Dedicated to Kisus.
It started with a phone call from Wes White to Ann Metoxen. He opened his heart after reading a lot of books about love and relationships that would help him work past his fears of rejection. The bus ride to Colorado was quiet and he looked at his watch to see it read 8:30pm. Memories flashed back about Annie of when they first met as teenagers. He was fifteen and she just turned sixteen at a barn dance in Wisconsin. He remembered how they met those precious years ago and it was the beginning of their soulmate relationship.
Wes sat in the chair and was busy drawing a heart with a sword stabbed into it. It was awesome and had flames springing from it with wings. He was almost finished shading it when a friend of the family interrupted him
“Hey Wes, there’s someone who’s interested in what you’re drawing,” said a feminine voice and shortly after that Wes looked up to see it was Linda, a friend of the family.
She directed him to the girl who was interested in his drawing. She sat across the room and was looking at him. She had bold blue eyes and her hair was black, but partially dyed red. There was something peculiar about her that gave him curiosity. Wes took his illustration and slid it back into his drawing book. He could feel the attention directed towards him.
The way to describe this girl was that she was like a rock, in a stream, that had been smoothed out with sharp edges. The surface of her personality was so soft you could lay your face upon it, but if you turned it sideways you would cut yourself. Wes ignored his intuition and gathered his courage to visit. He walked over to her at the table and watched her look up at him.
“Hi, my name is Wes.”
“My name is Ann,” she replied smiling.
They continued to talk about their nationalities and the area of Wisconsin as well as the barn dance. She didn’t know anybody in the area and was from Hawaii. Wes learned very quickly that she was quit a bit taller than him and was like an Amazonian. He looked up to her at 5’10 and thought she was a giant. She wasn’t, he was only 5’7’ and still growing. They parted ways after the party, giving each other their address and a promise to write.
Wes smiled when the memory of when they first met. He didn’t realize that it was beginning to a dynamic friendship of soulmates. Now that he was on his way to visit Ann he wonder where it would lead. The bus ride continued to its destination and Wes smiled again as he remembered when they reunited as friends in Wisconsin a few years after the Barn Dance.
It was the summer of 1997 and he took a grey hound bus to visit her. He could still remember sitting in the bus station and seeing Linda and Ann walk in as if it was yesterday. Wes closed his eyes as he thought about the visit.
Wes sat in his chair and waited for what seemed to be an eternity. Finally after ten minutes he saw Linda and Ann. Ann looked completely different because she lost a lot of weight and her hair was grown past her shoulders, she looked beautiful. She kind of reminded him of Snow White because her skin was white as snow and her hair was black as night. Her blue eyes captivated his heart and made him wonder what her future plans were.
They said hello and took the ride back to Linda’s house. Ann was quiet in the car, but Linda kept talking about plans that she had for Wes and Ann. One of the plans was to go to the House on the Rock. Wes sat in the back seat of the car and was looking at Ann’s long black hair. She had her nose pierced on the right side and was wearing a white T-shirt and blue jeans.
Every day there was something new to do together as friends. They walked up and down State Street by the capital to look in all the little gift shops. . One of the memorable moments Wes had was the movie, Species. Wes put his hand on hers and caressed it. It was warm and soft and there was little resistance to dispute. He was scared that she would slide her hand away from him, but she kept it on the arm of the chair and said nothing. It seemed that she liked it and touched his hand back a little bit. It was a lot of fun and Wes didn’t want it to end, but like all good things they come and go. Nothing lasts forever and he found himself back at the bus stop. He faced Ann to give her a hug good-bye. Giving Ann a hug felt nice and he could hear her heart beat as he touched her back.
Wes smiled with that happy flash back, but that was ten years ago and much has happened to his friend from Colorado. He did some exploring on his own on his path to romance and learned things the hard way. Ann got ahead of him and was going through her second divorce and had two kids. She was happier with the world she created and was looking forward to seeing him. Wes couldn’t understand why he waited so long to get together with her in the first place, but realized that whenever he was single she was seeing someone. Whenever she was single he was seeing someone. Something told him that there was something special about the two of them together and it was obvious, they were soulmates. He read in a love book that the best romance comes from two people who have been friends for a long period of time. The whole reason to come down to explore this opportunity was from the book he read at a book store. Was she his soulmate in a romantic sense?
A song emerged on the radio that was by Amy Grant and her voice was best described as an angel. The song she was singing fit exactly how he was feeling at the moment. It was a song called “I Will Remember You”. It made his heart beat faster as the line she sang our love is frozen in time entered his mind and made him wonder if the relationship and the thoughts he was having were one sided or was Ann thinking the same. Wes closed his eyes and began day dreaming his fantasy evening with Ann.
