It’s about that time of year when I begin to think about her again.  The leaves are turning their wondrous colors.  They tease you with their brilliance, only to disappear when you weren’t looking.  They pile up here and there; enough to remind you of ones childhood game, when jumping and playing in the leaves was what the season was all about.  And burning those leaves at times throughout the season was something that we all dreamed and longed for.  There is a gentle crispness in the air that stirs my memories of warm apple pies left on the windowsill to cool off, days when sweaters are a necessity, extra blankets are needed every night and the warmth of your loved one held close.   The pressure drops and the winds pick up.  The heat goes on and the windows must remain closed.  Oh the ending of fall and the beginning of winter always reminds me of her.  It’s that tingling feeling that I always get when I know that she’s almost home.  It’s the blowing wind that reminds me of the power that brings her to me.  It’s not me, but powers above me that I have no control over, like an uncontrollable force.  Still I wait for her to come back to me every year.   

For it’s that time of the year that the freshness of snow is in the air that she comes back to me.  I know her life is complicated enough to never call her own.  And that her travels take her far and wide – all over this great country.  But it’s the unknown in her travels that allows her to get back to me when she can. And somehow, someway her schedule always allows her to come back to me in the winter.  It’s an understanding that we’ve had between us for many years.  

Although our time together is always brief, it’s also always memorable.  She always acts like it’s the first time that she’s seen me. She wraps her arms around me and holds me close.  Her embrace is like coming home to the most priced possession on earth.  Her heartbeat is mine, her breath fills my senses, my eyes tear up and my throat closes up with the longing to let her know all my heart felt secrets.  A fever of longing awaits me as I wonder what she will do with and to me this time.  Her talents are many and her skills numerous.  A year can be so long and yet our time spent together so brief.  My muscles ache with the want and need to keep her where she is, in my arms.  A feeling of dizziness comes over me when I think of how short our time together will be.  I know that there is always a loss of my appetite as I wonder how long she will be with me this time.  One would think that I would get used to her passing through every year – but deep down my head aches with the wonder of it all.  Her presence in my life changes everything for a few weeks and still I allow her into my life.  What can I say; I am a woman with aches and desires.   

I’ve changed the sheets, lit candles, stocked up on fluids, in the event that she will come to me today.  The thought of dehydration does come to mind; therefore my lover needs me to get plenty of fluids. I know that she is near as I can almost sense her, like a twin feeling pain when the other gets hurt.  And again, though our time together is brief, when she is done with me, I will have wept and begged for mercy, cried for less attention, felt aches and pains in places that I had forgotten even existed, dealt with chills and sweat within me that only she can bring and most of all been left begging for mercy for wanting and needing a deep sleep.  I fully understand that I will be weak with extreme exhaustion for days and yet she still comes to me every year and I accept her with open arms.    

Love Story

I will seek and find you.
 I shall take you to bed and have my way with you.
 I will make you ache, shake & sweat until you moan & groan.
 I will make you beg for mercy, beg for me to stop.
 I will exhaust you to the point that you will be relieved when I'm
 finished with you.
 And, when I am finished, you will be weak for days.
 All my love
The Flu 

Yes, it’s that time of year that she has come to me again, that wonderful flu and my life will be hell for two weeks, but what ride, what a ride.

The End