Lost
with You I. Shadows
The abandoned building was glowing dimly
with the light of the moon, an aerial view of the city bursting through
the shattered window…...a window that almost resembled the stained
glass of a church. Inside this crushed world…there was a strange
sight to behold. The glimmer of sequins on a red evening gown,
beside it the solid elegance of a tux, one sleeve missing…adorning her
wounded shoulder. Motionless on the boarded floor, their raven hair
mingling slightly in their slumped stances against the wall….their
hands missing, braced behind them with metal, clasped to rusted
pipes. The ruins of a turn-of-the-century loft, enclosing what
was meant to last always….no matter what.
Delicately she woke, as she did a few hours ago, only this time
she was rising from death. She thought she was going to die.
Shouldn't she have…? She glanced down at the black cloth, tinged
with red, around the part of her that his lips had treasured...a torn
piece of his clothes against the fragile injury. Antonio. She knew deep
down that he wasn't going to leave her side, despite her weak pleas
for him to save himself. But....God...what had happened to him????
She broke from a flash of panic when she felt his presence beside
her, weakly looking his blurred body over with frightened eyes. They
were alive…and even if it was only for a moment, the agent had let
them live. They had a chance. She managed a feeble smile as she
lingered in a haze of consciousness…gazing at him adoringly.
Gabi: …I knew.....I knew you wouldn't let him hurt you…I knew
you'd be strong..that you wouldn't let him hurt you, Antonio.....
He made a painful sound and shifted slightly, a shadow slipping
from his face to reveal a deep violet-colored bruise beside his eye on
the tender skin of the temple.
A gasp and somewhat of a sob as she snapped fully into her
surroundings, her hands frantically reaching for him….but they weren't
there.
Gabi:…What?????.......
The sickening clink of the metal chain of handcuffs against the
pipes....the terrible knowledge that he wore this mark for protecting
her. Not being able to touch him riled her, she struggled against her
bonds with a tearful desperation, her fight against them leading to a
horrible contortion of her shoulder, and a helpless scream of pain.
He awoke instantly to her voice, trying to break through his fuzzy
sight, again, the clanging of metal against metal, fighting against his
denied reflexes to take her in his arms as he leaned to her as far as
he possibly could.
Antonio: Gabi?? Gabi are you alright?? Please tell me you're
alright!!
Gabi: (leaning to him) My God...he hit you...he hit you
because you were trying to help me, weren't you?
Antonio: Gabi...I couldn't hold a candle to what you did. You...you
ran in the way of that bullet for me. You would've died to save my
life......?
Gabi: And as an incredible man once said...I'd do it again. In a
New York minute, Antonio. I guess we're even now.
Antonio: (worriedly) Not even close. I can't even imagine how
much pain you're in right now....
She looked down, the anger in her mind for the agent quickly
turning to a newly discovered source……the man who called her
"wife".....
....sarcastically.
Gabi: (softly) Don't worry. It doesn't hurt as bad as the truth,
Antonio....
Antonio: Gabi.......
Gabi:……..That was why he smiled at me like that when I closed
the door. He knew we weren't coming back. That was why
he smiled………..
They looked to each other, their eyes falling apart.
Both: Ricardo……
Gabi: I can't believe it. He knew....and this was what he
did about it?? Robbing us, setting us up at the airport…telling lies to
get back at lies?? At this point I wouldn't put it past him to
orchestrate this whole frame-up too. That's why that Secret Service
guy came after us, isn't it??
Antonio: No, no, Gabi…this is my fault….Ricardo had
nothing to do with this. As much as I can't even fathom the fact that
my brother went through his...scheme...God, I can't even say his
name in the same sentence as "scheme." Ricardo??......But...as much
as he wanted this, this...payback...I know deep down in my heart he
didn't want us dead. It was Vonda…she put the disk in my pocket
when she hugged me. I practically let her do it because I
was wishing she was you, Gabi.....
Gabi: No, it's not your fault, OK?! I'm glad she did that.
It drove me crazy, it woke me up, Antonio…it made me see you
again….that I wanted you back. Ricardo wanted us to fall flat
on our faces?? To take everything away from us when he sent us
here?? Well you know what? We realized that all we need is
us, Antonio....
