COCONSPIRATORS IN LIFE (Excerpt of HEART ON FIRE by L Rae Brown, Vol 1)

Four hours plane ride from Los Angeles, Stevie’s sitting by the window in a three row seat as she stares at the left engine, mesmerized by the sound of the humming. A couple next to her in their late fifty-something, Kara & Tony, married twenty-two years, with two kids. During the four hour plane ride they watched a movie together on their iPad. Submerged themselves into five cheap gossip magazines. Tony being fully involved in Kara’s interest of the lives of the stars. The two puzzles they worked on together. Kara & Tony discussed twenty  different subjects. One of which was how they were going to talk a family member into doing something, something for them. It wasn't the “something” that held Stevie’s attention. It was the way they talked to each other about it. The way they plotted and planned with such delight in each other’s ideas. The way she looked at him with childish admiration when he gave and added to their plot. The uninterrupted gleam in Tony’s eyes as he watched Kara’s mouth move, when she spoke. The childish excitement between them, as if they were fifth graders plotting a snowball attack against the world.   

It was poetry.

It was music.

It was even slightly ridiculous.

It was like a symphony, listening to their back and forth discussions. 

It was magic.

He never corrected her. She never scolded him. There were no doubts from each others contribution in their plan. There was only respect, admirations and joy shared between the two of them. They were a team. As their plot thickens you can feel their love secure.

Tears started rolling down Stevie’s face, down to her neck, burning into her skin. The same song blasting in her headphones the last three hours, Adele -He won't go. Yet for the life of her she couldn't memorize the lyrics. Witnessing Tony and Kara’s love was a sting with so much of reality in a dose. Stevie never understood what was missing in all her relationships with her men. Three marriages, two funerals, one pending divorce and twenty-seven years of loving men, yet she never had the pleasure of experiencing the magic that Kara and Tony have. At that moment, four-hundred thousand feet off the ground, Stevie understood what she wanted. Not a man who would cower from her beauty. Dread her spirit. Fear her magic. Hate her for his own inferiority. Punish her for the love she possesess so naturally or starve her of love and hide her from the world. Stevie figured out what it was she always needed, not what she had always thought she wanted. Her wants always changed with each men in her life. What she really needed ...what she always ached for in love, she wanted a coconspirator. She needed a coconspirator ...in this life. Someone who would plot the games of life with her; like Bonnie & Clyde, Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid. Through thick and thin and maybe some sins, but through it all ...together as coconspirators in life.  

Written by L Rae Brown © 2012