Other Half

June 17, 2010

“God told us who our soul mates are and you want to go against Him? Non-soul mate marriage should not be legal! Think of your children. How will you explain the name on your arm that isn’t the same as your spouse’s?”

“Turn that shit off, Charlie.”

“Momma, it's getting interesting. They wanna make it illegal for non-soul mates to get married,” Charlie Ray says, from where he lays across the couch.

“Yeah, I heard all that. Nonsense is what it is,” she tells him, moving barefoot around the kitchen. “They’re tryin’ to take away people’s free will.”

Charlie Ray frowns. “But shouldn’t people marry their soul mates?”

His mother turns and leans against the counter. Charlie Ray has his head hanging over the arm of the couch, staring at her upside down.

“Sweetheart, your daddy and I were soul mates. Things didn’t work out with us. They’re supposed to be perfect for you, but perfect don’t mean it works out. And there are people in this world, who never meet their soul mate. You wanna deprive them of lovin’ someone else and bein’ happy with them?”

“You’re right,” Charlie Ray decides. “But what about me? I’m already thirteen and I don’t know nobody named Trevor. You think I should stop waitin’?”

She sighs and says, “Honey, you should never stop waiting. You meet Trevor, you meet him. You meet someone else you love, well, so be it.”