Chapter 1: AwakeShe awoke to the stream of sunshine seeping through the curtains. Perhaps sunshine was too strong a word. Perhaps light would just suffice.
Little lively flecks of dust skated gracefully in that beam of light. Yellow? Not really. More dull than one sees in happy commercials on the television screen.
Lying in bed, she tilted her head ever so slightly, catching a glimpse of her sleeping husband next to her. She smiles and lifts a hand, only to caress the side of his face, feeling the stubble. She snuggled closer to him and buries her nose in his musky scent – A smell so distinct and familiar, for she had awoken to the same scent for years. ‘Years that seem more like mere minutes,’ thought she. Familiar yet so foreign. As if she had forgot the scent.
She cuddled next to him and placed her arms around his torso.
Her supple body lay next to his, and a finger traced a scar – a souvenir from years ago. Resting her head on his chest, she again smiles. Ba-dump. Ba-dump. His heart beat slow, evenly; with the regularity of a soldier’s march. Perhaps at a solemn state event. She breathed in and sighed, not because she was tired, but because she found beauty in listening to her loved one’s beating heart.
Or perhaps it was her own heart; for many a time had he proudly proclaimed that he had given her his heart.
Tilting her head up again, but more this time, she studies his features. As if from memory, he had a strong nose, with a slight dent in the middle. Not straight, slightly crooked but she had always loved it. His lips were not too thin, though they always seemed to either curve up into a small smile or down into a disapproving frown whenever he wasn’t portraying any particular expression. Today, he was wearing a little smile, like a child having a good dream.
His eyes were still closed. ‘Seeing the views of a dreamer,’ she thinks to herself and brushes her fingers through his thick black hair. How fond she was of her husband – He was like a child to her. Her own child; a precious baby boy she wanted to hold on and love forever.
Unwilling to disturb the peaceful dreamer, she slid out of bed slowly and quietly, and tip-toed to the window.
Peeking though the slit of the curtain, she absorbed the beautiful morning. It was a little foggy, but what can a little fog do to such a luscious spring morning? Down at the streets below, she could see two, no, three children running, with a puppy running alongside one of them. They were laughing and clearly having fun, as children ought to have. Across the street, she could see a maiden walking out with a basket, and a couple other women having a leisurely stroll along the grey, cobbled walkway.
‘How picturesque,’ she said in her mind, in a rather curious tone. Perhaps the scene was too perfect. If only Monet could have seen it. It was art brought to life. It was water colours of a sweetly mellow painting animated.
She turned away and looked at her sleeping husband. “It is a wonderful morning today darling.” A slow deep exhalation of air from the man seemed to agree with her statement.
She turned back and the Sun illuminated her fair face. She was the classic example of a pretty young lady. Neither too mature nor elegant enough to be labelled ‘gorgeous’ but she certainly was pretty enough. Wide inquisitive eyes, and an expressive mouth, now smiling yet again to herself while taking in the beautiful scene of the town.
“It is a beautiful day,” she said aloud to reaffirm it, before placing the drapes back down and going back to bed to snuggle more with her other half.
She slides her body close to him and rests her head once again on his chest.
An unexplainable wave of sadness washed over her and we notice a small worrying crease on her forehead. “Why do I feel sad?”
She shakes it off for the moment. She kisses her husband on his lips, brushes through his hair again with her fingers and whispers to him. “I Love You.”
Then, she decided, it was time to go back to being awake.
It was too perfect to be true.
On a spring morning, with the dust still waltzing in the ray of light, an old woman is curled up on her side, hugging close to her a feather filled pillow, and perhaps, we see a glisten fall from her eyes.
Perhaps, we shouldn’t awake the peaceful dreamer.
Kimmii Kamikaze
