A conversation between an elderly married couple on a front porch swing.

Grace....Would you like me to freshen your coffee?

Luke....No..no honey...I'm fine.....just looking at the leaves on the trees blowin'.....life is like that you know....we just blow through the leaves and leave a little dust.

Grace....You're getting a little melancholy on me...what are you thinking about?

Luke.....Ahhh...this old cancer thing...few more weeks...and...

Grace cuts him off and says....I don't want to hear that kind of talk, Luke Thompson (she wipes a tear from under her glasses).....Please don't talk about it.

Luke reaches and takes her hand, saying.....OK ....I wont talk of it....I do have to tell you some things tho...I want you to just listen and hear me out.

Grace turns towards him and softly says....what on earth has got you in this mood...you have never...ever been a talking kind of man.

Luke....Just hear me out and don't interrupt.

Grace squirms back...pulls her reading glasses off...closes her Home and Gardens magazine and says....well...go ahead...I'm all ears.

Luke.....When I came back from that damn war....I thought I was empty...that bullet that went through my chest....well...it leaked out my soul...or so I thought...I wanted to die and the doctors wouldn't let me.....

......When I opened my eyes that cold February morning and saw you standing at the foot of my bed....I saw the worth of life....I wanted to live....I looked in your blue eyes and lost the pain....(Luke chuckles) you started out as my nurse and looks like you are gonna be my nurse at the end.

Grace.....none of that talk again....go on.

Luke....Anyways....You finally married me....just an old country boy who quit school in the seventh grade...damn...I hated learnin' ........here you was a college girl that joined the Army to do nursing...I still don't understand why you said yes?

Grace smiled and said....your smile....it was your smile.

Luke.....Here we had five kids....now got grand babies ....got this old 32 acre farm.....I always hated factories...always had to work in them tho...comin' home to you was the only good thing about it....draggin' in the door with a hurt back and a load of sharp rocks on my heart...one look at you would make me apologize to God for just callin' him a sadistic bastard!

Luke's voice had become very raspy and he started coughing hard. Grace held him and got him to take a few sips of her tea.

Grace....maybe you should just talk later....it can wait.

Luke cleared his throat and said......no...no it can't wait....I'm just about to get to the secret.

Grace.....Luke Thompson...I thought there were no secrets between us!

Luke....just one...I will tell you if you can shush for a few moments.

Grace stiffened and gave him a curious look as she said.....go on then...go on.

Luke.....It's a secret I have kept since the week after we got married.....you had gotten a letter from a doctor in Virginia.....he wanted you to come work at a new research facility.....he said in the letter that you were the best and most intelligent nurse he had ever worked with...he wanted to help you become a doctor. I tore up three more of the letters that came that year.

Grace looked straight ahead but stayed silent.

Luke bowed his head and a few tears fell on his old brown blanket the Grace had covered his lap with. He coughed a little more an held his hand out for her to stay put.

Luke went on....I was just a damned old dog who found a dove.....I couldn't let you fly...I couldn't hurt you and I couldn't let you go.......( Luke began crying while talking) ...God Gracie...I am so sorry for lying to you...I should have told you....I am so sorry.

Grace just stared up at the breeze in the tree. She got up an knelt down in front of Luke.....she lightly brushed his gray hair with her fingers. Then she took his hands in her hands.

Grace whispered.....I have a secret too....you didn't get all of those letters...I didn't know you tore the others up...but I did reply to the one you missed......all these years you have carried this in your heart....all these years...I never had one regret......silly old man....nobody can fly without love...not even doves.

Grace buried Luke in the early fall. A few weeks later...she sat on their porch swing with Luke's brown blanket on her lap. She took a deep breath....opened her magazine and reddish, yellow maple leaf floated down on the left page. She had opened it up to a story about dogs.

Grace picked up the little leaf....twirled the stem in her fingers ....smiled and whispered....Luke Thompson....you old dog.....you finally learned how to fly.