Without a Word

As long as I live, I will never feel the living soul of another that way I knew hers. The woman whose name I never knew, but whose face I will always remember.

Most people go through life never experiencing a genuine connection to another. If you’re lucky, truly lucky, you might see one opportunity, and only if you recognize it. Most never will. If it comes, it’ll happen once, and in the blink of an eye, it’ll be gone. But in that blink, true understanding becomes a reality without a single word spoken; a level of consciousness that one might describe as borderline telepathy.

She’d been sitting alone at an outdoor table in front of a local restaurant, staring off into the sunset that peered between the buildings of the city surrounding us. A fiery red-orange sky wisped with purple defined twilight over the busy street. Her dark brown hair flowed onto her shoulders and down her back, occasionally catching the wind that gust down the sidewalk. We exchanged a casual glance as I walked briskly past her.

An intense spark flew when our eyes met as if two pieces of flint abraded each other.

Spark begets fire.

Her emerald green eyes instantly captured my soul. I was a helpless butterfly caught in the net of an enthusiastic schoolchild. Her stare rapidly snapped back to mine. Entire universes came into existence in a million individual Big Bangs in that instant.

I stopped walking and stood dumbfounded. She looked into me; she read the volumes that defined me without walls or hesitation.

In her, I saw a single word: Yes.

I opened my mouth to speak, realizing in the same moment words were not requisite. I said nothing. Our lock into each other’s perception never broke as I carefully approached the chair that faced her. I sat down at the average white patio table surrounded by four white metal chairs, all covered with stains and marks of a thousand people before us. I could see us in a panoramic view as I slowly sat and faced her. We didn’t speak. Instead, we communicated through a series of looks and gestures. Her hypnotic green eyes beckoned me into her soul. I see them now, forever burned into my memory, the streaks and spikes of dark and light green that blended flawlessly within. I’d never need to know her name or her voice. I could find her in a sea of faces by her eyes alone.

We reached across the table synchronized in perfect silent harmony to touch. Our fingertips brushed against each other. Arcs of electricity only she and I could see and feel lit up our shared world. It was a source of power that ignited feelings and emotions inside me that I’d never felt before. Her touch was painless fire. Euphoria spread from my chest and into my entire body through an unseen dam burst. It

‘What is this?’ I heard myself ask within my inner space.

Her never-ending gaze answered. ‘This is the beginning and end. You’ve always known me in your dreams. The woman you always feel, who is always there, and whose face you never see. It’s the answer to every question you’ve ever asked. The final resolution. Absolution.’ Her intense gaze became softer as her eyelids slide slightly down. Her slightly parted lips came together. They formed the sweetest smile I’d ever seen. All of this, I observed through our yet unbroken stare. One might call it the beginning of a love affair, but what was happening went beyond such a cliché label.

The sunset was long over. Stars winked into view, taking their shift in the night sky. How long had we been there conversing with each other without speaking a single word? Seconds? Minutes? Hours? Time stopped for us in the world we created together, our only reality. There’d never again be a real world for me. There’d always be this one moment in time in our own personal Utopia.

We were now sitting beside each other, no longer a table’s length apart. I wrapped my arm around her lower waist. My other hand resting on her knee underneath her skirt. Her left hand caressed mine as her other picked at my shirt where it met my jeans. Our faces remained inches apart, our eyes still firmly implanted into one another. I could feel her hot breath on my lips. She smelled of faint perfume, now eclipsed by the scent of desire. Our noses brushed together with a soft back and forth. Her eyelids were nearly closed, but never so much to break the eternal stare we shared.

Fireworks began to fly in blinding hues of blue and yellow as her lips brushed mine. So soft, so moist, the taste of her caused every endorphin in my body to flicker like excited fireflies. Blood rushed through me so violently, I was sure my heart would burst. Each slamming pulse made my limbs tremble. I took her angelic face into my hands.

Her racing heartbeat was equal to mine. I couldn’t determine when hers began and mine ended as our bodies were now in complete sync. The intensity of our first kiss rose with the heat off the sidewalk.

Passersby didn’t notice as we began to meld together. We were oblivious as the planters behind us and the flowers they held. Yellow and orange marigolds blossomed in the raging inferno of our passion. She took my face into her hands also as she slowly and seductively licked my lower lip. She began to moan softly with each deep breath.

‘I want you,’ her eyes begged. ’I need you.′

I motioned to stand. She tugged me back down and pressed her delicious lips against mine with additional force. The sensation of her tongue exploring mine sent waves of goosebumps across my arms. We then stood together, almost breaking the kiss. Not once did our locked eyes waver.

I would take her to my loft a short block from where we met to consummate the breathtaking connection binding us together. Leading her by the hand, I slowly backed up to the sidewalk. Those crystalline green eyes never once left mine.

‘Come with me,’ my eyes said. ‘I have someplace more private we can go.’

She smiled. ‘You lead, I’ll follow,’ her look suggested.

We slowly walked away from the table. I walked backward as she stepped forward so our eyes would stay locked. Our fingers entwined as we slowly walked away from the busy street.

I led.

She followed.

Within minutes, we arrived at the building that housed my loft. I carried her up the stairs as she wrapped her arms around my neck. Our life-changing stare remained uninterrupted. I retrieved the keys from my pocket and proceeded to open the door. She put her finger to my lips. Her twinkling, yearning eyes spoke to me, ‘this is the moment our entire lives have been building toward. Take me to your bed. I will show you love as you’ve never imagined.’

I carried her inside. Our night wasn’t building toward its logical conclusion. No. It was only beginning.

Our locked eyes never faltered.