And then there was dawn...

Closed the kitchen window and walked up the stairs. She was putting finishing touches to her make up. She saw me in the mirror looking at her and said 'Do i look alright?'. I replied 'Darling, you look wonderful tonight.' It had been years since we went out to a party. Taking care of the kids, the initial hectic years of the job had taken their toll. But at last, we were free, the kids had gone to college and jobs. After 25 years of marriage we had time for us alone. I had met her in university, smitten with love had married in few months. Just out of the varsity had got a job in an uptown firm and since then life had been just average. A beautiful wife at home, two average kids and a good job. But of late, something had been missing. The load of work had decreased, so had more free time. The kids weren't home, hence the dinner table was quite, the house lacked the vigour of past days. I had changed over the years, she hadn't. She still loved me, why i know not. I feared i was no longer the same man she had fallen in love with, i feared i was deceiving her. How long could this facade last, what if she recognizes that i am no longer what i used to be. I wished no longer to be here, to be somewhere far, into nothingness. I wasn't exactly the smartest person in town. She deserved better. I felt guilty, guilty of being loved, guilty of having stolen her youth, guilty of not being in love, guilty of not loving her enough. This wasn't the life we had wanted in our college days, this wasn't what she had wanted. So i had failed at last. So now i was the average bloke now, not the prince she had wanted. I felt cold, the room had lost the brightness, everything seemed dull. Of late everything had lost the joy, the misery had been killing me. When would she just walk away? Then what would i do? The misery of it all, the blasted patheticness, why this drowning in the sea of emotions. I couldn't have foreseen this thing happening to me. With downcast eyes i waited, with a broken heart i waited.

She stood up from her stool in front of the mirror, came up to me, brushed her lips against my cheek and said 'Love.' and looked at me. The wind was no longer chilly, the room was perfectly painted, the world was at my feet and i at her's. The dam broke but only a few droplets got through my eyes onto my cheek and she smiled. She smiled and all was not wrong with the world. She smiled and there was nothing else i could have ever wanted. She smiled and I fell in love again.