The Kiss

I firmly remember two things about the next date we'd had after hanging out after the zoo. I know we went to a local park and basically talked. I feel like we'd done something prior to that, but for the life of me, I don't remember what that was. It wasn't the most significant part of that day, I guess.

Our time at the park was short-lived, for the most part. We weren't there to play on the equipment; we were just hanging out. I think I was aiming for some intimate time, but wasn't sure where to go to do it. The park turned out to be an intermediary part of the evening, because I took her for a much bigger step. I don't know what possessed me, but I took her home. Were we there to look at something on the Internet? I don't know what my excuse was, but we ended up at my parents' house for awhile.

Trying to think back on this, I think I was dead set on the date's ending for this day so I wasn't concentrating on what we were doing. This is one of those moments where I know that someday, my little angels will meet a guy just like me. All he will be concentrating on is that one big moment to seal the date, and he won't have a clue what she was wearing. Such is my problem with remembering all this.

Let me tell you, love is actually a very awesome thing. That head over heels variety gets you all wrapped up so you don't know which end is up. You look into the face of the one you love and you don't see anything else. It's just that connection that draws you closer, like a magnet, and you never want to break free.

After we did whatever it was we did inside the house, such as meeting my parents. Yeah, nothing big, just meeting the parents. You know, that should be something significant, shouldn't it? Well, my parents are cool with most everything, so they were happy to meet a girl that allowed me to go out with her, and come home at a reasonable hour. Yeah, there's a long story.

We ended up out back where I walked her through my childhood playground: a large, empty back yard. My parents live on a rather large plot of land encompassing just shy of a quarter acre (so I've been told), and in my hometown, that's actually quite a bit. I pointed out the big willow tree where my brother and next door friend slid down on a homemade zip line. Told her about the video things we did back there. Finally, reach what we called "the sand pile," which at that time and this, is little more than a mound of dirt.

I had to tell her the story of when we built underground forts in this pile and I got buried in one of them. It's a classic tale around my parents' house. My father crossed this large back yard in about 4 steps when my brother went in a told him the sand pile collapsed on me. He tore through the stuff on the surface and pulled me from an early grave.

That evening my sister was running circles around us for some reason. We were standing close together, but the chaos of a young girl running all over the place was very distracting. We told her to go inside for something or another. It doesn't matter what; we just wanted her to leave us alone. And she did.

The night falling. It was quiet. There at the sand pile where I'd spent so much time, I stood with a girl I thought the world of. We held each other for a long moment. For myself, I was working up the courage to do what I wanted to do, and hoping against hope that she wanted the same thing. For a geek such as me, girls are not something you grow accustomed to, or even begin to take for granted, so the chance of having someone want to grow close and even attahed to you is a rare thing indeed.

A few nervous words passed between us as we talked about any number of things that, in the grander scheme, didn't matter. All that mattered was that moment between two people who were truly destined to be together. All the time that was lost melted away into nothing. All the pain we'd both experienced from everyone who was just wrong was forgotten. The world drifted into silence around us, and nothing else existed.

As the stars finally shined from behind the veil of daylight, we silently looked at each other. And with no effort whatsoever, we kissed and for the first time in a long time, nothing mattered at all. I was home.