They walked side by side at the world’s happiest place on earth. It was young love. The most vulnerable, optimistic, and enchanting kind of love. The kind of passion that feels as though it will never end, the kind of ardor burns a lifetime against all odds. They were only fifteen but it felt as though they’d found the one they would love for the rest of their lives. As they took one another’s hands and intertwined their youthful fingers, it felt like a commitment that would make it through any of a life’s challenges. They may have been young, but they were madly in love. The smile across their youthful faces represented the promise of a lifetime of love, a love that would never cease, lasting across time and distance. Even if it was forced to live in their hearts in the space reserved solely for the warmest of memories. He grabbed her hand and spun her toward him. As he gazed deeply into her eyes the corners of his lips fought the smile that forced itself through – the smile that outwardly communicated the joy she brought to his heart. He loved her. He had never understood the love between a boy and a girl until gazing at her walk casually past him and instantly knowing she was the one. And now they were at Walt Disneyland, a place that represented the kind of magic you didn’t know existed unless you’d ever been in love. They ran from one storybook attraction to another filled with laughter and energy and excitement. In that moment, just that one moment, life was simple. Pure and simple. She was beautiful and full of life and music and he loved her. He loved her with everything he had to offer. That’s when it all made sense. Maybe it was a game, perhaps a premonition of things to come, but it didn’t really matter all that much. All that mattered was that she was there and she was smiling with the matching fervor burning in his own eyes. They were free to revel in the liberty of young love, and so he decided to not think another moment, but to instead indulge himself in the passion of youth, and the game of it all. He glanced quickly to his right and watched the elderly couple as they sat side- by- side on a bench, resting from a day full of the West Coast sun. Their hands were looped together in the same pattern as his and the young love of his life. The woman’s snow white head rested gently on her partner’s shoulder - a comfortable act, representing years of reliance. The old man’s dignity, as he allowed his sweetheart to cast her cares on his shoulder, was enough to inspire the younger man. The completed formulation of an idea flashed in his mind and he instantly locked eyes with his beloved forewarning her before dropping to one knee. He bowed his head and kissed the top of her hand in a gesture suitably only to an old fashioned gentleman, a form of that had been long since extinct in this particular generation. He slowly raised his head, his eyes meeting hers. He noticed her hand began to shake in his own hand’s gentle embrace. Despite the terror mixed with excitement in the pit of his stomach he couldn’t help but smile wider as he took a deep breath. “I love you. I’ve loved you since the first moment I saw you and I knew I had to make you mine. I had to have you beside me for the rest of my life. Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?” If he had to guess, he would have assumed she was holding her breath. He could feel the deep penetrating gaze of the old couple on the bench beside them, although from the corner of his eye he could tell that the woman had not moved her head from the cradle atop her husband’s shoulder. They all paused for a moment in time. His sweetheart searched his eyes with her own. He could see the question in her glance, wondering if this was one of his many role plays, as he’d so often indulged her before with his cast of characters. The depth of his penetrating stare, revealed no answer, which made her decision an easy one. She laughed from the depths of her belly with a joy that knew no bounds, as she nodded her head in response. Whether it was to be a willing participant in his charade or a spoken promise of a future they both knew they wanted, she shouted “Yes!” All she knew was that as he kneeled before her with a raw vulnerability in his eyes and a desperate hope in his heart, there was nothing on earth, whether in make believe or reality, that could allow her to say ever reject his proposal for a lifetime beside him. He slowly rose in front of her, a mixture of inquisition and disbelief in his expression as he nodded his head in return. “Really?” he asked. “You’ll marry me? You’ll really marry me?” She couldn’t help but glance to her left to the couple on the bench. The man wrapped his arm around his lady and kissed the top of her head as she replied with a whisper. “Yes. Yes, I will marry you.” Together the young couple laughed with a joy filled with endless possibilities and the truth of a possibility of a life time of love. He wrapped his arms around her, picked her up and spun her around in a circle of ecstasy. The couple on the bench released their embraced and clapped for the young couple. They were thankful to have been the first to witness the promise of a new generation of love. The kind of love they too had known and had weathered them through the death of their first child, years of separation with no contact during the war, and hardships surviving in America on little more than a craft and willingness to work hard. However, their own story seemed to be just another spoke in a wheel, preparing to complete its rotation as a new promise began right in front of their eyes. The End
Posted on: Wed, 16 Jul 2014 03:41:52 +0000
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