Ever After-glow
Caleb came back in the room, ever so softly closing the door behind him so that it wouldn't make any sound. He rubbed his palms up and down his bare legs. It was a cold night but he didn't want to put any clothes on. Not this night. All he wanted to do was crawl back under the covers with his beautiful wife and go back to sleep. He stepped lightly across the floor and went around to his side of the bed. However, he paused before getting in.
There was a full moon that night and it shone right through the bedroom window opposite their bed and almost directly spotlighted the sleeping figure on it. In Caleb's eyes, the moonlight made his love only more beautiful. It's almost soft blue light made her messed up hair shine like gold and her moist skin look like fine porcelain.
She made an incoherent sound and rolled over a bit opposite his direction so that he was looking at her bare back. The sheets were at her thighs and he could see the turquoise silk scarf around her waist. It was a Meridian tradition that brides wear such a garment on their wedding night and every anniversary there on. He got her the really good silk so that it would last for eternity if it had to.
He gently eased himself down on the bed in a sitting position and traced the contours of her body first with his eyes and then with his hand. Starting at the knot of fabric at her waist he traced her body over her hip, down her thigh, and gentle down her calf until he reached her delicate ankle.
"That tickles" she whispered softly. Caleb looked over her body and up at her face to she that she was smiling through sleepy eyes. He did the same.
"I know" he whispered back, releasing her ankle. He crawled further up on to the bed and sat about in the middle of it, looking down on her. She rolled herself over so that she could meet his eyes, bringing the blanket up around herself to hide her chest. "Penny for your thoughts, handsome"
"Trust me," he responded, with some mischief to his voice, "these thoughts are worth much more than just a penny"
Cornelia laughed softly. "All right, a quarter and that's my final offer"
Caleb studied her sleepy, smiling, beautiful face and the mischievous glint disappeared from his eyes. What took its place was absolute honesty.
"You are the most gorgeous creature I have seen in my entire life" he said, barely above a whisper. Cornelia's eyes gleamed with unshed tears for what seemed to be the umpteenth time that day. Caleb reached down and brushed one that got away with his thumb. Cornelia brought the sheet up around her more, out of cold more than anything else, as she leaned upwards to meet Caleb in his downward descent for an eager kiss. She cupped his striped cheek with one of her gentle hands, the other still holding the sheet. He in turn brought his hand to cup the back of her neck and brought his thumb to massage the start of her backbone. She shivered, loving it when he touched her there.
After what seemed to each like an eternity, Cornelia broke the kiss with a little suction sound and eased herself back down onto to bed. "Where were you just now?" she asked as she watched as Caleb, really starting to feel the cold of the December night, moved himself so that he could get the sheet out from underneath and wrapped it around his waist and legs to resume his former position.
"I needed the bathroom" he explained, keeping his voice low. It gave every word he whispered more meaning when he could control every syllable. "It's not a crime is it?"
Cornelia closed her eyes, still smiling. "I don't know, is it in Meridian?" She asked because they had come to the agreement that if they had an Earthen wedding, they'd have a Meridian wedding night.
"No it's not" he responded with a chuckle. Cornelia opened her eyes again and pushed herself up to lean against the headboard of the bed in a sitting position. "Say it again" she requested with a childish eagerness.
Caleb played innocent. "Um, 'no it's not'?" he attempted. His smile, however, gave away the fact that he knew exactly what she was talking about. "No, silly," she giggled like a teenager, "say the poem" she whispered.
Caleb scooted closer to his wife and pretended to try to remember the poem. Cornelia tucked her legs closer to her body. "C'mon, Caleb, you knew it perfectly at the wedding reception four hours ago" she pleaded. Her eyes had that spark of innocence that she knew full well was his Kryptonite.
"All right" was his gentle whisper. He reached out and took her hands in his. Cornelia looked lovingly into her husband's eyes.
"Somewhere i have never traveled," he began, giving her hands a squeeze before raising them and his to her eye level, "gladly beyond any experience, your eyes have their silence:"
He softened his grip and slowly released her hand, sliding his fingertips across her palms. "in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me, or which i cannot touch because they are too near"
He moved his hands to show them in front of her beaming face. Her wonder-filled smile remained painted on her face as he continued with, "your slightest look will easily unclose me though i have closed myself as fingers," With the final line, he closed both hands into fist, quickly and firmly only to slowly open them finger by finger as he recited, "you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens (touching skillfully, mysteriously) her first rose"
For the next line, he took her hands again, Cornelia complying with his every motion. He held them up palm against palm. "or if your wish be to close me," He shifted his fingers and quickly closed his hands, intertwining their fingers. She did likewise, already knowing this was coming from the performance at the reception earlier. "i and my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly, as when the heart of this flower imagines the snow carefully everywhere descending:" He slowly and delicately lowered their hands onto the bed. Then he released her hands and continued, caressing her now tear dabbed face.
"nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals the power of your intense fragility: whose texture compels me with the colour of its countries," he leaned in and kissed her, keeping his lips close to hers afterwards, "rendering death and forever with each breathing"
He couldn't help himself and kissed her a second time, deeper, longer, and more passion filled than before. "Finish" she begged, gently pulling away. He smiled at her smile and gently kissed her nose before sitting back down. He held her by the shoulders and Cornelia adjusted the sheet around her torso so she could hold it with her underarms. He slowly began sliding his fingertips down the undersides of her arms all the way down to her wrists. "(i do not know what it is about you that closes and opens; only something in me understands the voice of your eyes is deeper than all the roses)" By this time, he had her hands in his just like he had at the beginning. He released one and held the other with both of his. He brought it to his lips and planted a gentle solitary kiss on it. He closed his eyes and caressed it against his cheek as he spoke the final line, "nobody, not even the rain has such small hands"
She couldn't say anything. At the wedding reception, everyone had applauded and whooped and congratulated him. Her four best friends seemed to get it more than anyone else and they had come to tease him about being the next Shakespeare. But all that was behind her now, only to live on in her mind as the happiest day of her life. Now, it was only the two of them.
"Caleb?" she managed to whisper, her voice full of emotion, "Would you ever consider marrying me again?"
He opened his eyes and gently laid her hand down on her lap. In a tender motion, he moved a strand of hair from her face and shook his head. "Never"
And before Cornelia could ask why or even look confused, he explained, slipping his hand behind her head and pulling her in for a kiss.
"I'd do it in a heartbeat" he whispered, when he was so close she could feel his breath on her lips. She kissed him, putting as much of her love, and gratitude, and soul as she could fit into that one kiss. And it wasn't nearly enough.
They grinned against each other's lips and Cornelia slid back down onto the bed. Then the couple disappeared underneath the ebony sheets.
This story was a result of listening to "All I Ask of You" from Phantom of the Opera and "As Long As Your Mine" from Wicked the Musical right after one another in the car on my way to school and then having to analyze this poem in English followed by much daydreaming through Math until I could finally write it down at the end of the day. Just a little insight as to how my complicated mind works. Hope you enjoyed!
The poem is by e.e. cummings called "somewhere i have never traveled" It reminded me of Caleb and Cornelia the moment I read it. The only part of I edited is the bold. I thought it made more sense since Caleb is part flower. The original word is 'his'.