In between normalcy

David stirred in the silent night. His habit of sleeping with windows open had often welcomed noises of nature from outside. A disturbance he occasionally needed to fall asleep. But on this night, not a soul outside was awake. No wind rustled any leaves and the lack of a moon heightened the blackness.

She then also stirred besides him. Their heat radiated within blanket while winter coldness had raised a siege on their bed from all sides. His arm lay under her neck, his lips sunk in her loose hair. His other arm rested awkwardly on her waist. And as he stirred, she began to turn over to face him.

There wasn’t much to see in the darkness but there much to feel. Warm air escaped from their mouth and nostrils. Quick adjustments were made by him to adapt to her new stance with special attention paid on ensuring that her hair wasn’t pulled in the process. His eyes adjusting to the darkness slowly oriented themselves to her forehead, her eyes, her nose and her lips. He then swooped in for a peck, fully expecting a murmur of approval, followed by more sleep in the comfort of their combined body heat.

Instead, there was more than reciprocity to that peck. She responded with pressed kiss, one that convoluted the lips as they touched. There was warmth transferred, and noses interfered as they moved their faces in harmony. It was strange how their bodies stayed still but their heads and lips danced furiously over the textures of the pillows.

David felt his half-awake eyes straining for clarity. His fingers tried grasping her hair but she wasn’t having any of it. Without restraint she pushed on, kissing harder and noisier. Besides the surprise aspect of this intimacy, David couldn’t get past the passion that erupted from snuggle, from a snooze. He held on, locked his lips, and plunged into this passion.

There was no attempt at capturing the moment or treasuring how long it lasted. It was dance of togetherness fueled by love and spontaneity. One couldn’t have choreographed this better. Eventually, the kiss ended. They both had to come up for air. Their throats dried in the stillness. They caught themselves breathe. Their hearts slowed down again. Their lips slid off from each other and her face found a new crevasse in his shoulders. She fit like a Lego brick and buried herself in for more sleep.

David felt he had to say something. It was fitting that he mark this moment with a meaningful sentence of some kind. But he was utterly speechless. He hadn’t ever until that moment lived out a dream in reality. While he was convinced that what had transpired then wasn’t a dream, he found the reality too inadequate to describe it. Perhaps they would talk about in the morning, in daylight where fantasy is always illuminated too harshly. But for now, he was in a free fall of immediate reminiscence. What just happened was rare, and he knew it.

So, he just pulled her closer, found mirroring cracks in her body to hide his contours in. Allowed the silent night to wave over the flurry of activity, he eventually fell asleep again in the darkness and stillness utterly lacking any want of a dream.