The Two Worst Years

It was high time for these two Giraffes, Meena and Maurice, to either ask each other out or spare the rest of the forest the will-they/won’t-they suspense. The two had been circling around each other for the last month and both of them were too shy to stick their neck out and make the first move.

You might be thinking, whose business is it other than Meena and Maurice what they do with their little dalliance? If that describes you, congratulations on your enlightened worldview. Feel free to stop right here and live your great and wonderful life. The rest of us baser beings like to discuss things we can see with our eyes.

So, now that those people are gone let me tell you, these two Giraffes have been flirting and canoodling and making eyes with each other for weeks! The whole forest thought they were really cute together and couldn’t wait for them to just buck up and ask each other out. They’d make a great couple.

The gossip at the local coffee shop was that these two giraffes were heading off to college soon and figured since they were young and about to explore new parts of their life maybe it would be nice to not have anyone they were obligated to.

That story was recounted by the Giraffe’s brother when Meena and Maurice finally got married about 25 years ago. They had gotten together 2 years after they left for college and have been inseparable ever since. They were so happy and the town truly loved seeing them live out their lives in such happiness and love together.

At his wife’s eulogy, Maurice recounted the best parts of their long lives together. It was a touching and beautiful remembrance of his great love. He did, however, make note of the two worst years of his life, those first two years they went off to college that they decided to spend apart. The two had written each other every couple of weeks, then every week, and pretty soon every day.

“Those letters,” Maurice recounted, “Made me feel like the luckiest man in the world and a right coward at the same time, they were more precious gold to me than gold. I once asked Meena what she thought of that time apart. She said she missed me but knew if we kept this up for another year she would run out of things to write about!”

Now, Maurice sits with me in the coffee shop and we look at all the young kids about to go off to college. He remembers how good life used to be and how rich it still is having lived with his great and only love.

No one tell those uppity readers that jumped off board earlier what this story was about. Let em wait a couple years to find out.