Contest

She walked slowly. Shelf after shelf. Although it was stuffed with “young love” that bloomed throughout the centuries, heck, millennia. But not all of them were all that young. Some started in the Spring only to last so many Seasons that all was worn down to resemble that first blossom of love. Sixteen and fifteen in their hearts, even though they were closing in on Ninety if you bothered to count the actual years.

She stopped. Pulled out a Spring Day…she read the date:

12 September 1968.

Then the names: “Deb/Kev”

Then the place:

Ohio, Suburb, Under a wall phone.

Then the time:

10 PM. The time he had to leave her house and walk home. Her parents had gone to “Bed.” Just a few minutes earlier. Giving the young folks… a few minutes. But they were listening, and a few minutes is all they would get.

She put her arms behind her back. Looked up at him, open, trusting, hopeful.
Both their eyes widened…and then shut. Lips softer than marshmallow foam, sweeter than fresh strawberries met. It was their first kiss…and a love bloomed.

She smiled.

She put it back in its place. What happened later was a different season in life. Maybe it ended up stuck in the transition of fall, or burned out in the super hot skin flesh of Summer. Or maybe…it ended in the cold beauty of a Winter’s death. She didn’t care. She had more to look at.

She stopped and pulled out another Spring day, but technically February doesn’t have any Spring days. But that is only technical. If it is young, fresh, vibrant, and growing…it is Spring. That’s just the way it is. You can stuff your technicalities in some gray overcast day where wimpy is the best you can hope for.

She read the date.

22 February 1979

Then the names: Kathy/Kevin

Then the place.

Austin, Texas…in a kitchen

Then the time:

10 PM. Her curfew. She was a mission for her church. Her female companion and the young girl had to be back to their apartment by 10:15 PM. And like those parents on a different Spring Day…her companion found a way to give her a few minutes alone with…him.

They held hands. Hey leaned in so close that two hearts heard each other and beat out the same rhythm. The didn’t kiss physically, that was against the rules of her Mission. But they got close enough for their breath to pass along the message.

There were no words. None were necessary. A rose bloomed instantly, perfuming the whole room with color and scent. She smiled as she plucked the rose and placed it as a marker in that particular Spring day.

She grew curious …and followed up on; “Kathy/Kevin.”

Sure enough. She found the date:

26 March 2035.

Then the names (again):

Kathy/ Kevin.

Then the place:

A small home in a Coastal Town in the South.

Bedroom.

Then the Time:

10 PM.

He had just tucked her in. He smoothed out the sheets, and pulled a little bit of the blanket up to her neck. She smiled with her eyes closed. He leaned over and gave her a soft peck on her cheek. Her smile grew bigger, younger, fresher. A Spring smile.
She whispered back.

“I love you, too.”

He patted her leg as he walked back around to his side of the bed.

She smiled a bigger smile and slide that day back on the Shelf.

A thought passed through her head as she looked for the next Spring day.

“That couple will always bloom …for their love has sprung as Spring eternal.”

And so Mother Nature walked on, humming a soft song of birds, bees, and butterfly wings. Spring is so nice.