We were finished with our lunch, and I had a reasonable expectation that we would be left alone, for the remainder of the 4 hour flight to San Francisco.  So, I asked Lily to come sit on my lap.  She sat across my legs, so she could see me.
    "I can’t wait to see China," Lily told me, again.  I had been all over the globe.  The only other country Lily had ever seen, was Canada.  I told her she should pick the country we visit.  I didn’t want to honeymoon in America.  It was way too likely that we would run into some fans.  I was hoping Lily would pick a country where they had never heard of me.  China sounded promising, in that regard.  They do bootleg CDs in China, but I’d never heard of mobs of rabid fans thronging anyone, there.
    "I know, but I also kind of wish we could have stayed home…"  I answered.  After spending so much of the past few years on the road, it was so cool to have a place that really felt like home.
    Lily stroked my cheek, giggled, and said, "well, that would have been kind of awkward, with Craig there, house-sitting, and everything."
    I chuckled.  "You’re right.  I need no other home but this."  I said, paraphrasing Shakespeare, badly.
    "Ah, Craig.  You sure know how to pick good friends, love,"  Lily complimented.
    "Well, I was getting on his case, for asking you if sex with me was worth waiting for,"  I confessed.
    "Yeah?  Well, you know how it is with guys and sex…" Lily said, "it’s always at the front of their minds.  Or, so I’ve heard."
    "Um, well, basically, that’s true."  It was certainly true for me at the moment.
    "Poor honey."  Lily laid her head on my shoulder.  "Are you still having trouble?"  I exhaled.  "I’ll take that as a yes," Lily said, and looked up at me again.  "Five more hours?"
    "Way too long, Lily!"  I had to remember to keep my voice lower.  I put my head back against the headrest, and growled again.  In frustration.
    Lily put her hand on my cheek, to comfort me.  "Love, what are we going to do?  You think you should go, um..." She said, nodding toward the bathroom.  
    "It'd probably only work, until I come out again and look at you again," I said, realizing what she meant.  I shook my head at myself.
    "Hmm...  Is it worth a try?"  Lily wasn’t overly thrilled with the idea, even though she was the one suggesting it.  I shrugged.  I was trying to be non-committal, until I knew she wouldn’t mind.  Lily evidentially saw that I wasn’t relaxed and happy, like she wants me to be.  She kissed her own palm, then slipped her hand down, and placed it on my crotch.
    "Lily!  You sure know how to drive me crazy!"  I whispered.
    Lily smiled demurely.  She applied a little pressure, and answered, "Women were created to drive men crazy.  Whether it’s crazy in a good way or a bad way, is the question."  Then, she started gently rubbing me.
I took it as long as I could, but after a moment I told her, "good way!  But, I’ve got to go, um, relieve myself…  And trust me, I’ll be thinking about you."  I picked her up in my arms, and stood up.  I kissed her several times, then put her down again.  I slipped into the bathroom.
    I closed the door behind me, and proceeded to bang my head into the mirror.  But, not hard enough to be heard.  Then, I just leaned against the door.  Lily was way too good to me.  She probably thinks she’s married a sex-fiend, I thought.  From her point of view, that is probably what she thinks.  She’d been loving me for seven years, so she had to be aware of me, for at least that long.  Seeing tabloid pictures of me with a new girl on my arm, practically every month…  That must have been hard for her.  As if I were cheating.
    If Lily thinks she’s in love with a sex-fiend, that’s probably why she’s being so tolerant of this, and let me have my way with her, three times in twelve hours!  And, judging from what she just did to me, she wants to be the one to satisfy me.  Hmm.  Maybe she’s concerned that if she doesn’t give me enough, that I will go get a mistress, or something.   Give in to the groupies...  Never!  I’d have to tell her, that I have never even noticed another woman, since the moment I laid eyes on her.  For me to cheat, would be like blowing off gourmet, to go eat from the dumpster out back.   ‘A lily among thorns, is my darling among the maidens.’  I’ve been spoiled.  There’s no going back.  Even if we never had sex again.
