Kit and Rosanna
In the mythical country of Abolana
lived a young man who was named William Carson. Because his last name
was Carson, classmates nicknamed him “Kit” after the famous American
western hero who was named Kit Carson. Kit enjoyed the nickname and
often thought about how he could be a hero of his life. In high school
the path to his future began to take shape; he enjoyed reading, science,
math, and writing. Many of his male classmates thought him weird.
Rosanna
McCormick was a fickle, yet beautiful young woman, who was willing to
cast her charms upon the next male suiter she met. Kit knew of Rosanna’s
proclivity for emotional and physical folly; yet, he was captivated by
her heart-stopping beauty. Over the years, Kit and Rosanna enjoyed, if
you can call it that, an on-again off- again relationship. Rosanna was
always looking for the next car to slow as they negotiated a sharp turn
nearly in front of her house---maybe a good-looking guy was driving the
slowing vehicle. Kit was never able to speed down life’s emotional road
as fast as Rosanna wanted. In spite of her passion for all the gents,
Kit believed that if she would just wait, he would attempt to more
adequately express his love for her.
A
few years after school, Kit was working alongside a classmate who
sarcastically remarked that Rosanna had gotten married to a man they
both knew. Kit felt like a cowboy in old western movies who had been
shot in the stomach who was hurting so bad, yet he had no means to
hasten his own death. There are pains of various kinds; Kit felt he had
just discovered a new off-the-chart level of emotional heartache.
Sometimes
in life when a person misses one train, a better one comes along. Kit
married a wonderful woman who had a most winsome personality and a
genuine sense of love, trust and devotion. Kit attended higher education
institutions one after another and developed a talent, maybe a divine
gift, of sensing the needs of others and providing the exact combination
of empathy and common sense.
Six
decades of children, grandchildren, and the very stuff of life past
with a normal mixture of joy and setbacks. During those three score
years Kit often thought of Rosanna in terms of wonder and fantasy. He
knew he and Rosanna would meet again and he might once more describe his
once held feelings for her.
Life
often has predictable courses of events, just like the seaward flow of
all streams. At a planned meeting of students who had attended Abolana
schools, Kit and Rosanna would meet again. At that meeting, Kit
attempted to talk with Rosanna about her life. She sharply and
sarcastically said she did not want to talk to Kit. For a very few
minutes, Kit was once more back in time six decades ago when he had
learned Rosanna had wed another. Thankfully, these feeling quickly
dissolved and faded painlessly into the night. The relief came within 60
minutes, not sixty years.
Rosanna
appeared unhappy for her life choices and Kit was now beyond joy in the
choices he had made. She had made the wrong choices; he had made the
right choices. Maybe she regretted her choice of husbands, her lack of
additional higher education, maybe she was jealous of Kit’s total life.
Regardless of the reason, this once whimsical boy-chaser was now captive
to a life of bitterness and resentment. Kit, on the other hand realized
he was free, wonderfully free, of any memories of Rosanna.
Glenn <><
