A Love So Freeing

I remembered the afternoon that she picked me up in the bookstore and brought me home. The day that my life began in her imagination is one that I will never forget.

She talked to me as if I were right beside her. She would say, "Damian, we had spaghetti for dinner tonight. Mom is a great cook. I wish you'd be able to taste-." Then she'd laugh, "Of course, you can't. Right now, you're locked away in a prison with nothing but the clothes on your back." And I would tell her my story. She would visit me for hours on end before going to bed. Soon, she was applying to schools and was going out with young men that I did not welcome.

She didn't read me for a several months. Summer passed and college started and she had tucked me away into a cardboard box. The day she unpacked me and set me on the bookshelf was the day I knew something was wrong. My heart ached and I wanted to leap right out of my bonds and shout and make her see me and feel my hands holding hers. I wanted to be with her.

I was still sitting on the shelf when he walked in with a bouquet of roses.

A boy from my art history class asked me out today...Valentine's Day...I barely know him. Should I say yes? She had been talking to her best friend, Hannah, on her cell phone as she paced her room. I remembered hearing the hope in her voice as she had sighed, I've never had a date on Valentine's-What? No, I'm not going to bring you along! She had laughed, unknowingly breaking my spirit to pieces with her words. I could never offer her anything if I wasn't a part of her life-for real.

Valentine's Day came and went. Days passed before she picked me up again and began to read the last chapter of my tale. Sadness pierced my heart as I saw the dried tears on her face and her reddened eyes. She came to the last page and stopped. She closed the book and stared at the cover.

"Damian, I know you're in there," she whispered, "I need you."

That was all that I needed. Three beautiful words. Caged no longer.

My arms hugged her to me and I vowed to never let her go.