You may think it melodramatic; it is, to tell it this way, but when a soft greyness filtered through the window and several thousand birds began expressing their surprise at seeing the sun once more, we were still at it. We talked and cried on each other's shoulders and thoroughly messed up our respective nervous systems.

We both slept eventually, not awakening until well past noon on that last Sunday. I awoke to find an arm flung across her, reminding me of the final couplet from Rossetti's "Nuptual Sleep": 'Till from some wonder of new woods and streams. He woke, and wondered more: for there she lay.'

――

That day, once we were awake was totally unlike any I have ever known in fact, I should think it totally unique. All inhibitions, all restraints were down. Like two furry woods creatures who curl against each other in the fury of the storm, by the light of day, we frolicked. in the sunshine.

For those with the types of minds who wish to read something into that, I bid them go find cesspools worthy of their contemplation. Until the day I die, I will treasure that time, without shame or guilt it was a time like that Plato mentions the time when two persons come together in a passion elevated above the gross and the physical. The feeling one gets when you look into another's eyes and see there under- standing and compassion and love:

What sweeter than these things, except the thing In lacking which all these would lose their sweet: The confident heart's still fervor; the swift beat And soft subsidence of the spirit's wing, Then when it feels, in cloud-girt wayfaring, The breath of kindred plumes against its feet?

The following morning, I got up before dawn to prepare for the trip. I was both excited — and depressed. Depressed because I felt I was leaving behind something of more value than that which I was going forth in search of. But, men are fools and once they set the wheel in motion, they ride it around. With Beth's unhappy help, I made it to the plane with time to spare.

And of course, we both acted very foolish there, crying at the thought of leaving each other. For once in my life, I didn't care what other people thought. Was it my imagination, or did I see a youthful hand

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