    I had a dilemma.  I looked at pathetic self in the mirror.  Would this be cheating?  It certainly wasn’t the gourmet.  I’d be thinking about her…  But, not sharing it with her.  Being with her put me in this situation, so it had everything to do with Lily…  But, I couldn’t help but feel badly about it.  Lily was out there, imagining that I was jerking off.  By myself.  And she was by herself, and we were not together, and that was what was wrong with this picture!  Was I making her feel badly?  Or, does it make her feel worse, that I suffer?
    If I went out there the same way as when I came in, she’d probably send me back in, again.  She had given her blessing by kissing her hand and rubbing me.  I decided that I would go ahead and get it over with.
    I didn’t leave the bathroom immediately afterwards.  Lily probably was wondering what was taking so long.  I found myself looking into the mirror, some more.  Face it, I told myself.  You’re a prisoner to passion.  And, I was in love with the warden.  I should be committed, I thought.  Then I remembered, that I was committed!  To Lily!  At this, I started laughing.  Out loud.  Loud enough to be heard in the cabin.  I figured I’d better come out. 
    I opened the door.  I saw that Lily had been sitting in my seat, watching the bathroom door.  She got up and smiled at me.  "Better?"  She asked, eyebrows raised, at my mirth.
    "Forgive my manic outbursts," I said, still laughing.  I kissed her.  "Is that why you giggle for no reason, sometimes?  Because you figure, ‘why not just go mad?’"
    Lily laughed with me.  "That is part of the reason, yes!  And, I’m actually glad you understand!"
    "I think I’m beginning to understand.  What’s the rest of the reason?" I asked, as I sat down.
    I pulled her onto my lap again.  Lily kissed me, before she began:  "Well, that’s quite a story.  But, we have time!"  She paused.  "How to begin?  Ah!"  Lily had apparently thought of how.  She looked intently at me again.  "Rick, I need you to believe another ridiculous claim I am about to make."
    "I will.  It’ s no problem.  I’ve gone mad."  I meant it, but I probably should have only said, "I will," so she would know I was serious.
    "It’s for real, love.  Not imaginary…"  Lily felt the need to clarify.
    "I know.  I’m sorry," I told her.  "Believe me, when I say I will believe you."
    Lily shook her head, in amazement, and put her hands on my cheeks.  "Wow," she said, and kissed me again.  "O.K.  Here goes…"  She paused again.  "I suppose there’s nothing to do, but spit it out:  I know the future, love.  And, I laugh about that."
    I had nothing to say, right then.  My brain was still trying to process the information.  So, Lily took the opportunity to explain.  She took the long way around, but I guess that is necessary, when talking about as radical a notion, as telling the future.  "I told you that I have loved you for seven years.  Well, I have to admit, that falling love with you wasn’t my idea.  At all.  And, it wasn’t really falling in love, either.  More like Love fell on me.  It jumped me from behind, kicked me to the ground, and sat on me.  And, it wouldn’t let me up, even when I cried, ‘mercy!’"
    I nodded, knowingly.  Lily giggled as she continued, "I cried, ‘mercy,’ and what did Love do?  It started tickling me!"  Lily stopped to giggle and giggle and shake her head.  Then she looked up, in exasperation.  "Ah, the agony and the ecstasy, my love!"  I started grinning, with my eyebrows raised.  Lily had to calm herself down, before she could continue.  She sighed, and just rested her head on my shoulder.  I stroked her arm.  "Ah, Love is a cruel master."  She giggled again.  She let out a sound of frustration, and hugged my neck.  I hugged her back.
    I thought I would try to help her along, so I asked, "how did it tickle you?  By showing you the future?"  I didn’t quite understand how these two correlated.
    "Well, it wasn’t my idea to love you, and I told you how I tried to talk myself out of it.  That phase lasted for about the first half, of what I call my ‘tribulation period.’  I was in denial.  I didn’t want to love you…"  At this, she looked at me, and pleaded, "please don’t be hurt!"
    "No, Lily!  I’m not." I promised her.
    "You’re not?"  Lily asked.  "Because, I didn’t want to love you, because of, well, your reputation.  And also, because I had-- have-- a tendency to shun the alpha male.  And, you are definitely an alpha male, from the female point of view.  I like to block out the sun, in order to better appreciate the stars:  ‘Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die,/Take him and cut him out in little stars,/And he will make the face of heaven so fine/That all the world will be in love with night/And pay no worship to the garish sun.’  …And, I wasn’t crazy about having to deal with the burdens of fame.  I thought of all sorts of reasons, why it was a bad idea to love you.  I’m sorry!"
