When last I left you Mel and I had arrived in my home town, after an hour drive from the airport. My son's took their leave after a short visit and after Mel had made them promise to return after the weekend and spend time with us both.

It was time for her tour of my town. How can I describe that tour? For me,  when we started out, it was just a ho-hum thing, I mean, really it was just a small, mostly deserted downtown section filled with empty buildings and faded storefronts. I had seen it, walked over, driven through it, a thousand times. It was like the speed bump you pass over each day going to work...you know its there, but you rarely even register going over it after awhile. But if it was a walking tour she wanted, I was damn sure going to give it her.

We drove to the courthouse which sets in the center of town and parked the car. From there we walked up one side of Main street headed North. I began to point out buildings in a sort of monotone voice, stating the obvious: "It use to be open but it closed down after Walmart came in."

Finally she stopped me: "Honey," she said in a soft voice, "I can see all that. I want you to tell me what it was like when you were a kid. Every town has its stories....tell me those."

I looked down at her, for a moment at a loss....when I was a kid? How do I....YES. Time slowed down, then began to flow backward as my mind cast back to capture the memories.  Time stopped.  Time. We went back... I took her hand and started walking slowly with her once again and the words seemed to pour out of me.....

"Over where we started...the courthouse...Did you see that plaque? That was where a giant live Oak tree stood. They cut it down a few years ago because it had started to rot, but it use to be the "hanging tree" back a hundred years ago. Oh and when I was a kid, me and my buddies would climb up in its lower limbs to watch parades down main street."

And as I spoke, I could actually see that time once again. Hot July morning.  Me and Johnny Marsh and Donald Rosecrans, and Ellis Knox, scampering up in the low branches of that tree and waiting for the parade to begin. Each of us armed with pea-shooters so we could try to spook the horses ridden in the center of the parade.

Yes, I could see it so damn clear, as if I were back there again. Before I knew it, I was being carried away....back to a simpler time. The words flowed out of me like a river of memory then.

"Yes, over there, that use to be the drugstore. They had a soda fountain and a bar. Every Saturday we would come to town and Dad would treat us to  a chocolate shake or a banana split." We both stood for a moment and stared through the front glass and into the empty old building.  I could almost see us kids twirling around on the stools as we waited for our treat. Ghostly images, trapped in my mind and released by the simple request: "Show me..."

And so it went. We walked all over that town and at each building I had a story to tell. Every step of the way was strewn with forgotten memories, things I had not thought of in decades, ghosts of people long gone and forgotten....all there waiting for this visit.

By the time we had finished the tour, she knew more about me than I had ever told any living soul.  I was terrified that I had shown so much of myself to another living human, I had guarded those secrets of my youth all those years, never sharing with anyone....anyone but her.

So I figured, what the hell, I might as well go the full way. I took her back home, we packed a picnic basket. I would not tell her where we were going. "It's a surprise." was all I would say.

We headed West on Hwy 190 and drove about fifteen miles before we came to our destination.....Lake Livingston. The lake was built back in the early seventies and was a massive 84,000 acres of water that stretched for miles and miles.

I turned off onto a little used road and parked the car where the road ended, then we took the basket and walked through a small stand of trees. When we broke out into the open, we were standing on a large hill, bare of anything save one large Oak tree. Beyond the hill was the lake's edge and water stretched away to the horizon.  This was my favorite place on Earth. It was where I came when I needed to see a sunset and find peace.

So we sat under that old Oak tree and eat our dinner from the picnic basket and drank a bottle of wine. As the sun began to set over the water in a fiery display of light, I once again slipped into the past as I described to her the land and how it was before the lake was there.  The old river bottom, the rich, black land soil, the forests of giant Lob lolly Pine with herds of deer grazing beneath them.

I spoke of the alligators and the bear, the cougar and the coyotes, the beaver and the wild pigs and of how all that land now gone under water was their home.....and mine.  How as a boy I fished and hunted the land. Once again, as I spoke, I could see it all come to life as if I was back there.

As the sun finally dipped into the waters of the lake, I finished my stories and I held her close and whispered: "Thank you."

She smiled at me, took my face in her hands and kissed me softly and with that kiss, she became a part of my soul as sure as if some happy God had melded us together with lightning.

And so ends our story.....at least this telling. "What about the rest of the week?" You ask.

Well, my friends that week passed, as weeks are wont to do. It passed in a blur of happiness, discovery, passion and sweet sharing.  Then she flew home..........for awhile....then she returned and she has been in my life, she has BEEN my life, ever since and so shall she continue to be until the day I die....still loving her.

Our story....Well it continues to write itself....forever.