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| Bloom © 2011 Ricardo Lira Acuña |
Broken-hearted
for two years after my arrival to LA and several bad dates later, I had already
given up on finding someone, that is, until I met Love. She ignored me for about a month after I
first met her. Then one night at the
Bigfoot Lodge we just clicked, and she wrote her number on the back of a Food
4 Less receipt. We started going out
and seeing each other every chance we got.
A few
months into our courtship, she called me up with tickets to a Ricky Martin
concert in San Jose. I really wasn’t
interested in going, but for the love of her, we drove up to San Francisco,
stayed for the weekend, and caught the concert on Sunday evening. Driving back to LA after midnight, I was
speeding over 90 on the I-5 to get us back as soon as I could because we both
had to work the next day. It had been
the perfect weekend.
But it only
took a split second, when I thought the car wheels had hit dirt in the island
between lanes, for everything to go wrong.
I swerved, slammed the brakes, and we spun out and flipped over several
times. Time slowed down as glass and
dirt flew everywhere, and I put my arm out to protect Love fearing the worst
ending. We landed in a ditch by the side
of the freeway. My scalp was badly cut, making me look like Stephen King’s bloody Carrie. Miraculously though, Love was unharmed and
able to run up to the freeway, inbetween checking up on me to make sure I
didn’t go into shock, until she was finally able to flag down a trucker who
called 911. I was sewn up at the nearest
ER, and we had to spend the night in some hotel in Los Banos because my car was
totaled. I told Love right there and
then that she could leave me, and there wouldn’t be any hard feelings. We took a Greyhound bus back to LA, and she
stuck it out with me. I proposed to her
on Valentine’s Day 12 years ago.
Poor Love,
don’t know how she puts up with me, but I’m glad she does. I’m still a kid at heart who doesn’t want to
grow up. I’m also struggling as a
writer, my mind always preoccupied with what I’m writing and not necessarily
the daily obligations, responsibilities and chores. But I do know this, my Love brings out the
best in me and teaches me to be a better husband, father and person. She inspired many of the poems in my second
book of poetry and photography, Greetings from Heaven & Hell, about
falling in love and the realities of marriage and growing up. I owe my beautiful children, my life,
everything to Love. I love you. Marvilla.
Now on sale as an ebook for only $2.99, Greetings from Heaven &
Hell:
Now on sale as an ebook for only $2.99, under the influence: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0066AA2Z6