Antonio: I want you to know something, Gabi....if this was the
last thing I could ever tell you...today was the best day of my life,
every minute of it…I'd let Ricardo do this to us again in a heartbeat. I
wouldn't change a thing. Not even with you and my brother...if it
could lead to this day all over again....
Gabi: Antonio...I want you to know...even when I was with
him….waiting on him hand and foot while he was plotting this all
along.....deluding myself....wanting to love him the way I did before I
fell for you, Antonio....I never let you out of my heart.
Antonio: (sadly) I remember the night you said that to me like it
was yesterday.
Gabi: I knew how I felt about you. Guess we really kept
each other wondering, huh? We kept ourselves away. Ricardo didn’t
even have to lie to the airport guards today, Antonio. He didn't. He
told them we were prisoners....
Antonio: We were.
Gabi: We were.....
Their bound hands longing for each other, suddenly, a flashing
red light caught Antonio's sight in the room. It was behind some kind
of dust-covered crate or another, he couldn't see anything but that
little flicker of light….and spidery array of tiny colored wires.....his
heart caught in his throat.
Antonio: Gabi--Gabi we gotta get out of here now--
Gabi: What?? What's wrong, Antonio, tell me what's wrong!??!
Antonio: Don't worry, trust me, alright, I'm gonna get us out!
As if she was intuned to his thoughts, her eyes darted to the
haunting pulse of light.
Gabi: Oh God…it's a bomb!!!! A bomb!!! He left us here to
die...we've gotta get out of here, Antonio!! I'd don't think we're gonna
get out of this one alive! (struggling) OW! AughhH!!!
Antonio: Oh no! Don't hurt yourself, please, please…I'll try to get
my hands free and find something to break your handcuffs, OK? I'm
not gonna let anything happen to you again. We're not gonna die,
Gabi, we're not giving up like last time.
Gabi: (slyly)...So that's what the kids are calling it these days?? In
that case...I'd give anything to give up with you again, Antonio...
Amidst his struggle, he glanced at her with a stunned smile.
Antonio: You could make me smile in a shark pool, you know
that? You keep me going, Gabi...you always have....don't be
afraid.....
Gabi: (teary) Antonio.........I-I don't want to die here....but...what
if this it's the...the only way we can be together?...
Antonio: …No!! Don't say that, alright?? This isn't goodbye!! I
won't let this be some tragic romance, do you hear me?? I don't have
to die to give me life to you! Even if it means losing everything, Gabi,
everything--my family, my only shot at heaven, all I have--I
need you!!
Gabi: It's not fair...we have to end this way....it's just not fair!!
All we wanted....was to run off into the night, and make love, and fall
asleep in each other's arms...we wanted that so much, Antonio....but
the world gave us this ending.....
Antonio: You're my ending, Gabi....!
They pulled as far as they could from their pinned hands and
were only able to nuzzle their foreheads.....and couldn't close the
heated space between their lips, as hard as they tried. Reaching for
their lives....their futures....that were never to be.
Gabi: Dammit! I can't reach you! (softly enraged)I
can't reach you........
A single fiery tear slid down his face, a passioned
rage boiling inside him. To end like this...restrained from her love the
way he'd been living so long...it couldn't. A violent tensing of
his arms...a sudden sound struck them....his handcuffs breaking apart
at the links, the force crashing them wide-eyed into each others' kiss.
As their quivering lips parted, Antonio stared at his freed hands,
the broken cuffs swinging from his wrists.
Gabi: ...How did you do that??
Antonio: .....Magic.
He stumbled to his feet and searched the disheveled loft
frantically for something to break her handcuffs, and his eyes shot to
a dust-covered ax.
Gabi: How much time do we have left??
Antonio: I'd rather not know!
Gabi: Blind faith?
He brought the ax down on her bonds with all the strength he
could muster.
Antonio: Hey, don't insult my former profession...c'mon, c'mon!!!!
His second swing was her ticket to freedom, her new arms' first
destination, him. As she shot up to his embrace, she winced and
stumbled, dizzy, as he scooped her up in his arms and kissed her
forehead apprehensively.
