*
She headed out to the old creek that was about a block from her house. Upon arrival she
sat carefully down on the hard soil. Pulling her legs into a decidedly fetal position, she
reflected back to the old times she had spent there. I used to splash around in that
thing, drenching myself, turning my skin so brown that my mother used to have to hose
me down to get all the mud off. Yet none of it mattered, I was so happy, she thought.
It seemed like that with Matt, even though he lived in an entirely different state; Oklahoma
seemed so far from the prairies of Illinois.
It seemed like they had missed so much in being apart. She missed seeing the look on his
face when he got his driver’s license a year ago. He missed her getting a tattoo on her
sixteenth birthday, which seemed like forever in the past, even though it wasn’t more than
eight months. But he's coming to visit next week, yes, we'll have three glorious days
together, free to follow every fancy that drops into our minds. She sat and watched as
she came to notice the beginnings of rain. She sniffed the wonderful humid air and held her
hand out to catch one of the perfect little droplets. The rain began to come down more
with every breath she took.
She looked around her. "Maybe this isn't the best time to do my writing outside," she
mumbled. But she didn't leave, she didn't want to leave. Instead she tried to soak up rain
with every inch of her body, and by this time, the rain had swollen to a downpour. There
was so much rain surrounding Genevieve that she could barely see her feet dancing
beneath her. She wasn't exactly sure what was causing this fit of spontaneity, this curious
rainy frolic. But she knew that something about it made her happy, something gave her a
surge of pure emotion.
By this time, she remembered she had left her Walkman running. She wanted to turn it off,
but when she heard the smooth words coming to her ears, she couldn't for all the will in
her. "You say you want, diamonds and a ring of gold, your story to remain untold, but
all the promises we break, from the cradle to the grave, when all I want is you." All I want
is you.... the words echoed in her head, they were so fitting to describe Matt. They
had been living in separate states ever since he and his family moved; it had been two years
ago. They had always promised each other to call then and write when and do this and do
that, I’ll send you a present for your birthday, expect a surprise in the mail..... But she
realized, all that really mattered were she and Matt. The promises didn't matter, broken or
no, they meant nothing, and the presents and all the gifts; they didn't matter. All I want
is you, Matt, she thought. All I want is you.
“It feels like all the time away, all the separation, it seems like we could make up for it in
this embrace, right now, in this perfect moment,” she murmured to him.
He simply leaned down close to Genevieve’s ear and softly, tenderly, he spoke. “I missed
you.” The words were so quiet they were barely audible, but they were delicate words. It
seemed, spoken with any more force, that they would shatter, losing their beautiful
meaning.
Genevieve leaned her head on his chest gently, listening to the soft pulsation of his heart,
feeling the gentle rhythm of his breath. She longed to stay there, in that perfect moment.
She looked up at his longish blonde hair, and fondled some of the strands of what seemed
more like eastern silks than just dead protein. She looked up into Matt’s eyes, his
beautiful, clear, electric blue eyes. Every time she looked into those eyes, she felt the
sensation of dipping into a mountain spring. They were refreshing, like an internal pool of
youth. And as she fell into the deep blue pools of his eyes, she knew. All I want is
you, she thought.
They looked at each other, each lost in thoughts of the other, each enveloped in the gaze
of the other. Standing out in the hot, humid daylight, neither seemed to feel the heat.
Neither seemed to hear the cars on the nearby street, or the kids playing three houses
down. They didn’t see the leaves on the trees produce a checkered pattern of sunlight and
shade. They didn’t see the kid playing with his dog across the street.
“Penny for your thoughts.” They spoke in unison.
Genevieve laughed softly. “You go first,” she said.
“No,” Matt shook his head, “I’m afraid you’ll have to go first.”
“Why’s that?”
“’Cos you probably have more interesting thoughts than I do,” he shrugged.
“Nope, I wasn’t thinking about much at all,” she said in reply. “You go.”
“How about we go at the same time?” he proposed.
She nodded approval.
They looked at each other for a moment. “All I want is you.”
* * * Story written by: Astroturf Woodchuck
Thanks Woodchuck for letting me use your story on my webpage!
E-Mail Woodchuck, and tell her that you love her story!
Words by: Peter “Bono” Hewson
Music by: U2 (Bono, The Edge, Larry Mullen Jr,
Adam Clayton)
