“I saw wild, dangerous beauty. I saw devotion. I saw you.” Nalini Singh
I come awake slowly in the early hours of a new day. It's still dark outside and only a nightlight breaks through the shadows in my bedroom. The dream is still with me. It was so real. So very real.
I sit up in the bed. The room is a little cool, the way I like it when I sleep, but I don't miss the warmth of the comforter as it pools around my lap. A yawn escapes me as I sit here, then I become aware of the anticipation that is filling me.
I remember the dream. I remember seeing him. My Johnny. My love. Gone now these three and a half years with only letters, a rare phone call, and my occasional visit to close the far distance between us. I saw him laughing freely in the dappled sunlight that surrounds our house in the woods. How the light shimmered across his flowing dark hair. How his dark eyes sparkled with happiness, and glowed with his love for me. In his hand was a spatula as the smoke from the grilling burgers wafted around him. I can still hear his voice and the sizzle of the grease as it fell upon the flames.
Next, I saw him learning over me as we laid upon our bed. His eyes were slumberous with desire as he murmured his love. I can still feel the weight of his body and the touch of his hand upon my breast. Hear my breathy moan as he leaned down and kissed me, gently at first then with growing demand.
He is so here with me in these predawn hours and I ache as I shift restlessly. Sometimes I resent the very things I love most about him that have kept us apart. He is a gentle man of noble principles. A man unwilling to sacrifice those principles even in the face of imprisonment. His only crime had been the organization of a peaceful demonstration for his people's rights. Many had spoke of his efforts to keep the gathering nonviolent as the chaos ensued. But it had been the few who spoke against him, swearing that he incited the mayhem that caused the injury to three police officers, that had sent him to prison. He had stubbornly refused to name the guilty and rejected the prosecutor's offer of a plea bargain. I had watched him be led away, shackled like a violent criminal, with his head held high and his eyes steady with inner conviction. Even in my despair I had felt such pride in him.
Now I await word of his release, eager to have him home again with me. Prison breaks the spirit of many who go there, but not my Johnny. With his strength of character he has never lost his sense of purpose or the support of the community he serves. He is still the man I love, the warrior I admire above all.
I hear a sound outside. The crunching of gravel and the rumble of a large engine. There is a flash of light across the curtained window as I climb from the bed. Donning my robe as I hurry through the house I hear the squeak of brakes then the slamming of a truck door. Just as I reach the living room I see the silhouette of a man in the frosted glass of the tall, narrow windows alongside the door, then the sound of a knock greets me as I switch on the porch light.
I am not afraid as I open the door for I realize my heart had told me with the dream that he was coming. My joy knows no bounds when I see his wide smile and I launch myself, laughing, into his arms. Feeling them close tightly about me I savor his unique essence and I feel peace settle within me. All is once again right with my world. He is with me. My Johnny is home.
What a wonderful ending to a wonderful dream. And so apropos for our time with people being accused for something they did not do.
I have only two concerns: first, it seems like a contradiction saying Johnny had eyes that were, "slumberous with desire." And, the idea that he would get through three years in prison unscathed.
A friend of mine whose common law husband was unfairly given 20 years mandatory for killing a woman who bled to death after his liposuction surgery to her arms in her home working as an unlicensed plastic surgeon on a tourist visa. While in prison he was helping others with their legal papers. Remaining a good guy. He was caught in the bathroom, beaten and raped… With his teeth knocked out.
I come awake slowly in the early hours of a new day. It's still dark outside and only a nightlight breaks through the shadows in my bedroom. The dream is still with me. It was so real. So very real.