Antonio: I gotcha... just hold on to me, I'm gonna find us a way
out of here. There's gotta be stairs....stairs....somewhere there has to
be---
He lunged for a dark doorway and found his footing lost,
steadying himself desperately as they found themselves staring into a
terrible drop.
Antonio: An elevator shaft...........
She'd know that "I've got a plan" look anywhere.
Gabi: Antonio, we can't!! It could be a 12-story fall!! We'll never
make it!!
Antonio: Yes we will. I can twist the chain on my handcuffs
around the cable and slide us down, and we're golden....
Gabi: Oh God...I'm so scared........Antonio.......?
Antonio: I'll never let you go.
He looped the dangling metal that hung from his wrist around the
flimsy cable and pulled it tight, looking to her with pain in his eyes,
and back to the pit.
Gabi: You never have.
Bracing her arms around him as securely as she could, they
disappeared into the narrow passage.
Falling faster and faster....all of a sudden, the explosion tore
apart the top floor as a terrible light strobed above, a quake, a bubble
of fire flashing at the top of the shaft...she heard a scream that
sounded like her own.........and the cable they coasted on snapped
violently.......grasping at nothing as they shot to their fates.
But he never let her go......he never let her go. II. Fear
A cluster of sparks and a
haze of smoke sank from the gutted eaves above to the bottom of the
elevator shaft, where they lay on the cold of the ground floor...the
broken door to the freedom of the streets not far away.
She stared straight up into the vertical blackness, her eyes
burning a little, a certain numbness in her shoulder now.....and a
smile sparking across her face.
Gabi:...We made it.....we made it, Antonio!! I knew it!!!!
A sudden crash of bliss as she moved...his whole body was
twisted beneath her...the way they were strangely entwined...the way
his arm lay motionlessly beneath the glint of her crimson dress....
......he had broken her fall.
Her brain reeled, as if through her sudden slip into the horrors of
dread, she could calculate exactly how far they had plunged into the
darkness when the cable snapped. Her hands filled with tremors, she
nudged him lovingly, a call to the beyond where the gentle body that
had absorbed the shock of her plummet to earth lay softly, unknowing
hero of her life.
Gabi: Antonio?.....Antonio????
Her heart pried its way into her clenched throat....the side of his
face that had already been dealt with a terrible blow was turned away
from her. God. Oh God. If he had struck the floor hard enough to...if
the force of her landing had caused him to...........
Gabi: (moving a strand of hair from her eyes) No...No..........!!!
A bursting inside. The way he lay there, a bit slanted away from
the sky's direction...as if in pieces....as if in death.
Gabi: Antonio??! Antonio...c'mon, c'mon...don't you let go on
me!! I know you can hear me, I know you can feel me!....
She wanted to believe her shaking words. But she couldn't feel a
trace of him....an emptiness, a hollowness as she gathered him in her
arms, turning him to her clouding eyes...holding him the way he
deserved to be held, so much....all those lonesome nights he spent in
the twisting shadows of the basilica.
Gabi: Hey, kid...look up at me...I'm right here...right beside you
now...I know you've got a sly little smirk hiding in there...c'mon...I
dare you....
Drops of water clinging to her lashes, her fingers, quivering blurs
of skin, careened down his cheeks to his mouth...she touched him like
a young woman with shorter hair once did, a woman who blindly
traced the contours of the face of the man she loved, searching for
her place there...wanting to know what he was like. She straightened
his tie and formed his still lips into a little smile, and it faded slowly
away, along with her hard-fought composure as she let go. A slow
honey of tears flowed from her squinched eyes as she held him
closer...
Gabi: No!!! Not like this...this is our happy
ending, Antonio....I'll help you...see, I-I can help you if you want.
This is the part where you'll look up at me, and say, "I always knew
you'd fall for me someday....."
...Right? And we'll both laugh like we were never scared, huh,
Antonio? And I'll look at you...like I'm seeing you for the first time,
very movie-like--and, and here's where it gets a little more dramatic--
and I'll...tell you that I love you, always will, no matter what,
and you'll say, "Hey, that's my line!" And laughing again...you'll
smile at me....you'll smile like you just woke up from a dream, you
will.....and you'll be so happy....and I won't...I won't feel like I lost a
part of me when I hold you....... and the end of our story...will never
be that you died in my arms.........!!!
