\u201cHey, did you see where – never mind, found it.\u201d \u00a0He continued the bustle of the morning, each morning was the same. \u00a0Wake up just\u00a0a bit later than he should and live in shame of her sad look down at him. \u00a0She was always awake in the mornings and reminded him\u00a0too often that he should be up and doing more.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou sleep through the morning you miss half the day.\u201d \u00a0She said that the very first time they had ever spent the night together.<\/p>\n
\u201cCome on, the day is upon us.\u201d \u00a0He wiped sleep from his eyes and jumped from the bed, eager to follow this glorious soul into the\u00a0morning. \u00a0She was vibrant and alive, and she drew him in like the proverbial moth to the flame. \u00a0Sometimes people click together,\u00a0and though he may not have put it to words, looking back, even now in the beginnings of middle age he could not help but to feel the\u00a0same burst of love he felt even on that first morning.<\/p>\n
Yet that made the mornings no easier with time and the bed just is so much warmer and the dreams, well sometimes they made the\u00a0sad look worth it. \u00a0But still he shook his head and smirked each morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hate leaving you these next couple days.\u201d \u00a0Work was work, and when work said to go to Chicago, then it was off to Chicago. \u00a0He\u00a0yelled back into the bedroom. \u00a0\u201cHey, I have your sister coming by to check on the cat.\u201d \u00a0She did not answer. \u00a0\u201cI know, it drives you\u00a0crazy having her around, but I hate to say the cat might starve if you were left in charge.\u201d \u00a0He laughed at her continued stubborn\u00a0silence.<\/p>\n
Though she never said it, she hated when he left. \u00a0The first time was two weeks after the honeymoon. \u00a0\u201cYou will miss your flight,\u201dshe warned. \u00a0Then she snuggled in close to him and whispered, \u201cI can give you all kinds of reasons to miss that flight.\u201d \u00a0Even now, a\u00a0decade later he remembered that first trip with a melancholy guilt. \u00a0Yet her joy in seeing him when he came home was something\u00a0magical, and that almost made the trip worth it. \u00a0The passing years never made the occasional conference any easier.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will be back before you know it.\u201d \u00a0He walked back into the bedroom and stared at her. \u00a0\u201cI will miss you. \u00a0I think I want to stuff you\u00a0into my suitcase.\u201d \u00a0She only came with him once to a conference and she admitted the event was so incredibly boring that even the\u00a0hotel and the chance to be out in some new town was not quite worth it. \u00a0Besides, money is money and she had her own career to\u00a0think about.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou say that every time,\u201d she once scolded him, and he laughed despite her annoyance.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I am right every time too.\u201d \u00a0And he was. \u00a0But that was years ago, and the idea of hiding her away in the suitcase had appeal.<\/p>\n
But she never said a word, so he shrugged and went about the last few things that need doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou will be late.\u201d \u00a0She used to have to warn him each morning, though in the past few years the warnings stopped, his sense of\u00a0shame pulling him out of bed a few minutes earlier than his body wanted. \u00a0He checked his watch this time and held it up like a\u00a0shield. \u00a0\u201cI will be there in plenty of time this time.\u201d \u00a0He did a last walk around of the house and pulled the door shut behind him. \u00a0The\u00a0key went into the mailbox, to be picked up by her sister later that afternoon he hoped.<\/p>\n
As he got in the car he looked sadly back at the door for one moment, then reluctantly drove on.<\/p>\n
And back inside, a cat explored the empty house, not even noticing the picture on the desk by the bed, a beautiful memory of a love\u00a0that died years before, as love sometimes does.<\/p>\n
Rob is a transplanted Canadian, dropped down into the heart of Kansas and still wondering how that all happened. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Put the pen to paper and start writing. He trusts the Muse to take him places but usually does not sit down long enough to listen very well. But he sees stories everywhere, because we are all amazing stories that need to be told.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cHey, did you see where – never mind, found it.\u201d \u00a0He continued the bustle of the morning, each morning was the same. \u00a0Wake up just\u00a0a bit later than he should and live in shame of her sad look down at him. \u00a0She was always awake in the mornings and reminded him\u00a0too often that he should […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[407],"class_list":["post-9788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","tag-fill-in-the-blank-prompt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9788\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}