Black and White

"Each in its own way was unforgettable. It would be difficult to...Rome, by all means, Rome. I will cherish my visit here in memory as long as I live."-Princess Ann, Roman Holiday

Somehow, the weight of the moment, like a soothing blanket, covered her in understanding.  She realized in his silence he had learned to return her selfless love.  With a smile of surprise she mused over the inaction she thought him incapable.  Her predictable Obsessor, she thought, would leap tall buildings to come to her at the hint of satisfying again every selfish urge and desire.  Perhaps she unknowingly tested the purity of his heart in her overtures, so often what she did surprised even her.  But her secret was that she delighted in surprises, even the ones from herself.

Finally she understood why the classic black and whites like Roman Holiday and Casablanca were so beautiful amidst their endings of separated love: love is not always the simplicity of is or isn't.  Sometimes it is an impossibility for the two unsuspecting hearts, yet the circumstances do not devour the loves existence.  The love releases, it evolves, it may fade with time, yet persistently, it lives.  And however secretly, the two knowing hearts taste remnants of the parting kiss that surprised each mouth during their moments of quiet, moments flooded with the remembrance of possibility.  And always she would carry the urgency with which he pleaded, grasping each of her hands, the eyes that still overflowed with love, how they had poured into hers, gathering drops in the corners of her eyes, while her knowing heart accepted all that was, that would never again flourish, that remained unfinished, suspended in a time that travelled with each of them, evermore.

And somehow even while her mind knew that moment had marked their ending, the final scene in their black and white, her foolish heart in all hopeful secrecy maintained the faith that somehow, someday at a time that would surprise them both, their paths would align with confusing certainty once again.

And that, she smiled, was gift enough.