The Door

March 24th, 2007-

I sat in my office, blaring music and talking to a fellow Army wife on IM. Wearing my pajamas, which consisted of Michael's basic training sweatshirt, I swirled around on my wooden office chair with the sun creeping through the blinds.

Underneath the rumble of music I hear something...another noise that I soon decipher as a phone ringing.

With Michael deployed, I had to be alert to any calls that may be him calling from Baghdad, so like a robot on crack, I shut off the music, ran to the living room (which was only 4 feet away, though I felt out of breath with the possibility of hearing my love's voice), picked the cordless phone off the same red chair that Michael had proposed to me on nearly a year and a half before, and pushed the "Answer" button....

"Hello?" I say, breathing as if I'm some overweight cop who just chased down a convict.

"Baby....." And before he could get a word in I was ecstatic to hear him...my soul mate on the other line!

"Baby!!! Oh, I've missed you so much!" I say, cutting him off.

"Baby, can you open the door?" he replies.

And with a sense of panic, I lift my head to look up at the glass door, and there he is. The most perfect specimen. Six foot, 2 inches, clad in his Army Uniform, with nothing else on him but a smile looking through the pane.

I can barely breathe. Tears of happiness hit the floor and take my body down with it. I unlock the first door and lay against the wall in shock that he is here. 7 months we sat and stared at each other through computer monitors, and here he was.

"Hi, Baby." slips out of his mouth. A phrase and voice I could hear all the days of my life.

"Baby, can you unlock the screen door?" ( Because of course, I was still on the floor)

And then it happened. He walked in, picked me up, and I wrapped my legs around him. Felt him. Breathed him in.

In the tunnel vision of my love, I didn't see his family outside (which I apologize if I may have mooned), but they drifted off on the other side of the door and we were alone.

He came into our room, layed back on the bed and just looked at me, as I sat on top of him just touching his face, absorbing that he was real, he was here, and he was mine.....

It was the best thing to ever walk through that door.