Forever goodbye, our midnight

Time takes its perpetual toll

Well?

Well what?

So this . . .is . . .it, as the sages say?

Guess so, but hey . . .

Hey what?

Uhhh, could you, uhhh, possibly . . .

No, sweets. We've been all over that. My mind is so tired of you . . .

Me?

No, not like that, you poor, sweet man. Another way.

What other way?

Well, Jack, it's pretty awful to explain.

Try.

Her heart speaks

Okay. There's this nagging and sudden pain.

Yeah.

Well, I hate to go away. I really do. Don't you see? I mean, we, uhhh, well, have been meeting here in "our midnight love," since we were sixteen. Remember that?

Yeah. What a string of great nights we had--you in that thin summer dress, your legs so tan and . . .

Jack!

Yeah!

That's behind us. And will always be just a memory. A stupid, fading memory that neither of us will recollect correctly. That's part of the pain. And part of my goodbye.

Jack?

Yeah.

You are crying! I knew you were soft-headed, but soft-hearted and . . .

Jack! What are you doing? Ughh! Ahh! What does that kiss mean, Jack?

You want me to stay? Is that it? Bribery by lust? Oh, Jack. My little puppy Jack. I wish I had the power to wink and we were sixteen all over again, meeting for the first midnight, each of us on a lonely stroll, our parents in bed and us searching for . . .well, "that" kind of feeling we used to have in our, uhhh, hearts. Yeah, that kind of feeling.

What then, Julie are you leaving? You never told me the whole truth.

Jack, my love. Some things in this insane monkey maze called life is not explainable. I have this college grad course to do and dad's company is transferring him to Arizona . . .

Where is your mom going to stay?

Oh, mom? She's with her sister, Helen in San Diego. You remember? I told you about her that night we got drunk on Boone's Farm wine coolers.

Yeah, what an easy night. I loved those things. Especially with the Doors on your eight-track.

Giggle, giggle. Ahhh, yes. the Doors. Jim and the boys high as a condor at Berkeley . . .and us just groping for the ropes of life with bottles of wine coolers.

Only in-measurable moments remain

But for several hours, Julie. It all made sense.

What?

Life, Julie. Life. We didn't care about fashion,. ambition, and success. We just cared for each other.

Now, Jack, don't go soft on me. We will always care for each other.

Yeah, you in God knows where . . .

Tampa Bay, Jack. I told you. Tampa Bay studying the universal changes of quantum-communication for my Ph.d. Don't make this more dramatic than you have to.

Okay. Yeah. You hated dramatics, I recall.

Yes. Nothing but wasted time and emotion.

How will our relationship survive the mileage?

Well, Jack. I cannot answer that. Maybe you can fly down in the summer and stay a month of two with me . . .

Julie, grow up!

Grow up?

Yes, grow up. I can fly down, but stay with you two months?

Time was, I could have asked you to do that and you would have asked "when?"

Have we changed that much?

No, real life has infected us that much.

I hate my job at the lab.

I'm already hating my work at Tampa Bay.

It's nearing midnight, uhhh, sweetie.

I know, Jack. I know.

Oh did you just feel that, Jack?

What?

Those fourteen moments pass by while we were silent?

Fourteen moments?

Yes, fourteen moments. Fourteen moments that we'll never get back again . . .

Like this, "our midnight love."

G'bye, sweetie.

. . .bye, J . . . .