Prudie
clapped her wings together. Everything
was going just as planned. The seed had
been planted. Now all she had to do was
let nature take its course, nature in the guise of a pair of amorous rabbits
and two people who had never stopped loving each other.
#
"Why
did you do it, Danny?" Greg asked.
Danny
studied the toes of his sneakers.
"I wanted the mommy and daddy rabbits to be together Families should be together at
Christmas." He said the last
defiantly.
Greg
slanted a glance at Sara as he slipped an arm around his son's shoulders. "You know your mom and I both love you,
right?"
"How
come we can't still be a family?"
The plaintive note in his son's voice tore at Greg's heart.
He
saw the pain in Sara's eyes, a pain he knew that was reflected in his own. "Just because your mom and I decided we
couldn't live together anymore doesn't mean we don't love you."
"But
I love you both."
"I
know." Greg swatted Danny on the
bottom. "Now scoot. Your mom and I need to talk.
"I'll
try to spend more time with him," Greg said once Danny was out of the
room. "He's getting older. He needs a man around more." Immediately, he knew he'd said the wrong
thing for Sara bristled. "I didn't
mean that you're not great with him.
You're the best mother a kid could have."
She
must have sensed his sincerity for she smiled faintly. "Thanks.
I have to admit to feeling pretty inadequate lately."
"Hey,
it's not your fault. Kids act up
sometimes." Something he didn't
care to define happened as he closed his hand around hers. A jolt of pleasure. A sense of rightness. "Uh ... would you like to have dinner
together tonight? We could get a sitter
and talk about this some more."
She
hesitated.
"Please,"
he added.
"All
right."
Dinner
the following night was all that he'd hoped for. Sara had him laughing as she described her
latest problem with her characters who refused to go along with her plot.
"They
won't cooperate when I tell them what to do," she said with a roll of her
eyes.
"Sort
of like kids, huh?"
She
grinned. "Yeah. Sort of like kids."
It
was almost like old times. For a moment,
he forgot the separation, forgot Danny's problems, forgot his dissatisfaction
with work. All he could think of was
Sara and how beautiful she looked as the candlelight bathed her face in its
soft glow.
She'd
been barely eighteen when they met at Denver
University
Idealism
and youth, a heady combination, had lead to love. It hadn't mattered that they'd had little
else. Love had been enough. Love and the arrogance of youth that believed
nothing else mattered.
Where
had they gone wrong?
He
knew where to place the blame. Squarely
on his own shoulders. Too much work, too
little sharing of his thoughts and feelings had driven Sara from him.
Outside
the house, the house they'd once shared, he brushed his lips against hers. Sara melted against him before jerking away,
eyes wide with unasked questions as she stared up at him.
"Sorry,"
he muttered. "I didn't mean--"
"It's
all right," she whispered. "We
both got pretty carried away."
"Yeah." He stepped back, needing to put some distance
between them. "I'll call you
tomorrow."
"I'd
like that."
Back
in his apartment, he yanked off his tie and undid the buttons on his
shirt. Being with Sara tonight had
awakened a host of memories.
Deliberately, he recalled the
divorce papers folded neatly in his drawer.
Nothing
in them gave him the right to kiss her.
Nothing in them gave him the right to touch her. Nothing in them gave him the right to care
about her. Nothing in them gave him any
rights at all, except the one that they couldn't take away--the right to love
her.
#
Fat
tears rolled down Prudie's cheeks. She'd
been so certain that when Greg kissed Sara, they'd know they belonged together.
Sister
Endurance wrapped a wing around Prudie.
"Don't cry, my dear. You'll
tarnish your wings."
Prudie
looked at the tip of her right wing. It
did look slightly rusty. "I thought
..." she gulped back a sob
"... that they would see how much they need each other, how much
Danny needs them to be together."
"In
heaven all things are clear," Sister Endurance said. "Earth clouds the vision. You must help them find their way through the
fog."
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