Catherine then hugged him, as she recollected, "...and there you stood, right over there. With a ray of moonlight pouring down over you...you were a vision, and your presence dispelled the notion the tunnels had all been a dream. The smell of the candles burning, the messages echoing through the pipes...your voice...your hands...yes it was beginning to seem like it had all been a dream..."
Vincent looked down into Catherine's eyes, as he whispered, "Having you there to take care of...was like a dream...and when you returned to your world, I felt as if I had lost a part of myself. It was difficult for me to stay away. The night I left the book at your balcony's threshold...I hoped it would perhaps open the path once again to our bond, so I may soon come to you."
Catherine breathlessly said, "I had not forgotten our bond Vincent, and how it made me feel. When you had left me standing there all alone to return to my world, I wanted to follow you. But I thought of my Dad, and I knew I couldn't stay. I had to go back and let him know I was all right."
Catherine sighed as she tried to tell Vincent how she felt during her recuperation, back in her world, by saying, "I longed to hear your voice again. I was so happy that night, when I looked over, and I saw you were really here."
Softly, he replied, "I tried to leave...yet, I longed to stay...just to see you again..."
Catherine's eyes twinkled by the light of the flickering flames, and she hesitatingly said, "It seemed as if you were disappointed for a moment, at the outcome of my surgery...you turned away from me."
Vincent pulled her tightly to him, as he shamefully admitted, "Disappointed? Perhaps I was for just a selfish moment...not because your beauty had been restored, but by the distance I initially felt the change may have produced between us. I felt as if I had no right to be here with you looking so lovely, that maybe you wouldn't want to see me again."
Catherine astonishingly asked, "You thought with the vanishing of my scars I wouldn't want to see you again?"
Vincent tried to explain it was not because he felt Catherine was that shallow, but rather, because he feared she may view him, as a part of a terrible event in her life.
And so thoughtfully Vincent explained, "I felt like a reminder of the pain you had endured."
Catherine lovingly said, "Yes, you are right Vincent, the attack was a terrible thing that happened to me, but from that ugliness, I found so much beauty, I found you. And you are the person who helped me find the strength with in myself, to endure such pain."
Apologetically Vincent said, "Forgive me for forgetting you see me with your heart."
Amorously Catherine said, "I do Vincent."
Vincent looked downward, as he held Catherine's hand in his, wanting to tell her how wonderful she made him feel, and how she has completed his life.
Catherine could tell that there was something Vincent was not saying, as she lifted his chin, she lovingly asked, "What is it?"
Vincent hesitated a moment before he revealed, "Catherine, on that night, when I walked out of the shadows, I was not sure how you would receive me. Had you sent me away, it would have shattered my heart, and my soul."
Looking down into Catherine's eyes, he added, "For I knew with just one more look, I would be helplessly lost forever. But when you stepped out onto your balcony, and you looked at me, smiling as you said my name...so it began..."
Catherine softly asked, "And so what began?"
As he brushed his cheek across the top of her hair, he said, "My life..."
Catherine looked up at Vincent, and told him, "That night marked the beginning of my life too...a different meaningful life."
She then flirtatiously added, "I remember...I had to beg you to stay."
Vincent replied, "Yes...and it pleased me to stay, happy to look into your eyes, for what I thought would be one last time..."
Catherine looked up at Vincent and grievously said, "You said you wanted to forget about the dream of a life, which included me."
Vincent had broken her heart when he told her that, her world had no place for him in it, and she knew it was true, because of the differences he owned. She too wondered what kind of future they could have back then, as she resisted her feelings that were beginning to deepen for him.
However as events unfolded, and as Vincent steadily captured her heart in a million little ways, she knew he was the one she wanted, and he would be all she would ever want.
Catherine then asked, "Did you know you loved me then Vincent?"
Vincent looked downward as he replied, "On that night? Yes Catherine...I knew I loved you at the start, when I found you and carried you in my arms, perhaps further back than that...to that first brief moment I saw you above. Yes...even then I felt a connection, even then I knew."
Catherine then lovingly said, "Before I met you, my dream of having a contented life became clouded and allusive. And the man...the man in my dreams...was always faceless. And when I would wake up after having the dream, I couldn't touch it, or remember any of the details or any of its substance. But now Vincent...you have given my dreams a direction, and the man...a face..."
Catherine then touched his cheek and dreamily said, "...a beautiful face."
Vincent took Catherine's hand, the one she had brought to his cheek, and he sweetly kissed her palm, and softly said, "Catherine..."
In a slight whisper, she said, "It is all true."
Vincent slipped his cloak off, and spread it out upon the balcony floor. He gallantly waited for Catherine to sit, before he lowered himself to sit down beside her.
As Vincent looked at her, she couldn't breath, remembering the last time they had been together like this...lying down upon his cloak, here on their balcony...their one-way window to the world, which gave them access to the Heavens.
Vincent then held his Catherine, and she returned his embrace, bathed in both candle and celestial light.
The hours drifted by, and soon they knew they had to say goodnight for the last time from this vantage point of their universe.
Catherine cried softly and said, "I know it is silly Vincent, but I really will miss being here with you."
Understandably, he replied, "I will as well."
Vincent stood looking over the city, and held his breath as he reluctantly asked, "Are you having second thoughts Catherine?"
Without hesitation Catherine expelled a deep breath and said, "No...not second thoughts, just nostalgic ones. This balcony was our only place in my world."
In a whispering tone, he said yes, he loved it here for that very reason too.
But then with a smile, Catherine added, "Tomorrow though, we won't be limited to just this space any longer."
With a contented sigh, Vincent replied, "Yes, your new home awaits you..."
Vincent then said, "Until tomorrow Catherine."
Happily, she reminded him, "And we are going to the falls."
With a final embrace, they both said goodnight. And there Catherine stood, alone, as she had before after Vincent left her, looking over the city she loved so much.
But this night, she no longer needed to wonder when she would see him again, she knew tomorrow, they would be beginning their life together in his world.
To be continued
Chapter Seven
| A Dream Within a Dream! By Sharon Holtz Chapter Six |
