ENCOUNTER - SMELLS

Lifting my hand, he placed it firmly against his cheek and closed his eyes. This moment gave me the opportunity I’d hoped for as I deeply searched his face. His skin appeared thick and well-weathered, perhaps you’d call it leathery. But yet, my hand sensed a softness that belied my first impression. My sneak peek was over as quickly as it had begun as he slowly opened his now glimmering moist eyes. As he let go, my hand gradually dropped from the side of his face and landed in his lap where it soon found a home in his left hand. His right hand then reached for my left which he hefted over his right shoulder. He smiled. And so did I. Suddenly, my head became heavy and my neck felt unable to bear its weight. I let my head fall against that shoulder where I took a whiff of his red, goose-fleshed neck. We held one another once again, but this time I felt enveloped in a familiar world of touch and smell where I longed to stay a long time. My head shifted slightly with each breath and fell again into a crook worn down, I was sure, just for me. The smell of freshly laundered sheets that had been dried in the sunshine overwhelmed me. Soon I found myself wrapped in the luxury of that smell while my head was gently placed by purposeful hands on an overstuffed down pillow.

(to be continued...)