“Michael I’m going to do something drastic if you don’t put your good pitches into this catch. Please challenge me, baby.”
To mirror what I wanted him to do seemed right so I pitched him an over-head fast pitch that was, even by my standards, very fast. He caught that fast pitch by accident or because I aimed for his bread-basket – I still wanted him to catch it. The object came back to me by way of a bobbled nothing pitch, I sighed deeply again for want of the old Michael, the challenging Michael, the fun Michael, then I whipped ‘Hebly’ to him in a near blur. As I let go of the object I caught the ‘tell’ in Michael’s eyes and my heart jumped for joy. He caught the blur and sent it back to me via his sweet round-house pitch that used the speed of the object to help propel it into an even faster return pitch.
I whooped for joy as I caught Michael’s lightning round-house and returned it via a spinning side-arm. Catching that pitch wasn’t easy as it rolled around in his lap until he corralled it and sent it back to me in a straight on, over-head fast pitch. The speed was impressive and I told him so but I still challenged him, that time with a slow slider to the mid-section. His return wasn’t very controlled and I had to leap to my feet to save it from hitting the opposite wall and ending the catch, God forbid. From then on I had fun like we used too. We played the catch the way the game was supposed to be played, fast and challenging.
Michael relaxed into it and began to have some fun himself. When he started adding his commentary to the pitches I knew that he was back. There was no one in the world who could make me laugh like Michael besides my sister. When Michael laughed I felt it in every fiber of my being, it was like a coddle to my soul. I wanted to go on hearing him laugh for as long as possible. We played until a bathroom break was necessary. The catch ended like so many, without fanfare or any fabulous touch just a stubbed finger and the catch was over.
The ‘jump and stand move’ was called for and before I could make the move, Michael was on his feet to claim the floor. I’d seen Michael make that move before and in doing it, he always made me laugh. I smiled anticipating what he would come up with.
“I make the ‘jump and stand’ move because I have an urgent need, a bathroom break, that qualifies, do you accept this move?”
Michael asked in his funny official voice.
“I accept.” I said, short and sweet.
As Michael got close to me I could see that he was sweating as profusely as I and also had not gotten control of his breathing. He took my hand and pulled me to my feet for a full body reconnect. Oh holy sweet reconnect, that was so good. I retrieved ‘Hebly’ and put it in my pocket; we joined hands and headed inside. Michael went to the guest room and I went into my bathroom.
“Holy-moly woman,” I said as I looked into the mirror at a woman glowing with happiness but quite tussled. After brushing my teeth and combing my hair and in general freshening up I took another look in the mirror to see what I would be presenting for Michael to look at. Once I saw Michael’s eyes still looking back at me, I decided that that was me; Michael would see me.
When I left the bathroom, Michael was standing at the door waiting for me. I wasn’t surprised to see him there as the fingers of the reconnect seem to be signaling me at a much greater distance than before, a little observation I’d bring back for more clarity later, also something to talk to Michael about if he ever got into his analytical bent, the great research guy.
We wrapped up tightly for a minute, in a heart-beat our breathing matched; we sighed our joined sighs and headed for the ‘Pinky bank’ to smoke the bowl packed earlier. I sat on the loveseat facing the door and Michael scooted me over and sat right next to me.
“Green,” I said as I handed him the pipe and lighter. He accepted and we went about the ritual until we were both mellow and comfortable. We made eye contact and I smiled.
Michael made the ‘stretch and yawn arm move’ in order to wrap his arm around me. I curled my body into the curve of his abdomen and enjoyed the upgrade in the reconnect and snuggled in close. In a very smooth move, Michael turned my body slightly and then was cradling me with my lower back in his lap in one gesture as though it were a practiced move. The kiss wasn’t a surprise but it was a delight to be held in such a tender and loving and personal way, the wave stimulating but also a bit frightening, and finally decompression and always wanting more.
I looked up from my position in Michael’s lap to see his face directly in front of me. Without judgment or any kind of blame I questionsed.
“What brought that on?”
“You,” he said.
No, it wasn’t a word of blame but merely the shortest unclear explanation in the history of answers.
“Me?” I questioned.
“Yes, you,” Michael said.
“You flashed me that ‘hold and kiss me’ smile so I was gladly following your silent orders.”
If he could in fact read all of my silent orders, I’d be in his arms for the rest of my life.
“Are you treating me as though you’re not married?”
I blatantly asked forgetting to soften the bluntness that usually comes from my mouth.
“No Baby, I hope I’m recognizing and honoring our connection by giving in to it, learning more, and trying to understand it.”
“Oh, ok.”
I smiled as multiple ways to honor our connection came to mind at the same time. Just thinking of truly giving in to the direction of his pull made me giggle like a stupid school girl.
We sat in quiet stillness for a time maybe a half an hour. In that time we moved only minimally, once to hold hands and once to lace our fingers. Our breathing matched and our contentment was evident in our joined sighs. It was easy to wile away the hours while we worked at continually reconnecting. The feelings were so good it was impossible to say that we’d had enough. I for one couldn’t seem to get enough.
Michael looked at me.
“I was wondering have you heard from David since the tour?”
“No,” I said.
Michael made a call to David and left a message.
“Hi David, its Michael, please call me back as soon as you get this message I need to talk to you regarding Helen and what’s going on.”
Still sitting within each other’s embrace after Michael closed the phone we snuggled in tight. I thought of nothing except the feel of Michael next to me and the scent of him in that moment, wild honeysuckle and musk. Without thought of the future or the past but only being in that moment I was happy; I was as happy as was possible for any human being to be. No matter what I had to endure, it would never be as bad as the good I felt then.
The time for fixing our dinner meal had come and gone but I didn’t want to leave our sweet cocoon. No, I didn’t want to leave and I wanted more kisses. Michael must have felt my desire because he lifted my face to his and gently put his soft lips on mine. We tightened our hold and rode out the fabulous undulating heat. The need to rip off my clothing was new and I worked at ignoring it but I couldn’t stop myself as my shirt came off in one smooth and nearly unseen move. More of my skin was available to sear against his. Michael increased his hold by wrapping his arms entirely around my waist and pressing me to him with force I’d not felt before.
When we could move again without instigating another rapture Michael picked me up and carried me into my bedroom and placed me on the big bed again. After that we took turns giving each other kisses and igniting our passions and inviting the wave. When our bodies were finally limp after all