Learning to Love Louise

Many people were out in the city and the parklands enjoying the fine weather, and the boys soon produced their football, Paul, Louise, Tyler and Josh enjoying a game of kick to kick on the lawn. Louise, dressed in her usual weekend attire of a loose button-up shirt, jeans and sneakers leaped up to take a mark, and Paul felt his heart surge with love for her. Jokingly, he tried to tackle her, Louise laughing as he swung her around by her waist, her sons urging her to kick the ball to them.

As their mother obliged, Paul glanced to one side and caught sight of a young female figure under a tree, a slim, petite, dark-haired and pretty girl holding a ginger cat, both fully visible to him, but could not be seen by anyone else in the park. Paul looked again at Jane as she stood smiling at him and gave him a friendly wave, Paul smiled back at her and gave her a wave in return. Jane raised her hand to give him the 'thumbs up' gesture, indicating that she was happy with the way things had turned out for Paul and was now at peace, a gesture that brought Paul his own sense of happiness and closure. Then as quickly as they had appeared, Jane and the cat Judy vanished from sight in the rays of the afternoon sun, this time for forever.

"Are you okay there?" Louise asked, having noticed Paul staring at the empty space under the tree.

"Oh yes, okay, just saw somebody I used to work with," said Paul, putting his arm around Louise's waist, giving her a friendly pat on her bottom through her jeans. Tyler kicked the football back in their direction, this time Paul marking it and kicking it to Josh, who in turn kicked it to his mother, the foursome looking like any other family enjoying themselves outdoors on this fine Sunday afternoon.

If the world was a perfect and fair place, Paul and Louise should not have found the love they did with each other. Louise should have been spared the horror of losing her childhood best friend Vicki to a road accident at age 12, with the two being friends as adults raising their children together and Louise's marriage to Simon being a happy and successful one.

Likewise, Paul should never have lost his best friend and childhood sweetheart Jane so suddenly and so tragically that September night at Glenelg back in 2001. They should have married two weeks later as they had planned, and enjoyed the rest of their lives together with two or three kids and their family and friends.

Unfortunately, the world is neither a perfect or fair place, something both Paul and Louise found out the hard way. But out of such heartbreak and disappointment, it gave them a chance to love each other and be happy again, which they were able to make work.

Louise would always feel disappointed that her marriage didn't work out and provide a stable home for Tyler and Josh, but this was now tempered by the fact that she had found love again with a wonderful man in Paul, that she and Simon had an amicable relationship when it came to their sons and that Simon had also moved on to find happiness.

For the longest time, it seemed that Paul would never find true happiness again after Jane's death, but he had done so when he had fallen in love with Louise, and took that final step in moving on. Paul would always have a special love in his heart for Jane, and all his priceless memories of the wonderful years she was part of his life. There were times where it wasn't so easy, where he still felt sad about what happened to Jane, but Paul now realized that spending the rest of his life lamenting her loss would never bring her back, and would only serve to make him unhappy in the present and future. Paul knew Jane was resting now, and glad she was at peace given she had helped him through such hard times and eventually fall in love with Louise.

THE END