7300
Embassy Hotel and Suites
St Louis, Missouri
I woke up out a restful slumber. I looked around. The familiar belongings of my own hotel suite greeted my eyes.
I sat up, physically drained and emotionally confused.
“How…how did I get back here?”
I tried to recollect what had occurred in the space of time, which at the moment I have no recollection of.
My palms began to tingle, I looked down. Two strips of cloth concealed the reasons.
“What...”
I slowly unwrapped one hand and inspected my palm.
Nothing out the ordinary, other than the palmar flexion crease, which was intact. I duplicated the action with my other palm, once again, undamaged.
I threw the covers back and scooted to the edge of the bed. I rose and instantly fell back onto the bed.
My body felt as if it had been wrung through a ringer. I held onto the nightstand and shifted one hundred and twenty pounds on the stand. I slowly rose and balanced my posture.
“I combed my fingers though a curtain of loosen braids.
All I could remember was, “Aristotle.”
I looked around my hotel suite.
I slowly made my way over to the door. I realized I was naked. My feet took me back over to the bed as fast as gravity would allow.
I lifted my dress and slipped back into it. I zipped it up from behind and rushed back over to the door. I opened it and ran out my hotel suite. I saw a silver cleaning cart blocking the entrance to Aristotle’s hotel suite.
I winded my presence around the cart and peeped inside his hotel suite. His cologne mixed with the new smell of some form of cleaning agent, welcomed my nostrils.
The housekeeper returned to her cleaning cart to retrieve some towels.
“Excuse me.”
The woman looked up.
“Yes.”
“Could you tell me where the man who occupied this suite has gone?”
“He checked out.”
“What time is it?”
The housekeeper looked down at her watch. She looked back up at me.
“Seven o’clock, ma’am.”
“Thank you.”
“He didn’t even say goodbye.”
“Excuse me ma’am.”
“I’m sorry, nothing.”
I hung my head, turned, and walked back to my hotel suite. I entered and slammed the door close. I rested my back against it.
My body felt charged, and my mind felt a new awakening.
I walked in the direction of the bathroom. I opened the door and entered.
I smiled after seeing a long-stem red rose resting over the Ankh that rested around Aristotle’s neck. I entered the bathroom and walked over to the vanity. I lifted the Ankh and held it tight, as if to hold on to a memory, never to be played out again. I lifted the letter, which was beautifully inscribed on the hotel’s stationery.
Kelilah, I need you to know, I’ve enjoyed the precious time we spent together, reconnecting in the abyss of our souls, entwining in this lifetime, only to return us to the beginning. In and out of time. I will always love you through the ages of time. When you glance up at the stars at night, know that I am there wishing to embrace you. Take care of yourself, physical, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally, until our stars cross once again.
Aristotle/S
“I suppose, I have to wait another lifetime, darn,” I sighed on the notion, “I will have to rely on another encounter when the stars and the planets are aligned, or in this case, another accidental meeting.”
I folded the letter and placed it back down on the vanity. I lifted the rose and cuddled the delicate rose petals.
I took a whiff of the petals and placed the rose back down on the vanity.
I unzipped by dress from behind and allowed the garment to gather at my ankles. I slid the shower door back and stepped inside the shower. I pulled the door close.
St. Louis Lambert International Airport
Later That Afternoon
I boarded my flight and weaved my presence through several passengers. I finally made my way to first class seating; a feeling of melancholy gripped me, as the flight crew continued to welcome more boarding passengers.
As I waited, I sat back in my chair and placed one earbud in my ear, blocking out the cruelty of the world that dealt me the fate of unrequited love in this lifetime. I adjusted my small MP3 player. I blasted the lyrics of You Send Me, sad to think, I was the one who was sent. I placed my purse on the seat near me.
I really did not want to share my space with anyone. My mind played so many scenarios; if I had not passed out, at least that’s what I think I did. Maybe I could had swum in the passion of Aristotle’s lovemaking, the handsome brotha was packing some serious beef. I’m still pissed because I could not remember anything up to this particular point in time; I’m also chagrined, I felt cheated by time that I met a person, in the physical sense, only to have to give him his wings in this lifetime, and, according to the laws of the constellation body, guarded by the secret of the stars; will return to me, as who, when, and how?
I glanced around the spacious compartment. Hopefully, I could think in peace, one thing about first class, it does have its rewards.
“Is anyone sitting here?”
I took the earbud out my ear and placed my MP3 player on the table in front of my presence. I looked up.
“Not at all.”
A widen smile had taken residence on my face. My dentist would be proud of the porcelain white teeth I displayed.
