As was her wont, she rode through the paling curtains of sunset, existing in a living painting of a pastel rainbow sky and waving sequences of green. The stallion’s hooves made little or no sound on the thick turf on the fire levee as they followed its narrow path to Shadow Island. Forever young, the sorrel stallion moved with his independent grace and self-possession. She moved with him in a harmony that had no explanation of a union between two separate beings. They were two and they were one.

The marsh breeze blew always cool in that perpetual sunset…that eternal spring. Not humid or fetid, but refreshed as the after fall of a gentle rain. She loosened her hair and let it fall, soft dark gold, absent the signs of time. Time did not exist here but stayed in a moment that would never end.

She rode into Shadow Island, smiling happily at her waiting friends as they moved among the cool, long shadows. A whisper of a breeze trailed through the ancient oak’s branches in sing song greeting. She reached the center of the island and turned to face the tree.

“Who will come today, my friend? Will he be a traveler through or hero of yesteryear? Will he be blond and blue eyed or dark haired with mellow brown eyes? Will he be tall or will he be just himself? Who will come today, my beloved friend? Who will walk with me in the sweetness of Shadow Island?”

The tree answered only with its murmuring breezy whisper. She waited.

When he came, he was not her traveler nor her harlequin. He was not her sea captain nor her valiant warrior. He was not the mountain Cherokee or the stranger in the streets of the old city. He came not in sight but in sound.

He came in soft words…

“I love you.”

He came as her husband and placing his hands on her shoulders as she sat and wrote, he leaned forward to look at her words.

“Almost done, honey?” he ask.

“Yes, I think so.” she said, smiling up into his eyes.

“Where were you?” he ask again.

“Somewhere in a dream.” she replied.

“Oh, then I’ll not bother you but let you work.” he offered genuinely.

She stopped writing and turning in her chair, she answered.

“I’m done now because you are here!”

He then smiled once again and leaning down, he kissed her. As always, she knew where she really was…not somewhere in a dream but in love forever.

For my real life love, C.