Her Laughter

Voice and tone melodic like the sweet ripe chords of a violin. The joke he told her was not nearly funny enough to warrant such a reaction, but he welcomed it. The day had been long and grueling, his job mentally breaking him once again until he was nearly fed up and ready to quit. She made it all seem so much better, she was always making life seem better.

Arriving home that evening he greeted her with a kiss, which followed into a passion that swept across the kitchen table and onto the living room couch. He had never been so happy that dinner came out charcoal black and burnt beyond recognition. She always knew how to make him feel better. She had always been there for him, and he offered her everything he could. His hard work barely amounted to making ends meet, yet she never complained and he loved her for that.

Chinese takeout arrived as they used chopsticks to feed each other while watching the latest reality television shows, brisk laughter and playful jabs as they contemplated who would be the next voted off. His world was captured by her every move, every breath and every soft playful blink of her eyes.

He had never believed in angels until this evening, when he realized that somehow this one volunteered to spend her life with him. He felt so grateful and yet so ashamed. Ashamed that she deserved so much more than he could provide, ashamed that he wasn't romantic enough at times, fancy enough or could give her the home and diamonds she deserved. That she would have chosen someone like him made him feel even more guilty, like he was robbing her of what she could have had in life.

So as the evening rolled late and the moon begged for forgiveness, they followed each other up the stairs. Lips lost on each other as they crashed into bed, blankets and sweat a blur in the haze of their fire. Afterward he just lie there quietly stroking her hair as they just went on talking about their day. So easily able to go from a passionate love making to idle chatter was even more arousing to him.

The continued to playfully bait each other with word games and quips about current events, yet he felt the unearthly fatigue grapple at his very soul. Rapid blinks slowly turned into long pauses as his half of the conversation turned more into listener than speaker. He couldn't even remember what he said to her as he drifted into sleep while still engaged in conversation.

Her laughter was the last thing he heard.