Wes sat at the bus station and waited. Ann pulled up in her Kia and smiled. Wes shot up as he grabbed his book bag and walked outside to meet her. She was wearing a plain shirt with jean jacket and blue jeans. Her black hair was shoulder length and she looked almost the same as she was ten years ago. Wes gave her a hug and after a few seconds they were both in the Kia. Ann turned on the radio as Wes turned around to see the baby chair in the back seat.
“Where’s Seilah?” asked Wes.
“Seilah is at her aunt’s house for a couple days and Haden is being baby sat by my cousin Angie.
“It’s been a long time,” replied Wes.
Ann began smiling, “yes it has.”
They pulled into a frontage road to a group of apartments. She pulled into her parking spot, put it in park and turned the car off. Wes felt a strange sensation throughout his body that was neither anxiety or excitement, but fulfillment.
“We’re here,” she replied and turned to Wes.
Wes looked around to see the lay out of the grass and trees as well as the bushes that held their place. The apartment looked cozy from the outside and when he turned to look at Ann she was smiling at him. He felt her confidence resonate against him and smiled back.
“It’s a nice place,” he replied.
“Except for the loud lady upstairs, she likes to play her music really loud so that my kids can’t get any sleep,” Ann replied.
Wes didn’t say anything as they both got out of the car and walked inside her apartment. It looked plain but lived in as Wes walked into the living room and sat on the couch. Ann sat on the chair and they looked at each other for a very long time and smiled.
The days went on uneventful as each night Wes slept on the couch and Ann slept in her bed. Wes got to meet Haden before he left to be with his dad and Seilah played board games with Wes after school. While Ann went to work, Wes walked around town exploring and walked into a bookstore to read. He enjoyed it, but he kept thinking about Ann and wondered what she wanted to do for the rest of her life.
The very next day, Wes and Ann spent the whole day together going on nature hikes, watching a movie and making stir fry at her apartment. Seilah was being watched by Angie. Finally, he couldn’t resist and when the food was near finished he touched her waist and touched the back of her neck with his lips. He could see a tattoo of a broken heart being stitched together and knew she needed healing from prior relationships with men. It didn’t stop there, she turned around, looked into his eyes with hers and began kissing him, first on the lips, then on the neck and then she put her hands on his arms. He could feel her pain and wanted to heal her heart, but knew that she was the only one that could do that. Wes slowly and gently French kissed her as he picked her up with his hands and set her on the counter. He then stopped and watched her smile at him and smiled back while touching her face with his hands.
“I waited ten years for that?” she began. “You could have kissed me when I was at Linda’s house.”
“You were together with your boyfriend, you were talking about marrying your boyfriend and I didn’t think you wanted me.”
Ann took a deep breath and looked into his eyes as Wes could see she was thinking. Her blue eyes hypnotized him and when she smiled it made him feel weightless.
“Aren’t you hungry? We got all this food you like to eat?”
Wes began to smile and felt her hands on his back as he helped lower her back to the floor. They sat at the candle lit table and began to eat.
Each bite of the stir fry was delicious. Wes looked into Ann’s eyes and could feel the weight in his arms. He could see every hugh of her skin that the candle unveiled and it was beautiful. Wes pulled out a bottle of Brandy and two glasses.
“I would like to propose a toast; to old friends that may never be forgotten,” announced Wes.
Ann sipped her glass of brandy as Wes did the same. It tasted good and he knew after a few more glasses they would be intoxicated. Maybe he would get lucky to get a dance with her in the living room with the stereo on and have a lot of fun.
“I thought you said you don’t drink,” she said.
“I don’t, unless it’s a special occasion.”
After they were finished they both looked at each other and what would become of them. Ann couldn’t help but smile for she had never experienced such a wonderful evening. Wes touched her ankle with his foot and she began to laugh. “Would you like to dance?” he asked.
She nodded as he watched her get up to turn her stereo on to the radio stations. There was a couple songs playing that were too fast to slow dance to, but they didn’t care. They just started moving and didn’t care if the rhythm was matching to the song. They drew close to each other and destiny seemed to surface as Amy Grant’s song surfaced, “I Will Remember You”, began playing on the radio and Wes’ eyes opened in surprised.
Wes opened his eyes and realized he dozed off and had been dreaming. However, the radio on the bus was playing the same song by Amy Grant again as was in his dream. He looked out the window and saw that it was morning. He looked at his cell phone for the time. It said 8:00 am. In about an hour, the bus would be at the station.
When the bus got to the station, Wes walked off the bus and saw that Ann was there. He saw her children as she waved to him. Wes smiled and waved back as he met with them.
“Did you have a good bus ride?” she asked.
“Let’s just say, it was an interesting ride,” he continued to smile as she introduced her children and Wes talked about his bus ride.
“How would you feel about visiting the Garden of the Gods?” she asked while starting her car and driving away.
Healing Heart: Love Is Frozen In Time
Ryan Keith Johnson
© Copy Right 2009 All Rights Reserved
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