"Whisper again to me why you love me. I like it hearing said that way. Your voice is so soft and your breath against my ear sends shivers along my spine." "Ah...that is so nice. I want this forever and ever; You and me and nothing else. Lets never let this change."

.......

On a bed in a hospital he lay. Old and used up. Death has finally come knocking. In a haze of some place between awake and asleep he was only faintly aware. The drugs that dripped into him kept him from feeling any pain or distress. It also kept him from being able to talk to his wife and his sister. Both ladies alternated sitting with him; Holding his hand and telling him of current events. Mostly they would talk to him so he would know he wasn't alone. His wife, a woman he married some thirty years ago, was heart broken but determined to be strong for him until his very last breath. She was a handsome woman who wore her age with grace. When she smiled, one could still see the beauty that once shone on her face when she was younger. From time to time when she spoke with him, he would turn his head towards her direction and lightly squeeze her hand with his. He had never shied away from showing his love for her; Never held back what she meant to him. She never doubted who he was and what they had together. Having said that, she always felt he was a man who in some small way was missing something. A hole that she never filled. She always felt she had failed him in somehow. He had never said or suggested that she had failed him; Quite the opposite. She always thought it her female instinct that told her otherwise. It was there and she made her piece with it.

His sister got to know him in their later years. In their youth, there wasn't time to know one another. So many tasks and obligations. Neither giving much time to the other and neither even knowing what kind of friendship was there waiting for them. It was sad for her to think of so much wasted time when they could have been so close for that much longer. Or perhaps their friendship was one that could only be cultivated by their older selves. She loved him and loved his wife. She lost her husband two years ago and they both where there for her and have been every day since. She would cry when talked with her brother. She was going to miss him as much as she missed her husband. She told him she would be there for his wife just as they where for her. She told him that she knows how much he loved her and his wife; She loved his wife almost as much as he. She also knew something his wife didn't. She Knew he had a wound that hadn't ever healed. A love he had for another that never came to be. It bothered her that it was still there after all this time. She had a kinship with him; A bond that gave her a sense of his inner mind that no one else could have. She watch him dying but could see him fighting it with everything he had. His wife didn't know why he was hanging on to life so hard; She did. To give him the peace she wanted for him so bad, she would give him what she sensed he needed.

.......

There was the world and there was her. She always loved watching people. People had a way of making her feel more there; More real. People are a never ending source of reason for reflection. She had always done the things she wanted to do in life and the things she didn't want to do, she watch other people do. She was happy in her sense of self and had no regrets in life. No regrets but she did feel loss. The pain from her losses help define her as much as the reflections she had from watching the people around her. Some of the pain was the loss of her parents. Other pains were the growing and life pains of her children. The pain didn't diminish her; Rather, it helped her step as she marched through the days. Another of her pain was a love once known that had never really died. A love that would light up her memories that had shone many years ago. The words, "I want this forever and ever; You and me and nothing else. Lets never let this change.", would echo in her mind. It was a love that could only be described as soul love. He was a man that she met and loved in the same instant. That was the only time anything like that had ever happened to her in her entire life and it was something she could not forget. She and he wanted to be together for ever but she was married to another at the time and it was doomed when it began. They had a few short years together before he met another and, well, life has a way of pulling people apart sometimes. She really believed they where suppose to be together as soul mates and that her life had never been the same when they slipped apart.

She sat at home sipping her tea when the phone rang. Is was a womans voice who asked if this was her. The woman on the phone said a man she once knew was sick and dying and that she should go to him and say good bye. She said this man was holding onto life waiting for her. The woman on the phone gave the name of the hospital and what room he was in. She also told what time he would be alone so that she could see him in private. The woman on the phone was crying when she asked her to go to him. She said, "Please go so you can give him some piece. He needs you." Then the phone went quiet.

.......

It was eleven thirty at night. The hospital was quiet and sleepy. She walked into the room the woman on the phone said was his. On the bed in the semi darkness he was laying. His breathing was light and irregular. He looked so old. In a second her suspicions where confirmed. Her eyes welled up with tears. A small moan escaped from her lips. She walked to him and stood at the side of his bed. It was him; Her soul mate. Her love for him was instantly alight. Though he was old she saw him as he was. She could not form words. Slowly, she reached out and took hold of his hand; It was cold and limp. His breathing changed. Her scent awakened old memories. With a small gasp his hand closed weakly around hers. His head turned towards her and his mouth started to move. Small sounds escaped those moving lips. Her tears started to fall faster and she looked upon his face. His closed eyes would not open. Large tears began to seep from the sides of them; He began to cry. With the touch of her hand he knew it was her. He couldn't believe it. Years of hidden tears began to well up and spill out. She didn't say a word. He knew her from her touch. She leaned close to his ear and whispered in his ear, "This is why I love you. I know you like to hear it said this way. My voice is still soft and my breath is against your ear. I hope it still sends shivers along your spine. I have carried this forever and ever. It will always be you and me and nothing else. Lets never let this change." She kissed his lips and he kissed back. With a long sigh, as the air left his chest, he left the world. She had given him what he was waiting for. She buried her head in his chest and cried harder then she had ever cried before.