The Girl

-Erik Bernhardt

I passed a girl the other night, I passed her quite near by. I was coming out of the grocery store with my father. I passed her and continued out into the parking lot, but I locked my eyes to hers. Our eyes met, but she quickly looked away for shyness, as well did I. After a moment I looked back at her, as I passed her on the side. I took several more paces out into the parking lot, so that my father was now fiddling with his keys to open our car, when it struck me that I should remember her, and commit her in entirety to my memory.

She was a thin girl, of maybe fifteen or sixteen. Not terribly thin like some more self-conscious girls are these days, but by no means chubby. She wore a faded black hoodie and tight fitting blue jeans, as well as a neon green purse. Her bosom was not full, but neither was it flat, yet it did not attract my attention. Rather, my attention was attracted to her face. Her face was not gaunt, nor mouse-like, but somewhere in between in the freshness of youth. Her hair was a beautiful brunette, loosely put down behind her shoulders. She wore a look of perhaps vague concern, but her eyes, her sweet hazel eyes are what pulled me in.

In that moment, when I met her perfect gaze, I fell in love with her. In that moment, I would give anything to be with her, know her, touch her. I was madly in love, beyond reason, beyond logic. But that moment passed, and my love faded quickly, and then it struck me that I should remember her in her exactness. So I turned to look once again at her, and to try to memorize her beauty. But to be again in that moment!

To live forever in that moment! That moment of beauty, that moment of truth. Before any could cloud my vision or corrupt her perfection with the cruel drabness of reality. In that moment, I loved her wholly, without exception, with no reservation, and I was complete with in that moment.

Some say that to place love on appearance because it is shallow and without permanence. Personality, kindness, memories, these are the true permanents, so they say. But what if that one moment was forever? What if I could dwell in that moment, that moment of love, that love at first sight?

Truly, I tell you, this is the true essence of love. Those few moments of complete surrender, of complete and utter love.