    "Nothing to be sorry about."  I assured her, "those are all extremely good points."
    "No.  They are no reasons at all, to not love you," Lily countered.  "And, I am very thankful I got over it.  It took me three years or so, to accept that I actually did love you-- the love was real, and eternal, as you said!  There was no getting rid of it.  So, I accepted it.  And, when I accepted the love, I accepted you.  Exactly the way you were.  So, I abandoned my complaints, and was able to begin to see all the wonderful things about you, Rick!"
    "Cool,"  I responded.  Lily thought I was wonderful!  In spite of all that stuff, I wouldn’t have done, had I known…  "But, I wish I could have been more lovable."
    "Rick!"  Lily lovingly scolded. "You were and are, perfectly lovable.  You just aren’t perfect.  But, I take that on faith, since you seem perfect to me.  But, back to my point!"  Lily continued, before I could enlighten her on my faults, "So, I had this love for you, given to me.  How could I express it to you, like I need to, unless I were to marry you?  Over the years, along with experiencing a deepening love for you, some of the future that we would share together, in impossible detail, was revealed to me.  I, of course, couldn’t believe any of it.  Some of it was too good to be true, and other things I didn’t want!  I had to grow into it.  That’s why it took me seven long years, to get ready for you.  That, and the fact that I couldn’t believe it could ever happen that way."  Lily smiled really big.  "Too good to be true," she repeated, "and, why do I get you?  It couldn’t possibly be.  And yet, it is!  So, I laugh.  I laugh because: what I know, is too good to be true, but it is, and ‘I know something, you don’t know.’ "
    "I feel the same way, Lily!  I mean about ‘why do I get you.’  It is way to good to be true,"  I pronounced.  "So, you knew that we would get together?"
    "For most of that seven years, I had been told-- and retold-- we would get together, and I either fought it or wished for it, or couldn’t believe it, or prayed for it.  I finally was O.K. with it, and completely, irrevocably wanted it, near the end.  Only at the very end, did I actually come to a point were I knew it.  Knew it, like I know the sun will come up, tomorrow,"  Lily explained.
    "Did you ‘know’ anything else?"  I was dying to find out!
    "There are some things I know, and other things that I strongly suspect.  And, I am thrilled about all of it."  Lily grinned, and almost bounced up and down on my lap.
    "Can you tell me?  And why did you wait until now, to tell me about this?" I queried.
    "What if I had told you that we were going to be married, before you even asked me?  Would you not have thought I was just a crazy fan?  I felt I needed to let things progress naturally.  We would be married, whether you knew that I knew, or not…  And, now that it has happened, it’s O.K. to tell you,"  Lily explained.  "As far as the other things…  I’m not sure if it’s alright to tell you, yet.  I don’t want you to feel enslaved, by my expectation.  As if, you had to make it happen, or something.  You don’t!  So Rick, I could tell you, but I’d rather wait, until I know it’s time.  And, continue giggling for no reason!  But, if you ask me, I will tell you."
    "Well, if it makes you happy, why would it be bad for me to know?"  I wondered.
    "Haven’t you had enough startling revelation for one day?"  Lily answered, "let’s wait until tomorrow, at least."
    I chuckled.  "O.K., today we’ve talked about the past.  We could talk about the future, tomorrow."
    "I just want to warn you, that knowing our future, is a bigger deal-- more to deal with-- than knowing my past," Lily cautioned.  "Because, there is nothing we can do about the past.  But, it’s so easy to feel compelled to get involved in the future, whether it means making it happen, or trying to prevent it.  My experience has shown me, that you can cooperate with your destiny, but you can’t make it happen, all by yourself."
    "I am willing to cooperate with my destiny.  I’ve been conquered, just like you have.  I’ve already decided to go where it takes me,"  I announced.
    "Oh, good!"  Lily responded, "It’s only when we embrace it, that it can begin to happen, I’ve found."
    Just then, the captain came on the intercom, and asked us to buckle up, since we were beginning to fly through a front.  These smaller aircraft feel the turbulence more than the jumbo jets do.

 
"A Lily Among Thorns"
Chapter 8: The Prisoner
Chapter 9: The Victims


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