Evening conversations...

"There is a bend there, just over the horizon, where eternity kisses yesterday and all the past is forgiven." He says between puffs of exhaled smoke, waving a work and tobacco stained finger down the road at the burning sun that is quickly sinking from view. His hand wearily rubs his tired eyes and she sits quietly, not speaking for fear of causing his words to dry up and fade back into himself.

It is at moments like this, when his long built fortress of quiet slips unannounced, that she can begin to know this person she loves with all her being who sits a mystery beside her. His hair catching the evening breeze, his eyes distant and looking at she knows not what. He utters words, somewhere between statement and hope she thinks looking at the longing glances he cast into his own memory.

"The hardest amends to make in this world are the ones we have to make with ourselves."
"Why?"
He looks down at her, half startled that she's there, as if he thought he were communing with no one but the night and the past. He smiles and puts his large warm hand on her knee for a moment before continuing on, "I dunno. Maybe it's because when you hold to a grief for so long, it becomes a part of who you are and to give it up, well, .." He shakes his head and is silent. She tries to make sense of his words, but is lost to the world of adults. All she knows is that she relishes this moment beside him- this moment of sharing even though she can see his pain below the surface.
She looks up again and finds his eyes, "Maybe you should remember who you were before you found your grief, then it might not be so hard."

He smiles again and hugs her. "Maybe I should darlin', maybe I should."

Ramblin' Hoosier~