Progress

“Do you know what I hate?” Mel asked. He, puzzled for a moment, somehow had to think of a good response, just in case she was about to criticise something he had done or not done, said or even thought. She knew him so well.

Luckily she went on before he opened his mouth, with the real risk of saying the wrong thing. “Thank Heavens!” John thought, “It’s is a rhetorical question.”

“What I really hate is progress.” She finally uttered.

“Is that it?” he thought “Or is there more to come?”

“Haven’t you ever thought that for every wondrous advancement, every fantastic achievement and for some every super must have gadget, device or whatever that comes on the market we actually lose something too?”

She took a deep breath and went on.
“The things that we lose are things that we will remember in times to come and regret their passing and wonder why we were such fools to let them go.”

As Melanie prattled on, John looked at her and loved her even more. He saw her lips move and wanted to kiss them. He wanted to touch her face and run his fingers down her neck and hold her tight. He wanted to lie down with her and feel her warmth against him, to hold on to her bare calves, and to count her toes and to kiss her soft tummy and feel secure with her as she wrapped him in her arms and hugged him tight and rocked him, while he breathed in the scent of her body. She loved him drawing pictures on her back and having to guess what they were.

“Don’t you think so too?” she asked.

John, awoken from his reverie, looked back at Melanie’s face. She was smiling and said, “You haven’t heard a word I said, have you?”

“Mel, my darling, precious little flower, you are absolutely right, but everyday of our lives some things change. I think we are tricked into believing that some of the changes are in fact progress. Some however are inevitable. The important thing is to be able to share your life with someone who you can trust, to talk to, to play with and to laugh with, and all the rest? What does it matter as long as we have each other?”

Mel had a tiny smile on her face when she considered all that.

“You are only saying that because you want to go back to bed, aren’t you?”

“Yes” John replied.