True Love Waits

The darkness of night was falling over her which increased her dread. She paced the floor, pausing to look out the window to see if any car lights were visible yet.

The wine was warming. She thought about putting it back to chill, but didn't. She was losing the ability to make rational decisions with every minute that passed then.

She sat for a minute, but couldn't stand the inactivity and resumed pacing. She kept catching herself chewing her nails and each time, she cursed him.

"Where are you? Why do you do this to me? How can I be such a fool?"

Her questions were thrown about without answers. They were just momentary, mental self-beatings, borne from frustration.

She looked at the clock. He was 3 minutes late now. Why did it seem so much later? She paced the other direction, but that was unsatisfactory so she turned and went back to her original path.

The desk needed dusting. The rug wasn't perfectly straight. Where was the cat? Is the wine too warm now? Did he say 7 or 7:30? Was her eyeliner running? Why did she do this to herself?

He turned off the interstate and gunned the car. It shot ahead then, free of the commuter traffic and finally on an empty road.

He turned the radio off and concentrated on the headlight beams which illuminated the road and brush as he turned through the curves and over the hills.

"Damn this to hell."

Why did he have to be late tonight of all nights? He should have left earlier. Why didn't he get flowers? Where did he put the breath mints?

He was as impatient as she was.

Two lifetimes later he pulled into her drive. She saw lights flashing through the window and heard the car and raced to the door.

There was no thought of pretense by waiting coyly inside for him to knock. She flung the door open and was out in the yard as soon as the car stopped.

He leapt out of the car and raced to her. He grabbed her and she clung to him as he lifted her up, both overcome with the joy that possessed them.

They kissed frantically, unable to wait for hellos...lips pressed tightly together.....eyes squinting or closed. Their minds were empty of everything but that kiss.

Time was frozen to them, or did it race? They did not know, or care or even realize there was time. All they knew was that they were together finally and that was all they needed to know.

He carried her into the house and continued to hold her as they kissed.

He put her down after awhile and they just stood there together as if they didn't know what to do next. Their minds were still unhooked from rational thought.

They just stared. Yes they looked at each other but they also looked into each other. If you don't understand what that means, then you have never been in love.

They looked into each other forever and they smiled at what they saw. They smiled and looked and smiled some more.

"I have some wine."

She moved to the table. He followed. She took the bottle out of the bucket and handed it to him. He poured her glass and then his.

There wasn't need of pretenses related to the wine. They drank the wine and they drank each other. So heady, this taste of wine and each other was.

They kissed again to remind themselves how good it felt that minute or so ago. It was better this time, they thought.

When they moved apart to breathe and look at each other, she turned on the radio. She had it set to a classic rock and roll station, reliving better, or at least more fun days of her youth.

She went back to him.

At that moment, Buddy Holly was with them, as surely as if he was set up in the room.

She moved into his arms.

"Just you know why"

He pulled her close to him.

"Why you and I"

They moved together slowly. Eyes locked to each other.

They smiled as they danced as one.

Their hearts beat together, now bound to that song.

Their smiles grew as they were filled with happiness. A happiness that exploded over them in the richness of their love.

The sheer magnificence of love that could make you nuts and make you clear and make everything you wanted before unimportant.

"Sometimes we'll cry"

His heart pounded as he knew inside he wanted to cry for her. She was already crying at the words and from her innate understanding that he felt as she.

They might have continued moving , or they might just be swaying or they might be still. No one knows.

Hours passed for them then in a split second and if they had been conscious of those things, they would have understood the space time continuim for a few seconds. Time stopped and started with Buddy's words.

His hands were on her back. Hers were around his neck. Their faces were an inch apart. They breathed each others breaths. Their hearts beating against each other with one cadence.

They turned slowly, moving now, gently stepping, not far, just enough to feel the grace of their bodies acting together.

Her head was now on his shoulder, his face in her hair, smelling her shampoo and feeling the texture of her hair against his cheek.

She raised up to smile at him then. They kissed softly, tenderly and with a sweet passion that poets envy and seek to put into words, but never quite do, for it is indescribable. That kiss is a kiss of love, not just physical desire.

It is a love from places we don't understand and that cannot be identified, love that transcends all and is the end of all and the beginning of all, love in a soft kiss.

They felt themselves melting and flowing into each other, covering each other and infiltrating each other. They gave themselves over to each other, willingly and yet unknowingly.

They were almost to that place then where it all blurs and the background fades away and they are alone in the world. It was just them and the song.

And they paused then, still and quiet in their minds, melded and one. They were statues of and to love, with eyes wet and soft. Their lips moved to kiss.

Their arms were tighter around them and a softness enveloping them like a cloud. Love surged through their hearts like a freight train, powerful and unstoppable and running forever.

Nothingness then, but everything.

"Know true love ways"

And they did know true love ways.

*

"True Love Ways" commonly sung as "True Love Waits"... copyrighted by Buddy Holly, who must have known love himself to write it.