MYSTI: Mistress of Dreams
Part 11
Max turns thirty in a few hours. How can that be? How can the calendar be right? Is it possible we only met a few short weeks ago? Why do I feel as though I have known her forever? Is it because of the dream? A dream we now know we have always shared. Like watching a movie shot from two different cameras, each of us being permitted but a single perspective. And Mysti. It still amazes me that her grandmother told her that same story, the one my father always told me. No one else I’ve ever known, even knew who the Mistress of Dreams was; certainly, she is the only one who believes in her as much as I do. Before Max came into my life, I thought this kind of love belonged in storybooks. Storybooks and memories. My parents had that kind of love. I know that now. I’ve known it since that day so long ago.
...........I had always felt something missing from my life. Most people just said it was because I had never really known my mother. Somewhere deep within me, I had always known it was more than that. Daddy seemed to know it too, though I never quite knew how. Once, when I was around 17, I had asked him.
"Daddy?"
"Mmmm?" He had looked up from the newspaper. My Dad always gave me his full attention. I missed him so much.
"Daddy, why do I always feel like there is a whole inside me?"
"Missing yer Mom, honey?"
"Yeah. But I always miss Mom. This is more than that and it is always there. It’s been there as far back as I can remember. And I’ve been having that dream again, too."
"The Mistress is at it again, eh? Honey, the dream won’t hurt you. Someday it might even help you understand how to fill that hole. It did me."
"Huh?" Daddy had a hole in his life? But he always seemed so together to me.
"Once upon a time, I had a hole in my life too, honey. A big hole. A hole I thought would keep getting bigger until it ate me up."
"What happened?" I had asked him.
"Your mother." He smiled.
"Oh." There didn’t seem anything else to say to his answer.
Thinking about that now, I had to smile. "That’s it," I whispered to my sleeping lover. "The hole is gone. My soul is complete now. The other half is finally here. Oh, Max. How I do love you."
She stirred softly and reached out in her sleep. I lay down, quickly, nestling into her arms. It would be another hour or so before 4:25, the time of her birth. I would let her sleep until then. When my snoozing soulmate released her sleeping grip on me, I reached for my pad and pen. Watching her dark brow rise and her lips curl slightly, I had some idea as to the nature of the dream Mysti had gifted her with this night. Not all of my beautiful lover’s dreams were so peaceful. My hand began to move across the page........
Do you know how much I love you?
Can you feel it in your veins?
Do you know that just the thought of you
Helps to keep this woman sane?
I know you know what lonely is,
That you understand it's pain.
But you are my oasis,
My cool, September rain.
I used to love, for balance,
To be loved in return;
Careful not to light a flame
That might not warm, but burn.
Now I love with full abandon,
Knowing that this limb might break;
And I find the joy in giving
Far outweighs the "take".
So, now I ask you once again
Do you know how much, my dear?
No? Well, I really didn't think so.
How can I make it clear?
No matter what lines in the sand you draw,
Regardless of rank or place,
I'll be the one here by your side
Through eternity's time and space.
And just in case I've forgotten
To tell you, oh, my soul,
The day you came into my life,
Is the day love made me whole.
I looked at the clock and smiled. Leaning in close, I gently flicked her earlobe with the tip of my tongue. She stirred, reaching to pull our bodies close. I slid into place and was rewarded with the sweetest of kisses.
"Mmmmm. Very nice. You really ARE a morning person, love." I mumbled into Max’s full lips.
A tongue snaked out and caressed my lips before inviting it’s friend to come out and play.
"Ummm. Actually, I’m just a pushover for a sexy blonde."
Giggling, "It’s 4:25 my sweet love."
"Hmm? Oh, so early. Well, now that we’re up..." she waggled her brows at me but we both knew what she meant already.
"Happy Birthday, Max." I handed her the poem I had just written and she sat up, turned on the bedside lamp and smiled.
"You wrote me a poem? I love poems." Kiss. "And I love you. As it happens, I wrote you one for just this occasion."
My heart shot upward, startling my adenoids. "You what?"
Handing me a wooden plaque from beneath her pillow, she smiled. I had a friend fix it up special. After you’ve read it, there’s something I want to say to you."
We exchanged heated glances and I tried to read what she had written, through rapidly raining eyes.
One day you’re standing, alone in the rain;
A feeling you’ve learned to accept.
Then you hear somebody whisper your name:
A stranger you’re heart swears you’ve met.
It’s not in your date book.
You know it’s not wise.
But you feel yourself falling,
Right into those eyes.
Before your heart
Can tuck and roll,
You’re face to face -
With the rest of your soul.
"Where in the world do we go from here?"
The brain kicks in again.
But, soulmates together know wherever it is,
It’s better than where they have been.
So, next time you’re standing out there in the rain,
It will be in the arms of your love.
Enjoying the warmth, two halves of a soul,
Eternal, like heavens above.
My face was streaked with love and joy. I looked over to find my lover looking back, through tears of her own.
"Quite the pair, aren’t we?" she teased.
I tried to put all the love I could into my eyes, "Oh, I think so. I really do."
Max slid out of bed and onto the floor at my knees. Taking my small hands in her larger, strong ones, she spoke. "I’m glad to hear that, My Love. It makes what I want to say easier."
"What is it, sweetheart?" I asked hesitantly. She looked so small and nervous for some reason.
"Gillian, I have never done this before and I may not get it right but..." Max paused to take a deep, shaky breath. For my part, I couldn’t move. "Honey, I feel as though I have known you forever and yet spent my lifetime searching for you."
"I feel the same way, Max."
"Shhh, baby. I’m petrified here." She smiled and those blue eyes won my heart all over again. "Gillian, I don’t know how or why we were led to one another. What I do know is I don’t want to spend another moment of my life without you in it. Completely in it. Gillian Rebecca Montgomery, will you marry me? I mean in every way the world will allow? And every way it won’t as well?"
The light caught a single tear as it slipped down her cheek and onto my fingers. I could barely manage a whisper, so filled was I with emotion.
"Oh yes. Oh yes, my love. In every way. I will marry you. Max?"
"Hmmm?"
"In my heart and soul, I married you that first night."
"Me too, Gill, me too."
I pulled her up and into my arms for the most passionate, sweet kiss ever. That was when we heard it. A gentle, tinkling above the bed.
"Mysti?" We managed at the same time.
"Sometimes, dearest Max and Gillian, the question is the answer." And just as silently as she had come, she was gone.
Max looked at me with the same stunned expression I knew she was seeing in my green eyes. Then, ever so gently, the smile crawled across her face. She chuckled. "You know, I always wondered what she meant by that."
Me too, I thought. Me too.
And this concludes Mysti: Mistress of Dreams. But fear not, we have not seen the last of Max and Gillian. This, as one might suppose, is but the beginning.