The Day the Earth Stood Still

"Hey, babe." The man mumbled, poking me in the shoulder. He was stooped up on the couch, and I was sitting cross legged on the hardwood floor. "Isn't it a nice day?"

"Sure it is, Sweetheart." It had been a basic remark, and required a basic response.

"You know," he started again. "You're always saying how we never take enough pictures of us together. We should go to the park and take pictures. It's a nice time of day for that too." He was right, however this was an odd thing for the man to say. It isn't that he isn't a sweet boy, he just never thinks of this sort of thing. And he did. I wasn't going to complain.

"Uhm, sure. That sounds good. Right now?"

"Yeah, I brought your camera from the city." And with that, yet another strange remark, he ran out to the car to retrieve said camera. He has never brought my camera along from the city, but he did today. We were out visiting my family in my home town when this perfect picture taking moment arose.

We got into the car and drove a couple of blocks over to the park. We decided to take pictures near the Nature Pond. We parked awkwardly at the local scenery, and climbed out of the car. We walked over across the gravel and into a grassy ditch. It was currently filled with water so with a running start we clumsily lept across it. I made it, though I coated my flip-flop in mud. He made it with ease. Figures.

We pushed our way through the tall tree line and onto the stone path winding around the expanse of water. The colours were spectacular, since the sun was just about to hit the horizon. The pond was lit up with rich oranges and reds. I couldn't believe it. Suddenly my sweet nostalgia hit me, and I recalled that very first night when the man and I went for that fateful walk to the Nature Pond that changed our entire relationship. It was the night that God led me to his doorstep and asked me to ring on his doorbell. It was the night we walked all over town and discovered everything we had in common, and what an incredible connection we had. We eventually made it to the warm-up shack at the pond, where we ended up talking for hours into the night, and I cried in front of someone for the first time in years. And somehow he comforted me in just the right way. It was fate, and it was beautiful. And I couldn't help recalling.

We walked along the stoney path, and broke away through some grass to climb a tall hill overlooking the water and that fateful skating shack. We made it to the top, and marvelled at the sun kissing the fields in the distance. It was June 20th, the longest day of the year, and all of the edges of the evening were dusted with gold.

The man took the camera, and snapped a few shots of me. I hated all of them. I then asked to take a few pictures of him and he agreed. I took the camera in my hands but on the screen was a video of some sort. I pressed play, only to find sweet piano music playing from a speaker on the screen, to the beautiful tune of "The Luckiest" by Ben Folds. (I later found out that he actually transcribed this music, note for note, by hand since the music could not be found otherwise. It took him hours to write.) I looked up from the small LCD screen and saw that he had reached into his pocket and pulled out a tiny slip of paper. Then, as the piano music rose and fell, he began to sing the lyrics from off the slip of paper. I lifted my hands and covered my gaping mouth as I started to cry.


The Luckiest
Ben Folds

I dont get many things right the first time
In fact, I am told that a lot.
Now I know all the wrong turns, the stumbles and falls
Brought me here.

And where was I before the day
That I first saw your lovely face?
Now I see it everyday.
And I know...

That I am, I am, I am
The luckiest.

What if I'd been born fifty years before you
In a house on a street where you lived?
Maybe I'd be outside as you passed on your bike
Would I know?

And in a white sea of eyes,
I see one pair that I recognize.
And I know...

That I am, I am, I am
The luckiest.

I love you more than I have ever found a way to say to you.

Next door theres an old man who lived to his nineties
And one day passed away in his sleep.
And his wife; she stayed for a couple of days
And passed away.

Im sorry, I know thats a strange way to tell you that I know we belong.
That I know...

That I am, I am, I am
The luckiest.


Half way through the song his voice began to crack, because he saw that I was crying. I went up to him and held him, and we danced all through the remainder of the song as he sang sweetly into my ear there, in the sunset.

When the song ended, in his perfect man way, he said, "I guess all that's left is this last part."

"What last part...?" I cracked.

As he knelt down on one knee, he smiled and said, "This is how it works, right?" He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a little black box. I could feel the words "oh my God" forming in my mouth. He opened the box to reveal the only thing more beautiful than the sun that evening.

"Holly Penner, will you marry me?"

...

"Yes!" I nodded and stuck out my eager left hand, ring finger petrified with anticipation. He slipped the most beautiful ring I have ever seen over my finger and stood up. I jumped into his arms and he twirled me around there on top of that hill in my little yellow sun dress. And we kissed and hugged, and reeled at the intensity of this surreal moment in our history book. Everything was different, and yet so unbelievably right.

We still can not stop calling each other "Fiance" and I don't know if there is a surface in my house that does not have "Holly Gilson" scratched into it.

There's something so beautiful in that moment when all of your dreams come true. When you become that person that you talk about, that person that you long to be, that person in that place with that person with that smile, and everything is as it should be. And it smells like heaven, tastes like ecstacy, feels like euphoria, and before you know it you're floating above the ground, spinning in a brand new world. Thrust into the fuzzy pink corners of your dream land.

And only 143 days until I get to do that again.