His Face
Kimberly Bauer waited in a cold, grey room, still shocked. She waited to see the face that she had forgotten over the year when she believed it to be buried in the ground. Kim closed her eyes and tried to picture her father's deep blue eyes for the first time since she had been told of his death. She couldn't do it. It had hurt too much to think of him when she thought that he was dead, and in those twelve months the face had disappeared from her mind.
The door opened. Kim turned around to see the face that she believed she would never see again. It all rushed back to her, like the waves she used to see crashing down near her home by the beach.
She studied his mouth. It was the same mouth that had comforted her, helped her through the time when her mother had died. It was the mouth that had sung off-key that song to her every night in her childhood as her father tucked her in to bed. It was the mouth that had been used so many times to tell her that he loved her.
She then looked at his ears. Those ears had listened so many times as she poured out her soul to the only one that she ever told so many things to. Her father had always been the only one that ever completely understood her, the only one that she really truly connected with. Those ears had listened without judgment, given her someone to confide in completely.
She then saw his nose. Her nose. It was the facial feature that they had always shared; the cause of the comment so often made when she was a baby: "Oh, and look at that….She's got her father's nose." They didn't know then how many other things they had in common, how many other non-physical traits they shared. Kim and her father were alike in many ways.
Kim lifted her head to look into his eyes. The deep blue eyes held so much emotion. She had learned to read her father using them; they really were the windows to his soul. She could see what he was feeling now: there was that fleck of happiness, of course, at seeing her after so long. She could also see the sadness that came from doing the terrible thing that it was to deceive her and let her believe that his heart no longer beat. She could see that he was hopeful, hopeful that she would embrace him and love him again like she always had.
Kim took a deep breath. It was all too much. In just looking at his face, the love that she had for him came back as strong as ever. But now, she understood that he could really be gone at any second. She feared loving again, and losing again. That was why she was currently with a man that she cared nothing for. If he left, she would be protected from pain.
So Kim fled from her father. She loved him so much, but just couldn't bear the thought of going through what she had again when he disappeared. She turned away from those eyes, the eyes that she could read so easily. She turned away with the image fresh in her mind.
It hurt Kim so much to look away, and there was a clear reason for it. He showed her with his eyes the one thing that he felt most towards her, more than the happiness, sadness, or hope. He told her with his eyes what he feared to say again: I love you.
And, as Kimberly left him standing there, hurting and longing for her, she looked back one more time, and told him. She used the eyes that had been her Mother's to tell him what he wanted to hear most: I love you too.
And then, she turned and left, away from pain, away from sorrow. And away from love.