I Never Left...

“Dear Arianne,

 I’d like to write you a note. I’m in the biggest breakdown of my life right now. That whore karma has made her way around and has just bitch slapped me across the face.

I can’t get emotional right now after this realization.It’s actual when they revealed to me, in the kingdom of devotion there is no challenge; no possessiveness and no control. The more adoration you give, the more love you get. I didn’t pay attention to this and now, life is agonizing. It has thistles, akin to the stem of a rose…”

He was at the end of his life.

A life full of broken relationships, success, waste, sex, and a lot of pain.

The hospital bed he was lying down in was small and uncomfortable. His view was everything at a distance and his room, was cold, impersonal and peculiar.

No one showed up. Not the fine women he had entertained and had one-night stands with, not the two wives he had wed, had children with, and lost.

Not his rich friends who sent flowers and concise notes on “Get Well Soon Cards.”

No, there was no one. Not a soul came to visit him.

But then he recalled her... 

He picked up her face from a memory. Arianne. A face that was no doubt much different from the one he had filed away so long ago. She loved him. And he had always kept her with him, but life got in the way, as did his indulgent appetite for different women. And little by little he lost her too, until the last thing he saw was her waving that one final, sad adieu.

Or did he lose her?

He summoned a nurse and gave her the note, an address, and a new number to call. But still no one came and darkness fell, and so too did his spirits.

He was dying, and he didn’t want to die alone.

And as he lay there glaring at the wall as shadows made their movement, he heard another. 

His door opened, and he saw an elderly woman’s form standing in the doorway. She paused there, letting his eyes adjust, before she turned the lights on.

She walked in when everyone else had walked out. She was before him, like he had thought she would be. She was grayer now, and slower. But he knew her.

She walked over to him and he saw that age burdened her movements. She was less graceful than he had remembered, but he couldn’t imagine her ever looking lovelier. She went right up to him and smoothed out his hair before leaning down to kiss him on his forehead.

“Well now. It’s okay. You are not alone.”

He started to break down, and she smiled down at him, seeing him for what he was, but loving him anyway. She turned away, walked over to the sink and drew up a washcloth. He heard the water hit the sink. She shuffled back to him and washed away his tears.

“We burned through so much time you and I,” he deplored.

“No honey,” she soothed. “We’re together now and I will not leave you.”

“The end is near,” he said with regret.

He reached for her hand and the warmth of hers gave comfort to his.

“Don’t be afraid,” she said tenderly. “Endings are just the beginning.”

“You’ll stay with me then?”

“I never left...”