

"...But to the atheists and the priesthood, both believed that going the other direction is how to become lost. So what could a simple sinner like myself do? To be, or not to be. To believe or not to believe. Either way, it seemed as if I would be on the losing side."

The man's thick southern drawl crackled through the radio, and sounded inquisitive.

"It was my discovery that, for once in my life, as a young man stepping into the world, I would need to ruffle some feathers. Up until then, I had always avoided ruffling feathers. And I thought, maybe I am a good man, and maybe I should try to walk the path of a righteous one."

The fire popped. An ember the size of a pea bounced onto the floor and a large shoe quickly smothered it. The shoe then retreated to its original spot and rested again as its owner settled deeper into their chair.

Another voice crackled through the radio. "I must say, I agree with you wholeheartedly, Hal. I, personally am a spiritual man myself, and can testify to the many mercies of the Lord. It has truly blessed my life."

"Pray tell me, Richard, what denomination do you belong to?" asked the first speaker, Hal.

"Well, I am non-denominational, sir. I have been my whole life, and will be forevermore." the second speaker, Richard, responded.

It was silent for a moment. It seemed as if the world held her breath, and leaned in closer, listening. This wasn't something that most people heard back then.

Richard's voice shook at first, but he finished his sentence strongly."You must excuse me for being so blunt, sir. I communicate with the Lord a little bit differently than others, but it is sweet nonetheless."

The man in the chair sat up straighter and glanced at the radio. He was very angry when he listened to the radio spit static and then cut out.

The man sighed in exasperation and threw his hands in the air. He stood and carefully lumbered into the kitchen for a glass of milk. The man leaned against his counter and gazed out the dark window above the sink. He couldn't really see anything, it was well past dark. But he did see his reflection, and he pondered the program he had been listening to as he scraped some gunk out from underneath his fingernail.

He ran his cup under the sink water and set it in the drying rack. There was a 1970's print of a bible upstairs in the bookcase. His grandson was astounded at how great a shape he had kept it in. The man flicked off the light, closed the grate on the fireplace, and joined his wife in bed.

Meanwhile, out the back door and up the hill to the left, you could faintly make out the silhouettes of a young man holding the hand of a young lady in the moonlight as they snuck through the barn doors.

She smiled quietly as they safely closed the door behind them.

The boy beamed at her and she smiled back. It was still hard to see, so they relied on the moonlight. It was easy to spot her though because her skin was so fair, it seemed to glow in the cool light. Lots of people had joked around about how she was so pale, she could be seen for miles, but in all reality, she was quite in love with how dark colors contrasted against her so nicely...and how she could trace any blueish-purplish veins that she could find under her skin...it had a sort of haunting beauty that many others tried to hide.

The boy was thoroughly sun-tanned after the summer ended. Now it was fall, which was his favorite. He didn't care too much about how he looked, and yet he did. Just as the girl was glowing in the light, parts of him did too. He was very tall for his age you see, and etched across different parts of his body were the very thin tiger-stripe-like scars. The growing scars. He was self-conscious about it when they were new and red. But now they are lightly settled on top of his skin. The girl often mused over his stretch marks as if they were currents in a river. She adored him in every aspect.

The girl and boy closed the gap between each other, closed their eyes, and leaned their heads closer until their foreheads bonked clumsily.

"Oops", one of them whispered as they erupted in stifled giggles.

It was the girl that had said oops. The boy held a finger to his lips as the two of them continued holding in their reckless laughter. He led her to a ladder and climbed up into a clearing with blankets and pillows at the top. It was right under a window, and would have made a very romantic scene with a few candles and chocolates.

Instead, as they settled into their hiding spot, the boy reached into his pockets and pulled out some withered and damaged petunia petals. He sprinkled them over the girl's head, and was slightly embarrassed when he realized that most of the petals were stuck to his very nervously sweaty hands. It seemed as if this was one of those "it sounded like a better idea in my head" types of moments. Luckily, the dark concealed most of the blushing that lay upon his cheeks.

The girl watched with warm eyes.

The boy then turned around and parted some hay to find his bag with the bread in it. After his efforts so far, he half expected it to be eaten by mice. But it wasn't, and he broke the bread for the two of them to enjoy together.

They chewed in peaceful silence and both stared through the open window. The breeze was light and sweet, and brought with it the smell of the orchards around them as the leaves recognized the cooling weather. Those who appreciated agriculture could smell when the trees were preparing for sleep.

