PURRRRFECT LOVE
PURRRRFECT LOVE
I first met
her when I started college, right from the start she stood out from the
rest of the crowd, her black hair that seemed to shine. Her green
eyes that could sparkle and shine one moment and then, like the weather of her Scottish
homeland, change in an instant to be full of storms and lightning. But
mostly it was her pure presence, her grace, the almost feline way she used
to walk. Though her name was Kirsty, she soon got the name of Cleo
from her beauty and cat like presence. We spent a
lot of time together, but I was just one of the people who tried to share
their life with Cleo. Men were like bees around a honey pot with her, she
always had them queuing to be with her. Some ended with smiles like a cat
who has had the cream; others found that the cat had claws and came away
with a different point of view. But all the
time she was there, her green eyes flashing, and her beauty out-shining
the stars in the sky. I spent some time with her, but knew I could never
be one of the chosen ones. Perhaps because of that we became friends and
spent more time just talking about things, and being there for each other
when milk got spilt, and hearts got broken. One thing about
Cleo was her appetite for adventure. Each year she came back from her
travels with some new adventure, some new happening, and normally a new
scar to add to the few that already marked her from her travels during
her year off from college.
She had been bitten by a snake in Africa and had only just made it to the missionary’s
medical center to get some antidote. She had been surfing off the coast
of Australia when a shark had attacked the person surfing next to her.
After the first summer
at college she came back telling tales of her travels across America and how she got caught up in a robbery at a bank in some small
town. Gunfire had filled the air, a bullet snatching her earring from
her ear and leaving a scar across her lobe. She talked to me after about
the trip and I spent many an hour listening to her paint the pictures with
her soft Scottish burr. And so it went
on, each year something different each summer another adventure for her.
I remember
our graduation, and the way she looked at the ball afterwards, wearing,
well almost wearing a dress as black as her shining hair. She was queen
that night, and men came to pay homage to her. I will never forget though
she made sure that I had at least one dance with her. After college
we went our separate ways, Cleo and I. We passed the odd letter, and hearing
that her life had not changed. Several times in her adventures. I found myself
thinking how lucky she had been, and how close she had been to death. A
ship sank under her in the Greek Islands, she got caught up in a terrorist
attack in the far East. Then one day
we met, quite by chance, I knew as soon as I saw a dark-haired beauty
glide into the room, that it was she. Her hair was still black and shining,
her face now tanned, and her eyes lit the room. The grace, the poise, oh
yes it was her. She caught me looking at her, and a smile lit her face
when she recognized me. We sat there for hours, telling each other of our
lives, feeling at home with each other like we were still at college. I
loved hearing her talk of her adventures. It seemed several more times
for her there had been a brush with death, but she smiled. “After all”
she said “she was a cat and had nine lives”. We arranged to meet again the
following day. That night
the comment about the nine lives kept going around my head. I counted the stories,
the near misses so to speak, and realized that she had used eight of her nine
lives. The rest of the night I could not sleep. The next day
I had met her, and being a non-workday had been with her all day. That was the
start of our relationship, we went out as a couple, soon becomins lover. Then she
moved in with me, and we became “us”. Now though,
the ninth life was there, the last life. This time though that life would be
wrapped in my protecting arms. I knew like a cat she would need her time
alone, and need her space. But I would be there waiting for her, knowing
she was mine at the end of the day. Giving her all the love I had. The knot that
was tied on that day of our wedding would keep her safe, this may be her final life,
but it was also a new beginning for the both of us.
YOU ARE THE
