The Love of Their Lives

The Love of Their Lives is a story about the man who has to learn to live on after losing someone who is dear to him.



A tear escapes its duct and travels down a wrinkled path before quickly disappearing falling victim to a sniffle. The striking blue eyes that produced the short-lived tear belong to an old man who sits vigilantly over an old woman on her death bed.

"I'll never forget the day you proposed to me", she strains to retell. "Fifty-seven years ago when men were gentlemen and woman were ladies", she continues to tell the story that has become embellished with each retelling.

"Don't...", he says in hopes that the conservation of her energy will prolong his time with her.

"You were very handsome then."

As she reaches up to caress his worn face, he meets her hands with his own and holds them on his tear stained cheek, caressing and kissing her palm while she continues.

"I remember when you came calling..." She pauses to catch her breath, each shallower than the last.

"... I remember thinking, 'I hope he's not here for one of my sisters'." She laughs a laugh that's little more than a strained smile and a short gust of air followed by a weak cough.

She closes her eyes for a moment causing the old man to hold his breath fearing the inevitable has happened.

"And to my surprise, you wanted to see me." She opens her eyes to find her husband laughing a mourner's laugh, the kind you make when recalling a pleasant incident of someone long gone, a laugh of both pleasure and pain, but mostly of pain.

"Are you glad that you married me, instead of one of my sisters?"

He opens his mouth to answer but is cut off by more of her deathbed ramblings.

"You're the only man I ever loved. You were the love of my life."

To which the man's only answer is to close his gaping mouth.

_____

The room is dark as is the mood. The old woman is still, her story told for the last time. The old man sobs uncontrollably over her, his head buried in her chest.

The light in the room encircles them and slowly dims into blackness.

_____

The beauty of the sun in a cloudless sky, the fresh sent of spring flowers and the songs of the birds in the trees that shade the graveside where the old man, dressed in black, stands alone is in stark contrast to the blackness and bleakness he sees in his world.

Consumed with loss, the old man stands with hat in hand over the fresh dirt of a grave reading the tombstone over and over again. "To my beloved wife and dear friend. I will miss you all of my days", he says in an almost imperceptible whisper.

This new grave is the very last grave in a long line of graves that stretches out into the horizon where a large man walks toward the old man. The large man arrives at the old man's side and stops to pay his respects.

They both stand quietly for a while when the large man breaks the silence.

"I'm sorry I couldn't make the funeral." He pauses expecting the old man to speak but continues when he doesn't.

"After while. It just gets harder and harder."

The old man gives an abbreviated nod.

"And with my wife getting up their... in age..."

The old man interrupts. "Loss is part of this life... There is nothing we can do about it... And we'll never get used to it."

The large man turns to his friend with the intention of speaking but instead chooses to silently agree.

_____

The old man sits alone in pajamas he's worn for days in a dark living room lit only be the dim bulb of old lamp. A large, ornate, corked bottle of a blue liquid sits on the coffee table.

The voice of the large man calls from just outside the front door. "Hello?" He pushes the front door and calls again with a tinge of concern, "Hello?"

The old man, his beard weeks old and his hair fit for nesting rats, sits silently as the large man enters.

"For a minute there...", his friend confesses.

"Yeah, I want to talk to you about that."

_____

The large man nurses his drink as the old man gulps another of a long line of shots. The old man pours himself another and sits looking at the reflection of the lamp in his glass. The ornate bottle of blue liquid sits untouched.

The large man raises his glass to his lips and stops just short of drinking when the old man finally breaks his silence.

"Time is both precious and cruel."

He moves his glass in a circular motion causing the liquid to swirl.

"It is both abundant and scarce."

He takes a small sip.

"Without it we have nothing."

Another sip.

"But even with it..."

A gulp.

"We wind up with nothing."

He turns to his friend who sits quietly observing his friend's mourning.

"I want you to help me with something", the old man says finally looking away from his glass.

"That's why I'm here. The mourning period is over."

"It's never over."

"You know as well as I know, you're gonna feel a lot better when..."

"I don't want to feel better."

He looks the large man straight in the eyes. "I don't want to feel... at all", which his punctuates by producing a bottle of pills.

"What about your son?"

The old man pours himself what looks to be his final drink.

"He has his life. However, short it may be."

The large man gets up, grabs the old man's glass and tosses its contents on the floor. He then reaches for the ornate bottle of blue, pulls the cork with his teeth and pours a small amount into the old man's glass.

"Drink this."

The old man's eyes cross to focus on the glass.

"If after this..." He gestures to the pills. "...you still want to take those, be my guest."

_____

A young man stands holding a bouquet of flowers in front of a grave that's second to the last in a long line of graves. He gently lays them on the grave among the newly sprouting grass that is just beginning to cover the grave.

The gravestone reads "To my beloved wife and dear friend. I will miss you all of my days".

The young man looks to his right at the fresh grave where no grasses have sprouted yet. It's gravestone reads "To a loving husband and father".

The young man turns and leaves walking along the row of graves each one alternating between a gravestone that is marked to a beloved wife and beloved husband. And on each gravestone marked to a beloved wife is the exact same bouquet of flowers that the young man laid upon the old woman's grave.

_____

The darkness is abruptly extinguished by the lighting of a naked bulb that hangs from a chain. In the illuminated darkness, the young man holds a picture of the old woman.

A large cardboard box is opened revealing many other pictures of old women. The young man kiss the old woman's picture and places it among the others.

The large man steps into the light just over the young man's shoulders. The young man looks up and stares off into the dark space.

"They were the loves of my life and I was theirs."

The large man puts his hand on the young man's shoulder. "And now it's time to find someone else to grow old with."

"Life goes on."

"And on."