I honestly don't know what to say about this story, other than that I hope you enjoy it.
Hiadel
Looking out the window I saw the storm that was raging outside. Pressing my worn and beat up old hands to the glass I could sense that the rain wasn't going to let up anytime soon. Its been this way for the past week now and its gotten to the point where some people are worrying about the cities sewer system becoming flooded. I'm not that worried about it though. It'll pass over. Besides, I have larger problems to worry about.
The major issue I've been having recently is my marraige. After my first wife died at the age of fifty, I thought that I was lucky to find another woman to marry. I had poured all the want and desires that I held in my soul after my first wife's death into my new marraige in hopes that I would be happy again. It worked for awhile. We'd go out on weekends and explore the parties that were spread out across the city, where other old couples shared stories of younger and better times. Coming back from the parties we would walk into our apartment exhausted from our travels across town and fall into bed. Laying on our pillows I'd wrap my hands around her waist as we layed on our sides and admired the night time sky that hung outside the window in our bedroom. The wrinkled skin that covered my chest would rub up against her backside as I'd bring her closer to me. Before falling asleep beside her each night I'd rest my head on her grey covered head and look over her one more time before closing my eyes. Her shriveled up skin glowed in the moonlight where the last signs of youthful beauty could be seen by a birthmark that stretched across one of her breasts.
It seems though that all of that has gone out the window over the last few months. We'd wake up and bicker and fight over the craziest things.
"I don't care if you're retired!" she had yelled at me one day. "Find yourself something to do, a hobby, anything! I just can't stand to sit here and watch you wither your last few years away with nothing to do."
I'll admit she was partially correct. I have grown rather bored with myself over the last few years and I haven't put any real effort into finding something to fill my days with.
After awhile she got so mad at me that we stopped sleeping together. For the first time in about sixty years I think I slept on my couch while she went to sleep all alone in our bed. It didn't stop there though. I tried numerous times to go out and find something to do with myself to no avail. Almost each night I'd beg and plead with her to try and get over it, saying that it was a problem that only concerned me, and that she shouldn't worry about it.
"But it does concern me" she would always say back to me. "I can't bear to live with someone who can't find thier own passions, something to look forward to and strive to make a part of thier life."
Eventually she got so frustrated with me that she decided to go by herself on a vacation.
"I'll see you later." She said as she walked out the door. "Find something to fill your life with."
While she started off on her vacation I went to work to try again to find something to occupy myself with. Trying to think things through more logicaly this time I decided I would flip through the newspaper and try to find something there, and I did. The sports store was having a sale on running equipment, and I decided that I was going to start running.
Jogging through the parks lasted for a little while. I would come back to the apartment exhausted and sore. Even though I was feeling better after running I soon decided to drop it. People looked at me as I ran through the city streets with my sneakers and running shorts on. Only after a week or so I stopped because so many young women had started to turn thier heads in the opposite direction whenever I would come running by. I could feel them giving my old aging skin one glance and turning away so they wouldn't have to look at me. With my self esteem barley intact I came back home to the couch where I had started and was close to giving up on myself.
One day I was looking for the remote when I stumbled upon an old piano book. I'm not entirly sure why, but I picked up the old book and went over to our piano and started to play. After a few minutes of reajusting myself to the piano ( I used to to play as a child, which is the only reason why we have the thing in the appartment in the first place) I began to play songs from out of the book.
As soon I truley started to get into the rythm I could see something strange taking place outside. The rain seemed to dance along with the rythm of the song, and before I knew it I saw this young woman materialize out of the storm and start dancing on my balcony. After a few minutes of dancing in the rain she pulled open the door that led into the appartment and walked in. As I continued to play the piano she waltzed in and continued to dance around the living room. She let her wet black hair swing about her as she spun around in circles. Her slim and tender looking body carried a seemingly unmatched elegance as her small black dress swirled around with her motions. Wanting to stop and ask her who she was ( as politley as I could, for it's not every day I have such a fine young woman dancing in my living room! ) I stopped playing and turned around in my chair to face her. As soon as I had stopped playing the piano though she quickly fadded into mist and disapeared. Her beauty had come and gone so quickly that it seemed as if like the lightning that thundered outside the appartment in the storm she had flashed out of existance.
The next day I sat down and started playing so that I could see the woman. Like the day before once I got into the grove she materialized onto the balcony and found her way inside. She danced as she had the day before and then moved behind me where I couldn't see her without being able to play the piano and look at her at the same time. Knowing that if I stopped playing she would vanish I played on. Growing more curious as to what she was doing behind me I was about to turn my body around when I felt her hands start to touch my shoulders. They gripped my tall frail figure and started to rub against the shirt I was wearing. I'll admit I didn't put up any fight at all. My old body welecomed the touch of the young fingers tightly clutching my clothing. Then she bent closer to me and wrapped her hands underneath my arms to where they came to rest in front of my red button down shirt. It was all I could do to continue to play the piano as she caressed my chest and slowly unbuttoned my shirt. One by one she went down the row I had on my shirt, and with each button I could feel my viens flood with esctasy for the first time in many years. It had been far too long since the last time I have felt that way about a woman.
Once she had loosened all my buttons and had my chest fully exposed she went for the belt. As I watched the delicate hands slowly unwind my belt buckle I felt myself falling deeper into the trace given off by her delicate fingers. With the belt unbuckled one could only guess where she was going next.
We will never truley know where that was though, because at that moment the maid who normally came at that time of the week unlocked the door and walked in on me with her.
"Mr. Antino, are you here?" she said as she entered the room, looking around for me. Quickly I stopped playing the piano and saw my woman in black fade away into mist. Turning her head from around the entrance the maid saw me totally unbuttoned on the piano and quickly turned away.
"Dammit woman!" I said as she diverted her eyes. "Can't you see I'm busy?"
The maid must think I masturbate in front of the piano now. I don't really care though. She can think what she wants to think.
Last night I got on the piano and started to play it while it stormed outside. Again as in the past times the woman came through the rain and entered the room. She waltzed around for a few minutes and then came to my side by the piano bench. Sitting down next to me we started to play the piano together. She really was simply georgeous just sitting there along side of me. I had a hard time playing because I was distracted by her hair. I'll admit again that that wasn't the only thing that distracted me. The yellow dress she was wearing that night was rather revealing, and I found it hard not to look at her areas that were normally reserved for younger men. But I don't care at all about that. Deciding to risk a glance I peered down her yellow dress and found something far more interesting and intertaining than I expected. Dashed across one of her breasts was a very familiar birthmark I had seen many times before. Immediatley I stopped playing the piano and she vanished before me, her beauty dissolving into the air around me. I didn't know what to say. All I could wonder is why I hadn't been able to recognise her earlier.
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Today is a totally different day for me. I'm sitting at the piano while I'm waiting for my wife to come back from the airport. Any moment she'll walk in and see me here at the piano humming along to a piece I'm playing. As she walks through the doorway I'll turn to her and smile, and she'll notice what I'm doing and smile back, happy that I've found a new passion.
Looking out the window above the piano I notice that the rain has stopped, and I realize that whenever I smile at my wife while playing the piano it will forever hold a dual meaning.
