The Spark

I wrote this for The Light and Shade Challenge :)

"The Spark"

          A spark.  If only she saw it.
          I watched her every move, spinning, twirling across the floor.  Her spirit as free as her hair, every strand rippling about as she moved easily to the haunting indie song that poured from the speakers.  Her pain was expressed in her precise moves, and her struggle reflected in her eyes, but I could always feel the stoic courage radiating from her soul.
          I'd never even spoken to her, yet I felt I knew her.  Her eyes had only ever met mine once, and I'm not even sure if she noticed it, but I will never forget it.  It's such a consuming feeling; a distracting feeling; one that I knew all too well.  It took my breath, dried my throat, and froze every muscle in my body.
          The spark grew every time I watched her telling her story on the floor.  A spark.  That's what I wanted her to feel.  But I was only a seat in her audience; how could I ever show her my soul, like she had showed me hers?
          My heart was splintered from the many times I'd walked across love's raw planks, bare-footed, trusting.  I had become afraid of that spark, afraid of what it could do to me, afraid of how it could be ripped away from me, leaving me torn beyond my control.
          The music met its abrupt end, and she fell to her knees, out of breath, an intense look in her eyes.  I stared back into her gaze, realizing that her stare... her eyes were on me, and my chest was heaving as much as hers.  
          How would it destroy me this time?
          I looked over at her smiling face, remembering every day that had come with every wrinkle, every memory.  She bent down to twirl Marie, laughing.  She danced more carefully now, but her hair was just as long and just as free, only without the rich browns it used to be; the strands were as silvered as the Mockingbird.
          She tugged Marie to her hip, kissing her cheek.  I just stared, until those same hazel eyes found mine.  They glimmered, just as they always had, glowing and sparkling in light and love.  There it was... the spark.


--C.R. JENNINGS
  374 words