MISSED KISS
"To dream, perchance to be in body or in spirit, here yet there, I know not," Paul wondered, more wished not true that moment most hoped for, most dreaded. He looked down. The tightness of the roller blade laces round ankles testified to the here as now, as did the vibration of not so smooth town pavement beneath. The sigh of his breath hung in the cool evening air. Cassie was there, attached to him palm in palm, breathing in unison, slowly skating to nowhere.
As for Cassie, she too pondered, feared the answer to the question she came to bear. What damage had thirty years without her carved into his heart? Would Paul forgive her? Did Paul still want her? Would his answer be sharp, perhaps coarse?
Skating somewhere on the ungentle slope of Veritas Lane, Cassie stopped. She did not let go his hand. She pulled Paul round to face her. And face to face she dared ask, "So, how have you been?"
Paul avoided her eyes, looked over her shoulder, saw on Veritas Lane corner the Church spire, the cross, pointing to heaven. Light snow began to fall. He followed solitary flake down to the tip of cute pug nose. Paul looked into Cassie's amber eyes. "God, she is so beautiful," escaped his lips.
Cassie blinked. What Paul said and how he said it had both flattered yet unsettled her. "Thank you, I think?" Cassie smiled; asked again that same caring, more probing question, "So Paul, like really, how are you?"
For more than a tad of a while Paul gathered her into his eyes. Her hair was shorter, darker, coarser; her right eyebrow only partially hid a not long ago scar; and her neck, well her neck was as remembered, slim, soft, inviting... "I love my wife," he answered. "I love her no where near as much as she deserves. She is beautiful, even at our age, she is still beautiful. A sweeter soul upon this earth, there is none. She is a good mother, a better grandmother. She loves Jesus. She even loves me."
Cassie ponders all these things, but her heart knows reason that reason knows nothing of... She pulls herself close to him. Her body presses against him. Her head tilts. Her eyes near closing. Her lips part. Paul breaths in her familiar sweet breath. He hugs her tight...
...And whispers in her ear, "Every day, every night, for so long I prayed to be with you... Now I pray for you... So many years... I missed your kiss... and so shall I miss your lips to the day I die..."
...And they wept...
As the pure white snow increased flow, Paul looked again unto the cross atop Church steeple; and began witness: "Cassie, Jesus teaches us to pray in this manner: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever." Cheek resting in her hair, with all his heart Paul added, "And Cassie, God loves you so much that he gave for you his only begotten Son, Jesus, that if you believe in him, you will not perish, but have abundant life forever."
"Jesus," Cassie wept into the chest of Paul.
In a rush the gentle snow swirled about them... and for Cassie the skating to nowhere... became a walking to somewhere... with Jesus...
Matthew 6:9-13 KJ; John 3:16; Romans 10:13; 1st Corinthians 10:13
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