Magic

All I could say after that bit of a speech was, "Me too." I then reached over and took her hand and she moved over to be close to me and we sat there in quiet for a while. I couldn't help but notice she was wearing my high school ring and commented, "I see you still have my ring. I thought that would have been gone a long time ago."

"No way! You gave that to me. I insulted what it represented once, but there is no way this ring is ever coming off my finger. I won't ever toss it away like I threw out what we had together. This ring still means a lot to me, even if I sullied the meaning of why it's there."All I could reply to that was, "It looks good there," as I gave her a hug.

We ordered some pizza and, sat at the table and started to talk like we did in the old days about just about everything and spent some time just talking about what we had been doing since that horrible day. The main topic was how we were going to talk about our situation. We both knew that rushing in and talking about everything involved with our break up would be better done a bit at a time. So we did things different and avoided the heavy stuff except for apologizing to each other. To end the night, we asked each other a single question. We stopped at that not getting the answer. That would come the next night and a lot of nights following that one.

11) Back to the present.

It took us a year and a bit to get all the questions answered and it seemed every time we answered one and worked through what the answer meant, it brought forward more questions, which also had to be answered. Through it all there were loads of tears, heartaches and hurt feelings on both sides, but the two of us weren't going to give up on us. We kept at it. Believe me, there were a lot of pauses just thinking about what was said and what we wanted to say.

We met and talked just about every day. Our parents checked up on us every now and then, and our friends heard about us, and did their bit to help us in any way they could. Mind you all of them sure helped a lot by listening to us and offering non Judgemental solutions.

Our "magic" was one thing that made sure we were truthful, but at the same time being able to feel what the other was feeling when something was said and how they reacted to it slowed things down as we had to get over those feelings and discuss them too. All in all the "magic" is the one thing that we realized was helping us the most. It also was the number one thing that made our relationship so strong when we finally finished reconnecting.

Why did it take us so long to get back on an even keel? After all, the both of us wanted to connect with each other. I'm sure if we would have rushed into it, things would have been missed which would have festered and came up later and cause more problems. Plus, if any emotions were misinterpreted it would have been unproductive, so the two of us were very tentative and taking things slow so as not to get hurt again.

Yeah I know, we had hurt each other bad, but through it all we were still sitting around trying to work things out. If that isn't weird I don't know what is. There were still some very troubled days and I think the worst one was when we got carried away one night and we were going to finally get intimate. Memories for both of us came back and ruined that night, and more than a few others. We even had to get a councillor to help us get over that part of things. Even after moving past it, we still see him every two months or so just to touch base.

The biggest thing we decided was to never again take the "magic" for granted. Once we were solidly back to earth in our relationship, we dated for a year and then got a bigger apartment when we decided to move in together.

Did we win the fight to reconnect? Did we get answers to all our questions and work them out? I would like to think we did all that and more. After all, here we are, and ten years have gone down the road since that Easter dinner. Yes, we did eventually get married and are happy. About the only disagreement around our place now is trying to set a time to get our daughter back from our parents. Geeeze, you would think she was their kid the way they always are picking her up, pampering her and monopolizing her time.

Is our relationship stable? I guess all you have to do to answer that question is look at Allison's hands. She had my high school ring resized to fit her. It's on her right hand now because the left hand has the wedding rings on it. She won't take any of them off.

I'll wrap things up now. I hear the key in the door signalling my little five year old whirlwind is back from the shopping trip with her mother.

"Daddy I'm home." She could talk up a storm when she got going, so I was expecting the torrent of chatter. She rushed towards me jabbering excitedly all the way. "I got a pretty blue dress and mommy says we have to go and get some shoes that look good with it. We also saw Cousin Joey. He's weird. He doesn't want to play dolls with me. The mall is fun and they have lots of neat stuff. That candy store that ma-ma likes moved to the other end of the mall. Did you blow up that balloon for me and put it in my room? Mommy got a new purse."

To stop the deluge from her I picked her up and put her in my lap and hugged her. She enthusiastically hugged me back then suddenly stiffened and pulled back looking at me and said, "Daddy what's wrong? You feel sad. Why are you sad?"

It took a minute to realize what she said and when I understood the implications of her words I thought to myself, "Oh man, she's getting the "magic." This could be fun."

I told her, "I was just writing about something that happened in the past that made me sad. But with you here everything's peachy now, and yes I blew up the balloon so you and mom can play when you're getting ready for me to read your bedtime story."

Yes, Allison still likes balloons, and she's passed that trait on to our Daughter.

Allison joined us and sat beside me. "So, she feels your sadness. I hope that "magic" works out for her. I can see a lot of talks coming in the future."

Changing topics she then stated, "You know you spoil her almost as much as our parents? You're going to have to watch that."

She had this habit of bouncing from one topic to another in a split second so it was no surprise she then switched topics again. "But the big question of the day is what are you planning to get me for my birthday?"

Oh crap... Her birthday!

Do you know how hard it is to buy a present for your wife when you know when you give it to her you will be able to feel whether she likes it or not. If she likes it ok, but if not, will she tell you she does like it when she doesn't, and then will you be disappointed in yourself for getting something she doesn't want? Crap, crap, crap "magic" can be a pain at times.

12) Shane.

Oh yeah, about Shane.

We were at the mall one day about two years after we got back together. I wanted to get some toffee for mom that she really liked. This one candy store in the mall made all the candy they sold by hand, and was the only place in town that sold this particular toffee that mom loved. It was hand folded during the production phase, which for some reason mom said made it better. There was also a slight taste of raspberry in it to make it a special candy. While I was in there Allison went to the shop next door to look for a new purse to add to her collection. She had purses up the ying yang, but she couldn't resist looking for more.

I had just paid for the package of toffee when I felt uncontrolled anger in the "magic" from Allison. It sounded like there was a riot in the concourse of the mall. I could hear Allison's voice screaming and yelling profanity at someone in amongst the other noise. I rushed out to see what was going on, and had to pull her off some guy that was rolled into a ball protecting himself on the floor. She had been flailing away and kicking on this guy like the Tasmanian devil in those kid's cartoons. I pulled her off and got her to stand back. I gave her the package of toffee to hold and told her to stay there. I then turned to help this guy up.

I helped him up and was shocked when it was Shane. Now I knew why she was thrashing away on the poor guy. He saw who was helping him up and he smirked at me and said, "Well look who's here? Have you got in her pants yet? She's pretty good when she gets going you know! Big time mistake on his part, as a result of that I had an adrenalin rush and went absolutely ape shit on him.

The aftermath of that was mall security showed up and it took three of them to pull me off him, then the regular cops made an appearance, followed by an ambulance for Shane.

There were lots of witnesses that saw what happened and as a result of our actions I was charged with assault and battery. I spent six months behind bars and that was six months with a smile pasted on my face that wouldn't go away. That time behind bars actually felt pretty good. Allison only spent four months there. The two of us thought it was worth every minute of it. After the court and other proceedings Shane disappeared and he moved to the next city. I think he knows how we feel about him.

While waiting to be charged, Allison told me she was just standing there waiting for me wondering what I would say about her new purse. Someone called her name and grabbed her arm and turned her to him. Shawn excitedly exclaimed, "Allison nice seeing you. You're looking as sexy as ever. You used to be hot to trot; we've got to hook up again." He was going to say something else but he suddenly found himself having to deal with a screaming wildcat.

I admit the sight her, being all of a hundred and twenty pounds, beating the crap out of a two hundred pound guy was pretty neat. Something like that let's a guy know not to get her too pissed off at him, so I do my best not to.