XXXV

I: Without knowing how, or when, or from where

Conrad had a rule: he didn't like, much less date, "frivolous" women. He didn't like their bleary, overly sentimental talk, the way they fussed too much over mundane things, their sugary, seemingly boundless enthusiasm.

He met Clarissa, and he forgot.

She was everything he wasn't looking for, and everything he'd ever needed.


II: Simply, without problems or pride

"I'm seeing someone," she protested, frightened by his ardor.

He didn't blink. "It doesn't matter. I'm going to take you away from him."


III: I don't know any other way

He brought her flowers one day.

"But you said you don't buy flowers," she remarked, puzzled.

"I don't," he replied. "I climbed over the wall to your neighbor's yard to get them."


IV. But this, in which there is no I or you

When he proposed to Clarissa, Conrad went down on one knee. He reluctantly acquiesced to courtly tradition because he thought it would please her.

To his consternation she giggled. "Are you serious?"

"Yes, damn it!"

"Well, stand up then."

"What?"

She pulled him to his feet."If you're going to propose to me, you better do it with both feet under you. Now. Ask me again."

Courtly traditions be damned. "You will or you won't?"

Clarissa cradled his face in her hands. "I will marry you, Conrad Lee."


V: That your hand upon my chest is my hand

They emerged from the church amidst a shower of rice and roses.

She grabbed his hand. "Did I say it? Did I say "I do"?" I was so nervous--"

He made a move to pull her back into the church."You're welcome to say it again if you like."

"I DO!" She shouted joyfully atop the church steps, then kissed him loudly on the lips, to the astonishment of all present.


VI: That when I fall asleep it is your eyes that close

She gave him a card every year of their marriage. The cards themselves were nothing special, he said. It was the way she signed them that made his heart beat a little faster each time he read:

There's never going to be enough time with you.

She wrote it every time.






For Papa and Mama, on their 35th wedding anniversary

Love Sonnet XVII by Pablo Neruda is their favorite poem