A Perfect Moment
Published September 1st, 2009Sometimes there is just a perfect moment. I never even know it’s happening, I never realize it until the time has long since past, the memory faded away. I don’t ever consciously think of it - and then, something will bring it flooding back and it spurs a feeling of lost contentment so strong that it’s almost painful.
We had been moving her all day. Trip after trip after trip. All that existed in her new apartment was boxes and a mattress. We were so tired - exhausted. We’d been moving the day before too. We faced a choice, one hour before we had to go to her brother’s for dinner - do we make another trip? There was still enough to bring that it seemed like it was never going to get done, but not enough left to make it feel like there was no progress to be made. Or, do we nap. She begged for a nap and I didn’t argue. So we laid down in an empty room with just an hour of quiet to steal a nap. No sounds, from anywhere. Just a phone counting down the hour. It was late in the day and the sun was waning, slanting a bit of light through the window. And we fell fast asleep, on a bare mattress in a silent apartment.
When we awoke, we lay there, silent, having hardly moved - together and still. Not wanting to move. Not wanting to get up and lose the fleeting moment of rest. But we had to, so I got us up and going again.
One hour, most of it asleep, but one hour of perfection with someone I’ve since lost. I don’t know why that particular moment has stuck with me, lodged deep in my heart, now dredged up again by some random association….but it has, and I ache for that that lost feeling. Just that feeling of peace and contentment. I want to go there with someone again - even if I don’t know it at the time. I want to share a moment like that again. This is not the only perfect moment I’ve ever had, it’s just the one that came to me tonight unbidden, unrequested - but not unappreciated.
i like this. well written kevin.