Reflections

He is 80 and I am 72 now, but we are still just as crazy about each other as we were when we met at the young ages of 33 and 25, respectively. The year is now 2064. I cannot help but look at life differently now. The kids have grown and started to become gray like us. As we sit in our backyard for our granddaughter’s wedding, I could not be prouder of our lives. I am also quite proud of myself because I helped plan a gorgeous wedding. She picked the perfect day to have it too – springtime, March to be exact. We were so excited, when she asked if she could have her wedding here, but who wouldn’t want to? The view, from the mountains here in San Fran, is like no other plus the venue was free so clearly the baby is smart. We renewed our vows in this same spot when we moved here. You see, when we got married, we went to the J.O.P. because we were so focused on saving money and never cared to make a spectacle of ourselves, but we went on an amazing honeymoon. I still cannot believe he agreed to leave the states for that long.

He still rolls his eyes when I leave to travel. We are both technically retired, but we just could not sit still and let time pass us by. We were some of the lucky ones. We do not have to work, but we love what we do. As you can tell, I still write, but I own a small vineyard which I am leaving to our smartest girl, when my time comes. She runs the place now, but I go in from time to time to sign papers and check on everyone, since my name is still on the building. I am sure she will take it to the next level when she is the owner. He still flies back to Brooklyn and teaches workshops at the school he started. Technically, he sold the music school, but the board makes sure he is still involved seeing as how the school is his dream come true. We still walk the mountain everyday for exercise and do a light workout in the gym after. We still enjoy sitting at the beach or by the pool and listening to music. We love watching the sunset now, since were on the west coast.

Oh, my goodness, the DJ is playing the “Cha-Cha Slide”. Jeez! I guess that party song is timeless like our love. Lol! My great grandson just came up to D’Wayne and asked, “Pop pop! Are you ready for me to come visit this summer?” He smiled and said, “Of course! I’ve been looking forward to it all year”. As soon as the baby ran back to the dance floor, D’Wayne looked at me. I know that look. It is the “do all of them really have to come at once though” look. Since we moved here, everyone seems to use this as their summer vacation house. While we love our privacy and are very sarcastic about it, we do love when everyone comes to visit, especially our siblings. Some have passed, but we seem to cherish each other more now because we do not know how much longer we have.

As I sit here and write this, I am compelled to think how well this man has aged. Even with all his gray hairs, he looks stunning. I should probably stop eating all this cake because these old birds are throwing themselves at him all the time. I constantly think how they can still catch these hands. Let me stop before I break a hip. Anyways, what else has changed? Oh, I learned how to cook; well actually, we learned how to cook at the same time. Those lessons completely paid off. He paid for my lessons when we got married and ended up joining the class himself. You know, everything is still a competition between us.

His lips still feel as soft as they did the first time we kissed. He still rolls over on me in the middle of the night because he sleeps so wild. I still love the way he touches me, the way he feels, and the faces he makes when he is making love to me. We have been together for 47 years now. Clearly, he forgot the number because someone just mentioned it in their toast, and he leaned over to me and asked, “Has it really been that long?” “Yes”, I replied. “Damn baby! You’re old”, he said with a grin. “But you’re the one with saggy balls”. “But your titties sag further”. Oh gosh! We just laughed out loud in the middle of someone’s toast. Everyone is staring at us like we are two kids laughing at the teacher during class. No wonder we used to get called to the school to pick up our kids all the time. I see where they got their disruptiveness from – obviously, him. We still love making fun of each other, and the older we get, the more vulgar our jokes get. To make it worse, now we do not care who hears us. I am sure plenty of people think we are rude and crazy, but we stopped trying to explain our relationship to people a long time ago. We are best friends. That is all anyone needs to know.

Man! Who is paying this electricity bill next month for this party? It definitely will not be me. You know I am still cheap. Shoot! I even still turn lights off behind D’Wayne every time he leaves a room. He still thinks I am the messy one. We hired a cleaning lady years ago, and she still comes every week. Though I will never admit it, I still love picking up after him, when she is not there. He still tracks water all throughout the bathroom floor, when he gets out the shower, and leaves water around the sink, after he washes his face. Yes, it still bothers me. Oh, hold on. Someone is trying to talk to me. Never mind. It was just my other great grandson insulting me. He asked, why am I so old. Of course, I answered politely, but I really wanted to ask him why he was an “oops baby”. I guess that is rude to say to a five-year-old though. Aww, my man tripped the baby with his cane.

He has had my back since day one. I am lucky; I got to spend most of my life with my dream man. He is like a unicorn. When I was younger, I could only picture a man like him in my dreams. I got my happily ever after. My only request now is for our souls to find each other again if we ever come back because D’Wayne will always feel like home to me.