Have you ever looked at the night sky? The dark clear blue sky when Orion is the brightest is especially close to my heart. I always used to take a stroll in the neighborhood at night after work, my sole comfort in my hectic life and then somehow the intersection of the roads became an integral part of my life. I had never travelled by those roads but at the bus stop opposite to the intersection was exactly why I ever became so close to them and him. He was a pretty rough young guy who looked like he had been separated from his mother for quite some time now. I was never so fond of him or any of his kind, in fact for me he was just another “it” but that’s the beauty of life I guess, for today it’s him in whom I am ever so more invested. It was when Orion shined the brightest that I crossed the intersection for the first time in the months I had been there. I would usually leave late from office and my night walks were all between 10 and 11 but that fateful night I was home at 7 and thus I decided to go on a long walk. However, it was cut short the moment I saw him on the opposite side of the intersection, sitting all alone on the sidewalk feeding a small fluffy black cat. I looked at him and I have no recollection when I stopped seeing everyone else beside him. It was a pretty quiet neighborhood and only occasionally would a vehicle or man take those roads. Maybe that’s why I walked towards him as if possessed. He appeared somewhat of an introvert purely based on my guess for I was one myself but I didn’t want to be her that night and so I asked him how was he so pretty. I know it was creepy of me to initiate a conversation with a stranger that way, but it was my first try after all. Though, what matters is I was successful in the end. He was taken aback for he was very concentrated on the cat but other than that he was so welcoming that it felt like I had made an error in my judgement which I of course had. “Akio, Akio is my name. Nice to meet you Miss..?” 

He sure was outgoing to give out his name first and definitely smart for he knew my intentions. No wonder all our coincidences seemed far too deliberate to be one. I stopped working overtime, but I would occasionally be late for my night walks and coincidentally Akio would also be feeding cats in other neighborhoods. Anyhow we managed to meet each other almost everyday rather every night and we became friends really quickly. He was a veterinarian by profession and a cat lover by passion. We talked about all sorts of things, his workplace, my workplace, his cats and kittens and why to name blacky, “blacky”. One evening after our coincidences became planned meetings Akio confided how he was searching for a home for blacky as he was supposed to leave for Russia for a seminar the next month and he was worried about blacky for it was a really quiet neighborhood. I never liked cats, but I was sure by then that I certainly liked Akio and a lot at that to not take the opportunity to have him visit me frequently and that’s how blacky became the part of my family. 

I read it somewhere that watching the first snow with a lover meant a happy marriage for life with them and it was a Sunday when it grew super cold. I was certain that it would snow but uncertain if Akio would be willing to watch the first snow with me, I had a reason, but I was also certain that he definitely had no reason, for we were only good friends. It didn’t snow all day and we had no meetings planned that day either, so I decided to go on a walk that evening. I reached the intersection and was standing just in the middle when I saw at the bus stop a familiar back of a man in a black suit (my favourite) holding a bouquet of white and red roses and with him blacky. I was wondering whether or not to cross the road when he turned to me, walked straight with his lips forming a small curve with every stride,  knelt on one knee, handed me the bouquet and in his low deep voice which was a bit shaky, said slowly, “I know this is way too surprising to be a surprise but I hope Lumie you do feel the same way as me. So, Miss Lumie please allow me to make your breakfasts, drop you at work, pick you up every evening, carry you to your bed and kiss you goodnight for the rest of your life.” I always thought why people would ever cry at their happiest moments and I was right, I was just too happy to let a tear overshadow my loudest yes! It felt so exhilarating to not have to resist any more to kiss that handsome face and so the moment my lips touched his and his eyes grew wider, the first snow of the year fell, and I said yes. 

For our families it was a flash marriage but for us it was as if we had known each other for a lifetime and so on the day the heaviest snow fell we got our marriage certificates. The whole world seemed too white and blinding and so as usual in our wedding dresses we decided to talk a walk back home via the same intersection we met each other. Akio was the most compassionate man I had ever met but my selfish self wanted him to be a little less compassionate towards others but I never wanted to be proven right in either. We were at the bus stop with the roads covered in the white snow as bright as my wedding dress so much so that it was even blinding. Maybe that’s why neither him nor me could see the truck crossing the quiet neighbourhood but Akio did see blacky and in the next second, I remember my wedding dress and the snow were covered in the brightest red I always hated.

It is our twelfth anniversary, and I am still waiting at the bus stop this winter night when the Orion is at its brightest for it is the day we first met. And until we meet each other again I have decided to wait here at the intersection searching him in my memories, always smiling at me happily, the only place where I can see him with my eyes.