Room 253

I wake up suddenly. I feel my heart beating furiously. My body is tensed, sweating. I am afraid, fucking terribly afraid. I close my eyes again and I begin to beg. "Please, please, please..." I strech out an arm, stopping breathing. The air I'm meeting's killing me but then..."Oh, thank you" I whisper. I finally touch his heat, his body. Frank's quietly sleeping beside me. My heart begins to calm down, my breath it regulates. Nonetheless I still need to get up. I glance at Frank's sleeping body once again. Snorting against me, I lean to quickly kiss his forehead. He moves a little, but doesn't wake up. I get up and I reach the window. I open it, a cigarette already in my lips. It's been the same bad dream since he came back. I awake and find that Frank has never returned. All the cares and kisses and sex we have had since then are useless against the night. I hate it sometimes, I mean when is not Frank and Gee's bed-special-time, but Gee-tard-fucking kind of night. The cries and tears I made in my fictional, yet distorted wordl, begin to fade. The nicotine anesthetizes my foolish fear, the noises of New York traffic lull my body. - Gee...- Frank murmurs, shifting in the bed. - I'm coming- I say while I turn out the cigarette. I smile at him, approaching the bed. What a fool I am.... after all this time.

Frank's POV

I woke up this morning, feeling guilty as ever when Gerard had his nightmare. As if I would run away again.. what an adorable fool he is, and what a cruel thing I was.I prepare the coffee and take it to him in bed. My way to apologize. I take the tray and carry it in our room. He greets me with a smile, bright eyes for the coffee coming. I smile back. He looks like a child sometimes. - Thank you - says to me before diving into his coffee. I am on my second sip when he sighs, satisfied with his cup. I smile again. - I'll take you another one...- I say, but he is already standing. - Your back hurts you today - He kisses me - I'll go- I'm a little disappointed. He always understands everything about me.I try to stay straight, that damned back really hurts this morning. I sigh finishing my coffee. A little is for the age a little because of the accident. An idiot bumped me quite a few years ago, destroyed my car, leaving me with this beautiful memory and a Gerard shocked for a month. I grin thinking about how many times, tired or just lazy, I played the card of the "sore back". But sometimes I doubt he has ever fallen into my trap. Ah Gerard....
- Frank, you old sluggard move! The kids will be already waiting for us!- I roll my eyes when I realize he's right, there is a quarter to 9... Slowly I get up, paying attention to my poor back and begin to prepare.
When I get back in the living room I find Gee already ready, the bag with his tools on his shoulder, his hair now almost completely white collected in a beautiful tail. The light of the morning creates strange patterns on his face, wrinkled skin and on those eyes, always the same, untouched by the passage of time. He watches out of the window, thoughtful and he twists the ring on his finger. - Shall we go?- I ask, with a fool-in-love knot in my throat. He shifts his gaze on me. He smiles as he takes even my old Pansy. He smiles at my futile attempt to help him. He smiles at my light kiss on the lips, a little dry. Today, he smiles, and that is enough.
It's 6 o'clock in the afternoon and our art classes are over for today. Here in the little park in our neighborhood we love to "educate young minds". Pansy and I think of music, to the good old rock I grew up with, and that for these little guys is a fossil record. Gee is responsible for comics and painting. And we spend the day together, havong fun, telling stories and doing the olders, in fact "Grandparents" call us the little ones. We who have no children to spoil, pour on them all that distance and time prevent us from continuing to do with the sons of Mickey. For them we were "the weird uncles." But they are big now, they are engaged and committed, they don't have time for two poor featherbrain. We had our time, me and Gerard, and now that is ending, we need to slow down and enjoy a dark sky or the sink clogged. And the kids give us this break, lend us fresh dreams, lend us their will to live. I think it is thanks to them that at 78 years still takes us the whim of making love. I took Gerard's hand. I think it's strange to see a vision of two old by the hand but summer is ending and winter is approaching.
I'm afraid of winter...
- What's up Frank?- he has stopped, looking at me with his eyebrows raised. He shakes my hand stronger. - We are old- I reply, despondently. I pray all of the gods of this and other world to take my carcass first. I'm still afraid of the dark, my demons are gone but have left scars that the ink can only mask. - Do you still love me Frank?- I look at him me, puuzzled.
- Always- I say, however, without hesitation. He leans toward me, his hands fit in my gray hair, his lips are caressing mine, get them to open up and be kissed. He then lets go of my and takes a breath, loudly. I still have my eyes closed. I'm savoring the taste, as the first times, and I find that it still has the same flavour of good and coffee. "Then," he says taking my hand "There is nothing to worry about."
And we continue at walk together hand in hand into the sunset, towards home