The girl stopped chewing, and turned her face towards the boy. "Do you think we'll get married someday?"

The boy didn't look at her, but he did blush deeper and tried not to smile at his own shocked expression (it was dark enough that the girl couldn't see his expression anymore).

The girl figured as much, and kept going. "I don't suppose you love me yet. That's okay. We are pretty young, I've never heard of 9th graders getting married...you'll love me someday though, because I make you laugh. And because I don't let you kiss me."

The boy was floored at her insensitive breach of the love subject. "You were gonna let me kiss you downstairs before we ran into each other's head, right?"

"It was possible, the thought was growing on me. But now that we're talking about it, I'm going to stick with my decision to not let you kiss me. Yet."

They now spoke aloud without caution, the farmer (the boy's grandpa), was well asleep by now.

"Well, when can I kiss you?" asked the boy.

The girl smiled despite herself. She enjoyed having this brief power over someone else, though she would never use it for harm.

"When are we getting married?" She asked.

The boy's heart sank. He had hoped that he would be able to kiss her a lot sooner than that. But he answered her truthfully. "After we graduate high school."

Now the girl's heart sank. She had hoped that he would marry her a lot sooner than that. But she felt her affection for the boy grow all the same.

"The day after. No later." He confirmed.

"I guess since I won't let you kiss me on the lips, and we can't live together before we're married, we'll have to find different ways to be together without going against our rules."

He agreed with her.

From then on, they followed their rules. They met together for years and did not kiss once. When graduation rolled around, just as he promised, he bought a ring for the girl and they planned their wedding for the following weekend. Lots of adults disapproved of the young marriage, always one comment after another about how they were tying themselves down right at the height of their potential.

How funny it was, that the kids knew instead of the adults that their highest potential was next to the other.

They grew up together, and sometimes they fought. But they were more important to them than the problem, and so, they always came back together. They started a family, raised the family, and sometimes caught the older kids sneaking into dark places with a girl or boy at school. They felt like hypocrites, but discouraged sneaking around all the same. You see, the girl's father, Richard Harmon, had instilled a very deep sense of sprituality into his daughter, and she instilled the same thing into her home. The family forgave, and then squabbled, giggled, and then cussed. Such as life.

One time, the youngest kid threw a fit and ran on her little toddler legs through the garden, kicking the lettuce heads over.

The girl, now Momma, pursued angrily, but stopped when she saw the little monster and her chubby angry cheeks. She calmly entered the garden and knelt to pick up the lettuce heads. She spoke without looking at her daughter, "Thank you for picking Momma her lettuce, I hadn't even noticed that they were ready to eat."

The toddler seethed.

Momma sat on her knees and noticed her daughter's footprints in the mud. Just then, a small frog hopped into the small indentation. For some reason, Momma could feel a laugh working up. It was the kind of laugh that some Mommas just do when they are unsure of what to do next with their kids. Soon, her face was turned towards the sky and a small tear slid from her eye as she clutched her sides, lost in a fit of her laughter. The toddler was very confused, and deviously began kicking the broccoli heads. Momma noticed and laughed harder still. She stood up and started kicking the broccoli too. Soon, both of the girls were kicking the vegetables with smiles on their faces.

The day that Momma got old and passed on, she left a note for her beloved husband.

Dear Boy,

I remember when we would sneak into your grandfather's old red barn on the hill. I remember when the air was pleasant and when we would glow in the moonlight. I remember the flower petals, and when we planned our life together.

It's in moments like those that I remember our kiss without lips.

All of the times we would carefully lean our foreheads together and rest our eyes. All the times I'd push you in the lake and then run away before you could catch me. I know you knew I was planning to push you in. Or when we would dance in the kitchen and the kids would wrap their arms around us and dance as one big group.

I am grateful for those times with you. Because after, I could recognize when life kissed me. Never upon the lips, but always in some other way.

I will be gone from here soon, but I will kiss you forever now. I will kiss you through the smell of fall and laughs that you can't stop. I will kiss you when you see the veins in your skin and the light of the moon. I will kiss you again and again until the day you come here too. Then we will kiss our kids and grandkids. We will continue to laugh and cry and howl at the sky. I will see you soon. Until then, thank God for our blessings and dream big dreams, for we are never too old to dream them.

Headbutts and dance-offs,

Girl ...P.S. Poo-poo

And so it was, that just as she had entered our story, the girl left the story acknowledging the beauty of odd things.

Remember it, and you will suddenly notice that you, too, are kissed without lips every day.