Greg , we have to talk about this , that’s what married people do when they have problems. Barbara , what is there to say , I told you specifically I didn’t want you talking to Charles anymore after I found his letter to you and you still go behind my back and get a ride from him back home. What was I supposed to think?. ”I said I was sorry but nothing happened” she said with a rush of frustration. As Greg walked back into the wedding rehearsal , a tear swam from her angelic brown eyes as she followed in his shadow. Nothing really did happen.

Their best friends were getting married while Greg and Barb held the roles of best man and maid of honor. Practiced vows lingered in adoring clouds , filling this room with cupids scent. A brief intermission found Greg in the back of a limo actually giving advice to his best friend while Barbara huddled amass girlfriends received tranquilized advice from a glass of wine. Fast forward 2 hours to the actual moment of true wedded bliss where the bride pranced down the aisle in heaven’s white wardrobe as her man to be lip synced a simple I love you. The preacher laying the dos and don’ts of I do. Barbara smiled at Greg as they watched their best friends embark on euphoric tradition. As the man to be wed read his vows , Barbara raised her head in smiles realizing his exact words were her advice to Greg earlier on. You see , Greg may have been your typical stubborn male , but he hung to her every word like gospel. while their friends quietly became one in matrimony , Barb whispered an I love you that carried back to her from Greg’s lips. A smile and then “will you come home?” again she whispered with questioning intent. A yes floated like a chill breeze that tingled her heart and before her best friends could be announced sacredly wed by the preacher , she escaped across the floor to Greg and kissed him. They stole the moment as even their waiting to be wed best friends sighed awes that set a domino effect through the crowd.

Later that night , they talked as they drove through dark mountain top road. Still smiling she stared at him as he sang  poetic verse in ode to her. He trusted her with his soul as she trusted him with her heart. Shadows clung to the windshield in a blinding moment as he leaned to taste the sweet nectar, that lay upon her plush lips. As life itself often runs quick with a steady pulse in the blink of an eye , too late he was heeding to her cry as she shouted “look out”. A miniature Doberman stood like a frozen ghost almost half mangled limping badly from a surprise attack left by a car full of inebriated teens just moments ago , now as if hitch hiking stood still head up paw out waiting and watching. There was no happy ending this night for either of the three.

After wreckage stomped pavement with enough conviction to convince the grim reaper himself to shun away in a horrific pause , silence enraged alongside this cracked scene. As true to their words of eternal bond , that bond was inviting them to sign those words in their own blood.  A rain came suddenly as if the heaven’s sensitive watchful eyes bled teardrops in horrific sorrow.

                                                                                                                           
Bleak cries followed by hollowed rants slithered down hallways as weeping hospital lights frowned upon broken souls and there they lay 10 feet across from each other. Blood soaked gurneys that held their broken bodies as dancing green lights posing in Morse code read their current condition across a faded monitor. Lingered bodies waiting for resurrection as they lay in a mummified coma many worlds apart yet so few feet away. In this world of physicality however they were frozen in temporary death and for now , this wasn’t their world anymore.

“I left you standing all by yourself” she hummed to their favorite tune looking down across her hands to notice briefly she was a mere apparition. ”you’re the one I need most and I stand here by myself”. Softly Greg paced behind to her side much to an expected climatic gaze. “and my heart beats silently , now I know I’ll never have to wander” he whispered.”by myself” she finished his sentence as she smiled and wept in relief. It was a short song Greg breed-ed  from his heart one day to stop Barbara from walking away. And until that day she had never known Greg felt as strongly for her as she did for him , until he poured those words from his heart into her awaiting hands. That eternal bond they promised by being the same bond that placed them in this purgatory , had yet once again rejoined them. They were treading in a world they both shared together in fantasies and now it has become their reality at least for the time being. She morphed into Greg’s arm’s where she always believed she belonged and he kissed her upon her nose and with an old chuckle he reminded her with the rest of the song’s lyrics of how it was when they first met , “I seen her before , crawling through my window , late one Friday night” singing that same tune 13 years later.

As old lovers watching  the sun rise to spark the beginning of a new day , now as old souls they resided on the other side of the mirror studying fractured bodies they once imprisoned in this world.