She walks in from work, bag on table. Greeted at the door by her Russian Blue. Kicks her shoes off into the mess of shoes strewn across the living room floor. The cat circles around her ankles, “Hello Koshka”. On the kitchen bench she places her takeaway Chinese, bamboo chopsticks roll off the box and into the bag.

The house is a mess, but it’s clean and its home.

She plonks herself down beside the clean washing pile, the sweet and sour balancing in its square box on the arm of the lounge. TV on, but she’s not watching. A fluffy cat jumps up, walks across her washing, across her feet, settles down on her leg, and purrs.

The best thing about living alone is every soft spot becomes a bed

She stretches herself out, her head on the laundry, the cat on her tummy and her feet on the arm of the sofa where the Chinese had sat earlier. The drone of the late night movie soothing her to sleep like the lullaby for a child.

She smiles as she drifts to sleep

A gentleman walks into her room and kisses her lips like sleeping beauty, her eyes open and she smiles back at him. The room is tidy. “Hi Mark”, he takes her by the hand, and kisses her again as she rises out of the sofa.

“Lysa, I have something to show you tonight” Mark leads her to the balcony “the moon is beautiful tonight” and steps over the handrail, he takes her hand to help her into the gondola. The boat rocks a little as the gondolier pushes away from the jetty. She watches her unit disappear into the distance, disappear into the moonscape.

“The Sea of Tranquility is beautiful” she comments. The gondolier pushes the tiny boat out further, his striped shirt, red scarf and black hair poking out under his beret.

She looks up at the earth hanging in the sky, distant and blue, peaceful and small. The oceans silver with the reflection of sunlight. ‘Oh the places this man brings me’ she thinks to herself. Mark places a hand on her knee, the only sound being the small waves lapping the small boat. The lovers holding hands. He brushes her hair aside and kisses her ear. The gondolier pushes the small boat further into the sea of tranquility. The beautiful untouched Luna landscape surrounding them. The earth hangs in the sky above them. The lovers kiss.

The gondola meets the small jetty, Mark pays the Gondolier and helps Lysa out of the boat and back onto her balcony.

He carries his beautiful love into her lounge room, rests her on the sofa. Kisses her one last time. “Good Night” he kisses her again.

The alarm sounds, he visited again in her dream

Eric Hagan 2017

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