Thursday, April 15, 2004
http://www.afn.co.kr/archives/readings/laurel.htmShe came slowly down the steps and peered into his face.
"Why," she said, "you're crying."
He looked at her eyes which were almost as wet as his. "Another fine mess you've got us in," he said.
"Oh, Ollie," she said.
"Oh, Stan," he said.
He kissed her, gently.
And then he said: "Are we going to know each other forever?"
"Forever," she said.
....
And during that year they went up and down those long piano steps at least once a month and had champagne picnics halfway up, and discovered an incredible thing.
"I think it's our mouths," he said. "Until I met you, I never knew I had a mouth. Yours is the most amazing in the world, and it makes me feel as if mine were amazing, too. Were you ever really kissed before I kissed you?"
"Never!"
"Nor was I. To have lived this long and not known mouths."
"Dear mouth," she said, "shut up and kiss."
....
"Dad," said the other daughter, leaning in to peer at his face. "You're crying."
"No."
"Yes, you are. Isn't he, Mom?"
"Your papa," said his wife, "as you well know, cries over telephone books."
"No," he said. "just 131 steps and a piano. Remind me to show you girls, someday."
Even when I was nine and reading this in Reader's Digest I hated to see Stan go, Ollie letting her...and each time I allowed myself the petulant heart-pull of reading it again (the pull being strong enough to make the 'agains' a grand total of five in the eleven years since the first reading), still hoped the door would never open.
Mina at 8:46 AM
