She would take trips to places I’ve never been....

She would take trips to places I’ve never been. She’s seen the places I’ve only read about. There were phone calls and txt messages, and emails. The whole world was opened up to her. She always swore she’d take me along, and I was ready and packed.

There was a way about her, like the Billy Joel song, “She’s got a smile that heals me, I don’t know why it is.” you know that shit. She took her time, and was patient.

When she came back from those trips there was always this overwhelming feeling of joy, like nothing in the world was more important than her, at that moment. And we’d spend hours in my bed, just being cute and saying all the little things that lovers say to one another when they’re alone.

When she walked into my house for the last time, and she told me, I fell to my knees. Like someone had taken the strength from my legs, I couldn’t stand. Once she gave me a bracelet that she made for me, and at that moment all I could do was spin it on my wrist and say, no, no, this can’t be, no. She said I’m sorry, and walked out the door, I knew, there would never be another trip where I was missed, because she was most definitely going where I could not.

Still to this day, when I get stressed, or nervous or pass the place where she works, I touch that bracelet on my wrist. It’s like the way someone touches a good luck charm or a rabbit’s foot. It was the last thing she gave me and the only thing I have left.