Something broke in her then, the gates of a flood, a howl
muddied with water. She could never explain that one sudden
moment when a caustic sob just exploded from you. She had touched
moments like this before, maybe at her mother's grave, when you
heard your heart tearing at the reaches of your mouth, then were
forced to inhale it again with a sound like a knife piercing your lungs
like some rotted fruit. The deepest cry she had ever felt, his tired face
wet with the tears of the eyes he loved.
A flicker of gold light caught in her drowning eyes as she saw the
wedding ring on the cement floor. It must have flown off his finger.
She shut her eyes and almost heard the tiny ping that must have
echoed through the dark as Antonio's world went silent. She took the
ring in her tear-stained hands, and putting his knuckles to her lips for
a moment...slid it back to where it belonged...on the man that was
born, had lived and died....to cherish a woman.
And had vowed never to fall in love. Never.
Gabi: (whispers)...I'll miss you forever, Mr. Torres.........
As the ring reached its home, suddenly, like a
chain reaction, she felt a tightening around her hand, an astounding
sensation as she drew a startled breath, locking her eyes on her
hand.....that Antonio was squeezing intensely.
She followed the tender movement to its source, staring into
destiny's mirror, those living eyes...embracing her as if he had just
been born.
Antonio: I love you too.....Mrs. Torres.
A smile resurrecting from the falling water...in seconds, there was
no space between their lips..she took him softly with her hands and
sealed his mouth, fiercely...a long, sweet breath they shared together,
heavy with teardrops...each deepest movement of flesh a journey to
become each other. For no one on earth knew kisses like this... only
two souls who shared the same heart and still needed to be closer.
After what seemed like a long time, they drew gently from their
other world and rose up slowly, every motion causing a tender pain.
But how they wanted to ignore the fragileness of their bodies and
husk the torn clothes from the battered curves of their
beloved...further into the dream.
Antonio: Aggh....Gabi....I hope you don't mind if we save 'giving
up' until my ribs stop poking me from the inside.....
Gabi: (holding him gently) Easy, easy......just as a long as we
promise each other to heal fast....( teary laugh)
Antonio: (weak smile) Done. Is this 34th street?
Gabi: I don't know, why?
Antonio: 'Cause it's a hell of a miracle that we're gonna
walk out of here alive....
Gabi: The only way it should be...with nothing but us......
Antonio: And the 500 dollars in tip money I still have in
my corsage pocket....
Gabi: ...we....we can go home......
Home. The blank word hung in the air between them.
Antonio: ...Do we still have a home?
Gabi: ....We're already there....
Antonio: (glances around) Well, the place is a fixer-upper, that's
for sure. Definitely have to do something about that last step....
She burst into laughter, nuzzling into him gently.
Gabi: (softly)This is it. What's our ending going to be,
Antonio?......
Antonio: Don't worry, I assure you that this is my face and not a
mask.
Gabi: Actually, I was thinking of more of a Thelma and Louise
ending.
Antonio: Driving off a cliff? Is that your...final answer,
Gabi?
Gabi: No....but what if the FBI finds out that we escaped and
comes after us?
Antonio: Well...we couldn't put everyone back home in danger, or
run the risk of them finding out about our torrid secret. It's very
cinematic, if you think about it...........
Gabi: Then let's not get caught, Antonio......
........let's not get caught.
Exeunt the wounded survivors of a battle the stars had known the
outcome of since the beginning of time.
III. The
Calling
Light was prying at Maria's shut eyes...it
was almost morning. She was still in the same simple chair, and had
fallen asleep with her arms around her big brother in his wheelchair.
Ricardo, wearing a grim expression, slowly awakened, the
remnants of sleep-babble still fresh on his tongue.
Ricardo:......gab.....t....i'm sorry...have to believe...i'm
sorry....
