Kay Oh'd

Sometimes, there is that little epiphany. Even for a guy as dense as me. I cannot fully describe the event, just that Kay and Paul were leaving the Church for another position, so a party was thrown for them in the banquet hall. Of course there was a receiving line (for those departing?) before the buffet, and I found myself standing alone, about two-thirds of the way back in the queue of a hundred or two people who attended. Paul and Kay really were loved. Finally, I reached the feted couple, and stepped up to shake Paul's hand. No animosity between us, at that stage a year or two later I had forgotten all about these little "anomalies". They had totally slipped from my consciousness, and I was genuinely regretting seeing Paul leave.

I had a word with him, then the couple before me stepped on from Kay. As the family behind me stepped up to greet Paul, I moved towards her, arm outstretched...and was quite surprised when she stepped past my proffered hand and into my arms.

That wasn't the only emotion that I immediately felt, for Kay nestled into the length of my body like she belonged there, melded like she was a part of me that I had been missing. She just fit, and perfectly so, right there in my arms. She allowed herself to fit, and I could feel her essence, her being flow into me. This might sound silly, but that hug was one of the few times that I have mingled completely and utterly with a woman.

Oh...

Allowing her to give to me, and to drink of myself. I could feel her openness, and was drawn into it myself. Now, I'm trying to describe it too much. And in that amazed instant, I finally understood. And...was amazed all the more.

For as good as Kay felt, she was doing so in front of her husband, in front of the whole Church as well. For she didn't just step into my arms, allow herself into me, she molded to me, soaked into me, gave of herself, her warmth, her femininity—and drank deeply of me at the same time...and I found that I had absolutely no desire to part, to leave. I was suddenly and completely aware of Kay…as a woman. I can’t tell you what an incredible gift that was.

Yet as fully aware of Kay as I was, as wholly filled with sudden wonder, I was equally as completely aware of the myriad people around us.

For like a raindrop in a still pool, the silence spread about us. I held Kay in my arms, and first I heard the murmur of the group behind me, speaking with Paul, fall silent. Then the people standing behind them, and the people sitting beyond. It was like a curtain falling across the room. And still, Kay lingered. She didn't cling, she simply, and utterly...belonged. She fit.

And finally, when I knew full well that the whole hall was completely silent, that everyone was aware of how long--how many long and graceful minutes falling into hours that I savored--Kay had been in my arms, she pulled herself free.

All that I remember of the next moments, quite dizzied, was that she promised a free haircut if I should manage to visit where they were bound. And that wasn't the end of Kay--though it is the last time that I have seen her.