Midnight Encounters

The night was a cold, quiet and dark one, but she didn't mind. By now, she was used to it. Her palms began beading with sweat as anticipation and nervousness swept through her. She licked her dry lips, waiting. The hard metallic park bench bit into her flesh as she shifted position again and again, trying to get comfortable as she waited. Her eyes darted around quickly, searching the heavy darkness for any sign that he was here yet, making their way past trees and bushes and the cold light glimmering off of the metal playground equipment. For three days now she had been doing this, coming to visit this dark and desolate part of the world at just around midnight, happily coming no matter what the temperature or circumstances. Always at around ten the expectation and eagerness would begin welling in her chest, ever since that first night...she couldn't stop herself.1

She checked her small cheap watch once more. There was barely enough light to read the tiny metallic hands as the seconds slowly ticked by. One more minute. She turned around and rested her hand on the small memorial plaque lined with fresh flowers engraved into the bench, just beside where she sat, marking some dark and terrible tragedy. Her fingers grazed over the cool letters, fingering each curve in the name, the numbers on the date. Her mind drifted off a little bit, wandering away through time...until finally, midnight came. 2

He appeared as though from nowhere, his eyes searching as hers had been just a minute ago, finally settling on her. He was dressed in a jogging suit, as always, and a smile of elation that crossed his face as he made his way to her. He pulled her into his arms and she almost cried, the built up anticipation and relief and joy pushing tears to her eyes. He stroked her hair, soothing her as her ragged sobs of relief tumbled out of her chest. She snuggled her face into his jacket, grasped his soft cottony clothing tightly within his hands, reassuring herself that he was there. If someone had happened to see the pair standing together like that, no one would have believed that the handsome man with the dark hair and perfect smile was really WITH the scrawny, shrunken, mousy brown woman who looked as though she had been stricken with some sort of wasting disease that lay crying in his arms. They might think that he was just being kind to her, a friend, perhaps, helping her out after some lesser man had abuse her. That is, until he kissed her.3

These kisses were what she lived for. These moments, when his chilled lips brushed against hers and then pressed firmly to her swollen reddened mouth. Her own mouth responded in ways unfamiliar to her as all her grief and agony and sorrow of separation and then all her relief and gratitude and ecstacy of the reunion came flooding out in the force of her own returning kiss, her hands clenching his sweatshirt behind his back as his cold cold hands cupped her neck and held her chin. During these kisses she did not dare close her eyes, instead she kept them open, staring intently into the pale blue of his eyes as he stared back. They were meant for each other, she knew, she could tell by how their mouths fit snugly to one another, perfect matches, and there would never be anyone else for her.4

Seconds slid by as time, her dreaded enemy, passed. Always too slow when she spent her time in agony waiting, always too fast once she had finally found heaven. The time was coming for him to leave again, and she knew it, but did not want to let him go. She clung tighter to his clothes, pressing him against herself as though she could absorb him into her body. She did everything she could to hold him to herself, but alas, the time was coming that he had to leave. He gently, gently took her hands in his and unwound his clothing from her fingers. He held her hands between the two of them, kissing her fingers. Her eyes darted to his face, in a panic, she didn't want him to leave, but he shushed her, quietly, soothingly stroking her hair and holding her to him again. A few more minutes passed as she cried beside him.5

A few minutes before it was 12:15 he turned to her and raised her teary thinned out face to him. She looked into his eyes and opened her mouth to speak, the first words she had said to him in almost a year.6

"I don't want you to go. Please, don't leave me." Her voice broke and she began crying "Please, I can't stand to be alone again. Let me come with you."7

Her beloved angel looked her in the eyes, his lips moving silently, as though relearning how to speak. And then finally, they were making words for her to hear.8

"Do you really wish to go with me, my love? Where I go is not some place you can ever return from."9

She sat for a moment, dazed. It was his voice. HIS voice. A voice she hadn't heard for far too long. But then finally the meaning of his words reached her and she realized he was waiting for her answer. She began to feel hope flickering into life within herself. Could it be? Was he inviting her to come with him?10

"Yes, beloved angel, I would go anywhere with you, and so long as you are there what reason would I have in returning? Take me with you!" Her eyes were large and pleading, begging him to take her with him. He looked back at her, as though trying to memorize every detail about her, taking in the haggard lines on her face, a face marked with woe and worry, and he smiled to her. His hands encompassed hers and he lifted her off the bench and pulled her into an embrace, and together they waited for the clock to reach that destined time. 11

The next morning in the park a couple of joggers stopped to see a young woman lying on a bench, her head peacefully resting against the memorial plaque that had been put up a few months ago. They went over to her to see if she was alright, but when she did not answer their calls they became worried. They checked for her pulse, but there was none.12

That evening, when the nightly news was delivered a small headline caught the eye of a couple of young and happy lovers: "Young Widow Dies on the Anniversary of her Husband's Death at Hyde Park."13

The woman turned to her husband and smiled. "You know, in death I will always follow you."14

And her husband turned back to her "And I will always be here to wait for you, no matter where I go." he smiled. And together, the ghostly couple vanished into the atmosphere.