Maria's eyes twisted with sadness as she regarded
this man who, despite his outer bravery, had always fallen to pieces
deep inside at the sight of anyone--especially his family--in harm's
way or pain. A memory embraced her of clinging to him one fateful
night in the Java Web. Who would've known......that angry boy staring
back at him with a mask and a gun was to become his own
reflection...
But that strange, vindictive clone of Ricardo had lost. Turned out
he was pretty lousy at this revenge thing after all....
A fact that was never in doubt.
Ricardo: ...Urrhhh...man, sis, what time is it?
Maria (sighs) It's about the time our phone vigil just crossed into
Saturday...
Ricardo: An' still not a trace of Mork & Mindy. Nothin'. Absolutely
nothin.' God dammi--aw, no....
The cordless was slumped across the floor from them...he could
hear it warbling obnoxiously off the hook. *PLEASE HANG UP. THIS IS
A RECORDING. THIS IS A RECORDING. HANG UP NOW...NOW......*
Scoffing in frustration, Ricardo wheeled to the sad corpse of the
phone and clicked it off.
Maria felt a sudden twinge of hope. Maybe it was an inherited
sense of premonition. Or irony. One or the other.
As if by fate, the phone began to ring in his astonished hand.
Ricardo looked at the phone as if his life was oozing out of the
tiny pinholes in the receiver. He slowly put it to his ear....knowing.
Knowing.
Ricardo: ...Hello??
*...Ricardo.
* It's Gabi.
Antonio and Gabi stood softly in the ER lobby of Gurich Hospital,
where the nursing of their injuries had run straight on 'till morning
amidst the bloody anguish of the city streets. After they were
bandaged like wrapped presents....they had paced about this bright
and scary place for a long time....contemplating. Withdrawal forms,
letters of resignation...it could all wait. But this couldn't.
She held on to Antonio as she twisted the phone cord that led to
her other life, feeling the slamming of his heart against his tender
ribs.
Ricardo: Gab???--Gabi? You--a-are you alright? And Antonio...
are... is he..are y'......
Maria picked up another phone in silence, as Ricardo, hearing
silence in his hand....knew it was as if he was calling out to someone
he'd pushed down a flight of stairs. The futility of comforting words.
Ricardo: Gabi listen to me...you know...I know you must
know what I....I made a horrible mistake, this hair-brained...I screwed
up, I know I--
Gabi: Ricardo...I called to say goodbye.
Ricardo: G--goobye, what--Gabi.....goodbye??
Gabi: And to thank you.
Ricardo: For what?!
Gabi: .....For giving me what I deserved.
Ricardo: .....gab, Gabi you listen to me, you an' T come
home....y'don't....I didn't want....I only....for God's sakes,
Gabi you're my WIFE--
Another silence, as her dark lashes became heavy with dew.
Ricardo: oh, OK, OK, point taken, guess I can't have my cake and
destroy it too, right?? But you must KNOW how I...why
I...I....nahh-heh, no, I understand. Guess y'chose your hero over the
villain, right? Is that what this "last laugh" thing's all about??? This
eloping, huh?? Accidental destiny?? You an' Antonio--
Gabi: Forgive you, Ricardo.
Ricardo: Forgive me. Me?!? I loved you
both...and you....you, said you......!
Gabi: You know?....I...I did, once. Maybe it was just yesterday
morning. Maybe it was a few hours ago. Only until I opened my
eyes.....
...but...I'll always remember the man you were, Ricardo.
The one I thought you were. Always...
A shudder zapped through the empty shell he'd been living
in...the man he had tried many a night to convince himself he was.
The empty shell of Ricardo Torres.
Ricardo: ....Dammit.....God...God I wish like hell I st-still--
please....just do one thing for me...one thing....
........remember him, Gab.....d-don't remember me as the guy
that sent ya' away...remember....the guy under the stars on the ship
and his goofy navy stories and...and the guy singin' along really bad
with the 'Stones...the guy with the loud ties and even louder mouth,
Gab. The one I blamed y'both for takin' away from me that was
m-my own damned undoing.......I killed him.....I killed him
myself...........!!
As tears streamed down her face from miles away....the wayward
detective's soul began to cry. A cry unlike the tears he'd held back for
his drowned sister beside him....a release of emotions inside that had
turned to dust. Two betrayers cried together.