The first thing I noticed about the handsome brotha was his hair. Uneven ringlets of hair strands sprouted from his scalp showering just below his shoulder blades
“Do your eyes always dance with excitement when you talk to strangers?”
His deep baritone voice, subtle familiarity, yet so distance in time.
“I’m sorry.” I lifted my purse and placed it near my MP3 player. “No one is sitting here.”
“You’re sure I’m not disturbing the beautiful lady.”
“You’re fine.”
“I think that compliment would have sounded beneficial coming from me.”
I blushed without shame.
The stranger unbuttoned the suit jacket of his blue pinstripe suit and adjusted his sinewy frame in the seat next to me. He pivoted his head to face me.
“My name is Galileo.”
“As in the Italian Astronomer.”
“Yes.”
“You don’t say.”
“Yes, the Astronomy convention was in town.”
“So, I’ve heard.”
The plane slowly glided down the runway and ascended toward the eastern skies.
“I’m sorry, my name is Kelilah.”
“Kelilah,” the stranger formed from a pair of generous lips. “The author?”
“You know of my work?”
“Yes and no.”
“Care to be more specific.”
“I am a professor of Astrophysics, and one of my students left a book behind with that particular name on it." The stranger palmed his chin down. “Oh, what was the title…something like...? Shadows of Desire.”
“Shadows of Lust.”
“Yes, that’s it.”
“That was my best work.”
“So, I’ve read. I feel honored to share the sky with my very own star.”
I smiled like there was no tomorrow.
“And I feel extremely honored to share the sky with a man who studies the stars and its relation to time.”
Galileo quietly nodded his head at the assertion of his worth.
“Kelilah.”
“You pronounced my name accurately, most people enunciate it as, Cleia, it’s actually pronounced, Keli-ia.”
“Interesting fact.”
“Blame that small tidbit of my ancestral liking. In association to the universe.”
“Explain that to me in lament terms beautiful woman.”
“The significant to the originated name to the universe will always set me
free.”
“I like that.” Galileo looked at my lips. “You reside in Philly?”
“Yes, you?”
“New York. Thank goodness you are not that far from me.”
“I could not be gladder myself.”
The stranger looked down at my upper thigh.
“Nice rose tattoo, and what it that with it.”
“Thank you, and it’s a Fairy.”
“I like them both.”
“Thank you.”
I self-consciously shrugged my skirt down.
I looked at his hair.
Galileo’s eyes netted mine, reading the silent question in them.
He stroked my cheek.
His touch, so familiar I wanted to voice.
“My mane, it’s the strength that makes me the man within.”
“I love your strength.”
Galileo leaned over and whispered in my ear, “We are going to get along quite well, Kelilah.”
“I knew it the moment you claimed my heart…I meant my seat.”
“Give me time to calm the other.”
He winked at me.
I smiled and blushed at the same time.
God this moment feels so right I thought.
“Were you in St. Louis for business?” Galileo cleared his throat. “Or pleasure.”
“I attended the Nurse Convention.”
“Are you a Nurse?”
“Yes.”
He lifted my hand and placed it over his chest wall.
“I feel ill already, and I have no chicken soup.”
We both laughed.
I lifted my hand from off his muscular chest.
“Well since we are going to be sharing the sky could I get you a drink?”
“Yes, you may.”
Galileo leaned over and squeezed my hand. He summoned the flight attendant’s attention.
“The Rose Between Stars”
In marble halls where scrolls were sung
Aristotle spoke with golden tongue
He named the stars in sacred dance
Each orb a God, each move romance
He saw the Earth as heaven’s throne
Where purpose bloomed and fate was known
The Moon, he claimed, was pure and still
A perfect sphere by divine will
But time unfurled its silver thread
And Galileo gently led
He raised his gaze with quiet grace
And found the Moon’s imperfect face
No flawless gleam, no crystal dome
Just craggy truths the stars call home
He watched the Heavens shift and sway
And listened to what night would say
Then came the Rose, with petals wide
A soul who loved both stars and tide
She bloomed between their minds’ embraces
A mythic hush, a sacred grace
Aristotle held the scroll
Galileo touched the heart, the soul
But she, the Rose, became the flame
Who loved them both and spoke no blame
She kissed the Moon with scarlet hue
And left her scent in stardust dew
A reincarnated bloom of lore
Who knew that love could hold much more
So let them dance in Twilight’s dome
The sage of Earth, the starry roam
But let the Rose, in velvet hue
Be proof that both philosophies are true
For truth is not a single flame
But many voices, none the same
And still the Moon, in silver light
Reflects her sacred incantations across its night
“She withered to remember, bloomed to never forget.”
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