They talked and decided that they couldn’t go there, wouldn’t go there. It would be too complicated, somehow wrong and they were better off staying friends. Nothing gained, nothing lost.
Then, ever so quietly, in a foot shuffle voice, he said, “Can I ask just one favour?”
“Sure,” she responded.
One small questioning word … “Spoon?”
It had been so long since the warmth of a body stretched out beside her and how on earth could she possibly say no when her body screamed out for the warm comfort of solid connection? And so, he curled around her and she sighed and relaxed into him and the earth stopped moving and the air was sweetly scented with the lingering scent of almonds.
After an eternity of a second, a minute, an hour, in a moment — a thought entered her mind, flickering briefly on the edges of her thoughts. If she could be anywhere, absolutely anywhere at this precise moment, this was the only place that she would want to be.
In that spoon was all the anticipation of the years of comfort and love, passion and care. In that spoon were decades of joy, pain, sorrow, loss, love, growth, change. In that spoon was the deep down knowledge that life could spin out of control, death could rock her soul, the colour could stream from her hair in soft folds of worn care but at the end of the day, there would be a curved warmth of shelter and relief.
I remember it all now, so many years later. Life did spin out of control on more than one occasion and death did beat down our doorstep more than once and yet, at the end of the day, we both share a curved warmth of shelter and relief. That one small favour changed our lives so completely and you remained my friend but became so much more, and I anticipated it all in a single moment.
Spoon.
Photo Credits
“The Light of Love”, used with permission © Madelyn Mulvaney
suvarna says
oh I so love this!
Connie says
Darlene.
I’m in tears. This morning, Hansel and I laid in bed spooning ourselves and I was overcome by the deepest feeling of gratitude and pure, seamless LOVE. Not just for this beautiful man that cradles me so…but to the Universe for delivering me such a gift–as the shelter of another human’s deepest love.
I love you.
Big hugs.