Once the torrent ran dry...Ricardo regathered his thoughts...his
next request coming out with a certain amount of his token
casualness as he ran a hand across his hot eyes...as if they were
about to walk through the door at any minute.
Ricardo: C-could you please put Antonio on the phone bab--could
you, Gabi?....
Gabi: Of course.
Ricardo: I'll....I'll see y'around, kid....
Gabi: Goodbye, Ricardo.
Antonio held her quivering hand for a moment as she numbly
passed him the phone...a half smile breaking through her raging tears
as she realized that two brothers who loved each other were about to
speak.
As she wrapped her arms around him tightly, Antonio tried not to
show how much he was shaking.
Antonio: [Ricardo....]
Ricardo: [Antonio....]
That proverbial Mack-Truck-drivable silence.
Ricardo: *Ahem*...Maria's here too.
Maria knew. Antonio wasn't coming back. And at this point, it
really had little to do with Ricardo's revenge...and more to do with the
fact that he couldn't come back to this town beside the sea hand-in-
hand with the woman he loved. An exile of the heart.
She knew the next words that would be spoken between these
two men meant everything. Everything in the world. And that she
couldn't be a part of it...as much as it hurt her to her soul.
Maria: (wistfully) Hello, little brother. I, um..I think I'll let you
and Ricardo talk now. Remember, just remember....I love
you, Antonio. I'll love you forever. I'll always be with you...I was with
you every minute when I was gone...even when you were a complete
stranger to me, sweetheart...I loved you so much......
Antonio: I love you too, Maria......forever....forever.
Maria: (whispers) Goodbye.
Both brothers had to recompose themselves a little as their sister
hung up. Ricardo searched as far as he could to find something to
say...words of contempt....of "why," of "I'm sorry," "guess we're
even." "guess you got what you wanted." "Huh, T? Ain't that right,
T??!??"
But the words that came to the surface first would never be
forgotten.
Ricardo: So.........
......how 'bout them Yankees?
Antonio breathed a sudden sigh, a laugh like he'd never
experienced before....for part of him was still crying...part of him still
angry...part of him never more in love with a woman.
But his big brother made a funny. And that was all that mattered.
Antonio: Hey....you know I've always been an Angels fan.
Ricardo: Well...you just got benched for not walkin' the
walk...that's all.
Antonio:..........Ricardo?
Ricardo: Yeah?
Antonio: Why didn't you tell me you knew...I, I don't understand.
I don't know if I'll ever understand what your intentions were,
Ricardo...
Ricardo: Simple, I guess. To ease my pain. Rage. 'Cause I knew
she loved you. That was what I thought I could break. But it doesn't
look seem like the City O'Brimstone roughed ya' up too bad, does it....
Antonio: Well....except for the bus-hijacking, my high school
girlfriend's venture into espionage, the time-bomb....and two pretty
lousy hot dogs.
Ricardo: What? You've gotta be kidding me, man. New York has
the best hot dogs on earth!
Antonio almost fell over in laughter...this new laughter unlike the
nervous kind he'd known for so long.
Ricardo: Weird part is, I can actually believe you got into quite
the misadventures. (solemnly) But'uh...you kept her safe through all
that........didn't you.
Antonio: I love her. And...and that was the one thing I wish I
could've admitted to you. My God, that was the lie I lived,
Ricardo...not even just the fact that we....
Ricardo:--made love? Sad part is...I...know it ain't even a
euphemism to call it that. Maybe that wasn't the lie after all. Maybe it
was the only damn truth in all of this. Heh...guess that's just between
you and the man upstairs now. Kinda why the only boss in
my is life Springsteen, man.
Antonio: (smiles) I trust God to see me through the same way I
trust you.
Ricardo: Guess we gotta learn to trust each other again.
Maybe we will...maybe if y'come back someday.
Antonio: Yeah.
Ricardo: If anything...I-I'm sorry for that....sorry that
you couldn't come to me the day you fell in love like I always thought
y'would. Deep down I guess I didn't even think the cloth would stop
you. You've always loved that way. Completely. With your whole gut.
