He sits today and watches her. He watches every move she makes looking for a sign of discomfort and trying to work out a way to end that discomfort for her. Age has taken its toll on both of them. It was over forty years ago when they had their first real talk, soul to soul. She was able to play touch football back then in what the school called the annual powder puff game. She was short but back in the mid seventies she could run, walk fast and get things done. She was a soul that finished things and studied while he was a soul who did not care for schooling even though he read a lot on his own and was a basketball player at the time.
They were separated by thirteen months according to the calendar and two years as dictated by the school system. She was one of the youngest in her class while he was one of the oldest in his. It was the school system that would keep them apart for a while until they discovered each other. The discovery took place on the night of her graduation from high school and he was finishing up his sophomore year. His best friend was in her class and it was this friend who set up that first date that would become a lifetime. The first date at the time did not seem like the beginning of something that would morph into a lifetime together. It was the party after graduation and it took place at a business that catered to pool players, ice skaters and bowlers. It was the first time he had ever put on ice skates and while she hugged the wall around the ice rink he found the skating to be almost a natural thing. During the forthcoming years he would only put on the skates one or two more times.
He found her easy to talk to and easy to impress. It was almost certain that they would go out together again and going out together again turned into going out together many times until they were together so much the souls attached to each other. When he was but nineteen and she twenty, the two souls married. They were a bit young but old enough and close enough to make the bonding take hold.
That marriage took place almost forty years ago, such a very long time. During that forty years he was content with letting her make decisions for both of them. In return he continued to meet with his friends playing basketball and baseball while she developed hobbies of her own and went out with her friends. Each day the souls would come back together again and would be as one soul not only to themselves but to the rest of the world as well.
He sits and remembers as he watches her. He remembers all that he had learned from her in those early years. She had taught him patience while being stubborn. She had taught him how to talk to people and be a social soul. He learned these things but did not put them into practice himself. Patience did not come easy for him and socially he kept off to himself. She taught him what to be happy looked like and he became an expert at looking happy. When the souls were together he didn't have to look happy, he felt that he was as did she.
The two souls tried to create a third soul but chemistry and physics got in the way and they were not able to do so. She began looking at options and decided that if they wanted to they could adopt a third soul to make what she considered a complete family. She approached him with the idea and he agreed. The two souls would adopt a third and it would happen pretty fast. Soon they were a family of three and the years started slipping by quickly.
Eventually the two souls that had become one became even closer. Soon there would be no surprises as each day became another day. He had taught her music and baseball. She had taught him how to have a warm heart and to care for souls that they would meet. She never was able to bring him into a social situation and have him behave as he should. He would forever keep off to himself and observe other souls and learn much from it.
Now he sits and watches her. They have good conversations on a consistent basis. They still share their minds with each other and they still teach each other and learn from each other. But time has left each of them fragile in their own way. His mind has become fragile and her physical body has become fragile and they try to help each other from falling apart.
He watches her, observes her and responds to her every move. To many it would seem a job or chore to watch over that soul next to him, but to him it is a privilege. Forty years have brought the two souls closer and closer and now it seems the only thing that will separate them is when death catches up to one and takes one soul away from the other. As he ponders this thought, deep down he hopes that death catches his soul first.
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| Bond of Union - M.C. Escher |
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