Crickets in the weeds and the soft hooting of an owl crouching in the trees told me the obvious. Warm lavender and wet grass added their clean scents to the humid air as I crept along. I had remodeled and refined while time and weather wore away at Sister, until the two houses, built side by side on the shore of a large and placid lake, looked like before-and-after pictures of each other. Though it was a twin of my own house, the resemblance had grown indistinct over the years. Poor Sister looked even more derelict in the dark, even with light spilling from its dirty windows. Grabbing the baseball bat I kept behind the kitchen door, I crept outside, making sure the screen door closed quietly behind me. With one astonished eye on the scene outside, I grabbed jeans and sweatshirt from where I had dropped them on the floor, yanked them on, slid my feet into Nikes and raced downstairs.
I pressed my face up against the cool glass, eyes following the sweep of well-trimmed lawn, to the garden stile overgrown with hedge roses and beyond to the unexpected sight of Sister, every window blazing light. The idea propelled me off the bed and to the window at top speed. Another solid thunk and an incredulous thought slid into my consciousness. I threw blankets aside, sat up and listened. Grumpily swiping tangled hair out of my eyes, I began to burrow back under the cushy mounds of my down comforter. The clock on the bedside table said 4:30. No rampant snoring coming from under humps of twisted blankets to the left and right of me. No buzzing and forever dim fluorescent lights. Reaction times are crucial but they play hell on your nerves. Twelve years fighting fires will turn a person into a very light sleeper, and for good reason. All the bleary-eyed languidness was drilled out of me ages ago. I was upright, feet on the floor before I was even awake, but this was nothing new. Please know, at this moment and always, you are my world.Ī sharp, metallic thwap jarred me from a sound sleep. I can put down this pen and take a few steps and share it with you. Only, I am realizing with awe, I do not have to repress it now. I see you now through this same window, swinging on your front porch swing, one bare foot trailing over the raw yellow boards, waiting for me to join you and I can't continue.
I'm staring out of my gorgeous picture window at the loveliness of sunset, tones of violet and rose encompassing the sky, and I am in awe of the future, the sheer happiness and good fortune that seems to have fallen, like a lump of gold, into our laps. Perhaps we can think of something more interesting to fill my time now? It may take time to wean me from it, but I'm sure you will try. It was the only pleasure in my day for so long. This is the time of day, after mother's bath, during her nap, when I would steal away to write to you. Which is probably why habit made me take up pen and paper. It seems so very strange that those dreams and plans we made lying under the stars are now a reality. I know it is silly to write when you are now only a stone's throw away, but I am and always will be, a creature of habit. 2006 All Right's Yes, indeedy? there are smutly bits herein? but there's an actual storyline too? imagine that?
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