That was your real calling, T........she....she answered you.
Antonio: (heavy with emotion) Ricardo, everything you just
said...everything....you have to know that I love you the same way. I
love you, Ricardo.
Hesitation in the air.
Ricardo: ......Like a brother?
Antonio: No, no, you were so much more than that...you were a
brother and a father to me, Ricardo...
Ricardo: Makes me wonder why I'm not kickin' ya' senseless for
this fugitive bit. Oh yeah. Paraplegic. At least for now. Heh, sorry.
Y'know I had to throw that one in for prosperity...
Antonio: You'll walk again...I know you will.....
Ricardo: You'll be there with me when I do...even though you
can't be here, T. She needs you more than I do right now. This is a
new beginning for her...it's...it's the first time in her life she ain't livin'
in fear...right?.....Share that with her, celebrate it like it's her damned
birthday....watch her let go o'the handlebars, Antonio. You gave that
back to her. Keep her that way. No shadows, no fear. Promise me,
T...........para siempre....
The soft sound of Spanish from Ricardo's lips and Antonio lost it
fully this time, two words and they were children in the back of a
station wagon, sticky hands wrestling over the plastic General Lee,
Luke Duke's dismembered torso dangling out the window as they
rounded the corner to the little brick house.."Ninos,
ninos...no fighting, promise me, para
siempre"....
Pop always said that when he was alive.
Gabi buried her face in his neck, stroking his hair as his whole
body trembled with tears.
Antonio: Para siempre, hermano...no shadows, no fear. I
promise....
Ricardo: An'...an' one more thing...
....I love you, Antonio....
Antonio: I love you too, Ricardo. Goodbye......
The phone sank back into place....as if the sun was setting.
Ricardo dropped the phone and buried his face in his hands, Maria
falling to him amidst the storm in her eyes that had already begun.
They rocked in each other's arms, two souls alone in the world. But a
mischievous-eyed little boy that had grown into a wonderful man was
somewhere.....somewhere happy.....
And as Ricardo's mind fell into another memory...he was there,
standing with Antonio, two tuxes side by side.
"T, I'm tellin' ya. We're gonna be in Ben's shoes someday.
We're gonna stare down that aisle and see our ladies lookin' at us like
we're the whole world."
"I...I don't think anyone will ever feel that way about
me, Ricardo..."
"Hey....there's someone out there who does. She just doesn't
know it yet......................................"
The woman who finally knew kissed his salt-covered cheek, as he
wiped a stray tear away from her chin and pressed his lips to hers.
It was hard to say goodbye. But they'd get through it in each
others' warmth.
They'd said many goodbyes, really. Farewell to their own hearts,
beating in him, in her, as they shuffled hastily away.
Two people condemned to darting eyes and idle chatter about
nothing leave arm in arm. IV.
Consummation
Somewhere in America. It
could just as easily be a tiny coastal town as New York City. Maybe
Kenosha, Wisconsin. Or someplace tropical.
Forgive writer for obscure epilogue.
All that matters is the lovers, not the place on earth or in the
trivial confines of time.
They make love for the first time since the last time. Only now,
it's thousands of miles away from eulogies, goodbyes...it never has to
end. It's life...in its deepest expression.
They have known what love like this is like since they were born
as half-gelled ghosts in shells, never complete until they met.
Maybe I should get to that long-awaited completion.
Her guardian angel becomes her embracing servant. Her every
move is his blushing awe, her every silent wish...his command. He
adores her like the tireless movement of the ocean...he can spark a
fire on skin, taste exhilarated breath, all while falling towards the
stars. Locked in kisses that couldn't be breached if the blur of a
freight train shocked the room, heavy glances amidst the entwining of
souls that cause a blinding light. The rippling of his sinews as he
takes her closer in his arms......crescendo....crashing from the
summit...stunned by the edge they've fallen over...the distance
forever sealed...that one trembling, glistening kiss without words,
repeating itself.
And laughter, of course. An essential part of any marriage.
He puts his shaking lips to her gold-laced hand.
Anyplace...any city....their love moves them in electric currents.
One heart charges them both. The city sleeps, but they never
do.........perchance to be apart.
The End
