|
The service at the restaurant was not the greatest. There was only one waiter, probably the owner. But who cared? Who needs speedy waiters in times like these? We didn't. The place was an oasis for us, in which there was no talk about war. There was only music in the air that spoke of love, a flow of gentle melodies for and by a gentle people, the native Hawaiians.
"We are on a holiday," I said to her. "We are on a holiday of the kind I had dreamed about at the beach. We are on a holiday of love, filled with the most precious romance."
She nodded.
We smiled at each other across the table, often in silence. I wanted to tell her how much I appreciated the privilege of being with her. I wanted to say to her; I love you! I love you! I love you! But those words were not needed. They would have spoiled everything. There was no need to tell with words what our eyes said much better.
The gentle silence in these moments was filled with a symphony of communication, heart to heart, soul to soul. When words intruded the scene, they were anticlimactic.
"I knew that you have always loved me," she broke the silence. "You have loved me from the moment we met, as you said earlier. I had seen it in your eyes. You had loved me as no other man ever did, including Frank. I believe you even loved me in a way you never loved Melanie, or ever could, because in spite of her loveliness she also represented a barrier for you against other women. There had never been such a barrier between us. That made our love richer. I only hope that some day we can dissolve this barrier that Melanie had given herself to become, so that your embrace in love will be as rich as ours is."
She paused for a moment. "Except, why had I always felt so embarrassed for loving you? Why could I never allow myself to acknowledge my love for you openly, and to acknowledge our love? Would Frank have stood in the way? I always assumed he would have, without giving him a chance to defend himself against this indictment? I shouldn't have been that cruel to you and unjust to him."
I tried to answer, but she hushed me. "I don't think an answer can ever be found," she said. "It belongs to the past and the past is no more."
While we chose the desert, it struck me that I hadn't realized since we left Vancouver, how charmingly she was dressed. She wore the same black velvet dress and jacket that I had seen many times, that blended beautifully with her hair and her complexion. Perhaps her appearance hadn't had the same meaning before. I was lost for words, suddenly, to pay proper homage to her. I could only wonder why it had taken me thirty-six hours to notice what now was so overwhelming. I put together some phrases of flattery about her fine appearance, but they missed the mark by a long way. I finally invited her for a dance to the soft music that pervaded the place, a dance between the courses of our meal.
She began to grin when we sat down and I thanked her most cordially. She replied to me with that same smile on her face that I had cherished from the moment that I saw her that day at the summit of Milner Pass. "You're quite handsome yourself, Captain!" she said in the most romantic tone of voice as we became seated again.
Our dessert consisted of a giant orange, expertly peeled at the table, sliced, served on a bed of sherbet, and topped with a creamy sweet sauce that I had never tasted before. Perhaps it tasted so great because of the mood I was in. Perhaps the simplest, sloppiest pudding might have tasted just like that, as we gently stared at one another. I was glad we were quite alone in the restaurant. I had experienced something that day that I had never experienced before, a touch of life that I had virtually forced myself to ignore in the past, as much as the whole world had done, so it seemed.
Next Page
|| - page index -
|| - chapter index -
|| - Exit -
||
|
