• As she breathes in, the air is suddenly sweeter, the room brighter. She lifts from her suddenly softer bed and engages a graceful dance crisscrossing the furniture and coupling with her puppy. They twirl round and around in a strangely rythmic manner, weaving a beautiful moment with the movement of her feet and the sway of it’s head and tail.
    She leaps onto her boulder, just outside, in her front garden. She lets her dizzy pup make its way back into the house while she is left to meditate the wonderful happenings of her life. She sighs in delight.
    She then engages into full song, spings from her boulder, and sprints toward her favorite spot in the park, just around the corner of the next block.
    Finally she is in her favorite place in the world, sitting on the bench where she is to meet her new-found love. And, what do you say, quarter of an hour later he spots her, she him, and they run to meet the other in wide expectation and childish impatience.
    They both stop one foot from eachother, taking a moment to study the others appearance. After all, it’d been a couple of years since they’d been face to face like this.
    He speaks the first word, valiantly: “Hello there”. That was enough for both of them, for they jumped into eachothers arms in a long awaited hug.
    “I’ve missed you Will” –she breathes–. “You have no idea how much I’ve missed you Cate” –he says–, “Your memory was all that kept me alive in Irak”. They just stand there, breathing joy, happy to feel eachothers warmth once more.
    Finally, after a period of time no scientist could put into numbers, he sighs once more, now of nerves, and breaks apart. He stares at her in wonder, still holding both her hands, and makes a decision. He blurts: “Catherine, would you marry me if I proposed?” Her eyes broaden in surprise, and she responds: “I would if you promised to never volunteer for anything stupid, never, ever again.” He grins and kisses her.
    Twenty years later, their fourteen-year-old son is chatting with an Asian girl on the other side of the world. He doesn’t know how to phrase what he’s about to tell her.
    He bites his lip in hesitation and starts touching the screen of his iPad 9.0, typing a message he was sure was going to screw everything up:
    “Hey there, sorry to interrupt anything you were up to, but I really need you to know something; ever since I’ve met you, (figuratively), I’ve been trying to make up my mind on something…” He paused. Sent it, and after about nine seconds he decided that, since she wasn’t typing anything, she was either away or waiting for him to finish so he went on: “While we’ve been bonding as friends these past months, I’ve been trying to make up my mind on wether I wanted something with you or what, but I found myself suddenly thinking about you at all times, and couldn’t keep it in me any longer. I love you, more than as just a friend, and I truly don’t have it in me to hold it in me any longer. I just needed you to know it, and I’ll understand if you don’t share these feelings. Thank you for reading this.” And after checking for grammer horrors, he sent the message, twelve seconds after the first. He received the response four seconds and a half later. “I have been waiting for you to say that, actually. I’ve just let you keep up your friend facade since I wasn’t sure you wanted me to know…it was brave of you to tell me, and I admire you for it. Most people screw up they’re lives cause’ they never manage those three words out of they’re mouths –or fingers, for that matter–. And guess what. I love you too, more than just as a friend.”
    At opposite sides of the world, two kids experience the same feeling of painful expectation as to what comes next. And the answer comes three seconds and a half later…