this book’s about how #iluvu
the rest is fluff and filler i put in there so it counts as a book

In the evening, when the frogs ribbit by the old pond
when they start to hop and their slimy flipper feet slip from the lily pad
and then they gather themselves back underneath their little fist-like head-flows-bodies
and leap high into the inviting cool crisp laughing night air
before finding their way with a plop into the water where they’ve always lived

In the evening, when the summer sun has sunk but it is late September so that’s not really a summer sun anymore at all.
A man and his woman
so young and free were they
you might say
a boy and his girl
well, the two of them
were tromping through the thick sharp grasses and the dried-out tubes of water reeds from seasons’ spent
clumsy feet in wet sneakers damp with the fresh red mud endemic to those parts

The boy’s name was “Sam” and the girl’s “Sue”
and they’d known each other since forever, growing up as they had a couple blocks apart
in a sweet little town and then again going to church and school in common
and again and again at this event, that fair, walking to Main Street for the Fourth of July Parade, knocking on cold wooden doors to sing warm, Christ-infused carols in late December, again and again, all through the year and all through the years, happening across one another and growing stronger, learning how to read and write, dreaming big, getting big, finding themselves shaped for one another, find their way into each other, believing in each other and the love glowing between them and binding them up as one

I didn’t get to go there
I would’ve liked to
but it wasn’t my path

Anyway, it was there’s
and they took it

Samuel said to Susan, as twigs, leaves, fallen reeds and tired weeds crunched and crackled under their feet — Samuel clenched her hand a little tighter in his own and he said, “Susan, I want to always have you around. I want to always hear your voice. I want to always share your thoughts. I want to always hold you near and know you deep.”

Susan smiled in the moonlight beneath wide-blooming oaks and maples and amidst narrower, more straight-shooting pines.

“Me too, Sam”

And that was very romantic
they were now almost twenty and it was clear to them both that this kind of talk that had been growing between them for a couple years now was becoming more and more true, more and more real, more and more love.

i wish i could’ve had this
but i can’t really wish for what wasn’t
that doesn’t make sense
it’s like wishing a circle was a square
or some other bit of mathematical nonsense

anyway, so there they are and it’s going so well
beneath a full moon
in the woods outside a nice safe town
before you had to worry about Lyme disease

Sam smiles and Sue smiles and that’s love
When in the course of time, after college and the wedding and the first jobs and the children and the next jobs and the church functions and the PTA meetings and taking the kids to sports and music lessons and all that and getting older and slowing down and gardening in the summer mornings before it gets too hot and with Joe down the street with his wife in their cozy little home and Arlene across the state with her husband in their cozy bigger home
that’s just how it goes
how slow and easy that lifetime was allowed to flow
how everything fell into their laps
and they rejoiced in every moment
they rejoiced in human love and fellowship

i know some will think that this is a boring story
because everything works out all the time
but you know what i think?
i think stress and hurt and loneliness are insufferably dull
and i want a nice story, where everyone is safe and good and treat each other well
and they are happy and grow in human love and human wisdom by sinking deeper and deeper into God, fellowship, and service
and i’m writing this story
write your own stupid story if you want some deranged lunatic to murder the young lovers during their midnight stroll when the autumn nightair takes over for the summer sun.
wreck your own fictional world

Samuel Hannah was a nice young man
sure, he was the captain of the football and wrestling teams and lettered early and advanced to State and all that
but that’s what people did in that town
and it wasn’t like he was ever mean to people who weren’t good at sports
nor did he neglect his academics
or even drink all that much
and he definitely stayed active in the church, helped out at the soup kitchen, delivered food and cheer to shut-ins, was a counselor at the two-week daycamp that the church, even gave a little talk about living a Christ-centered life in high school once — which went pretty well, even if he did stumble a little here and there and seemed more interested in high school than Christ, with the talk mostly centering around sports events, science projects, and the amazing work of the school’s theater and chorus (in both of which — and this was lost on no one in the audience — Susan was a prominent member).

Susan Elkanah was a nice young woman
sure, she was pretty, but not in a mean way
and she was the sweetest girl, pitching in everywhere, and bringing joy to church choir, school choir, and untold theatrical productions at church and school.
I definitely love her and want to marry her
except that’s silly because she’s not for me; she’s for Samuel and he’s for her
So I definitely can’t butt in there
plus I’m old now, too old for the young love that they share
when young love grows older, but you stay together and are good to one another, does it stay young?, does it glow with the same youthful fire and still gaze out at life in the innocent delight of childhood-turned-20?
Susan is so pretty and so nice
She holds herself erect and sure
and she laughs free and easy, knowing that she’s safe and she’s loved
time does not drag her down, it just tightens around her thin limbs, it just lets her float as a brittler and brittler, less and less green and then red and yellow and now more and more brown and curling up and dried out leaf
nothing bad happens to Susan in this life
little things here and there
sometimes she cries
but she’s always lucky and she mostly always knows it
so that’s a happy life
and to have a mate that loves you and children that grow up safe and healthy in love
and inside a town at peace with itself and the wider world
it’s nice
it’s better than psycho killer stories

Author: Samuel Hannah
Editors: BW/AW
Copyright: AMW