In Sickness and In Health
by Jonathan Quince
Saturday, February 26, 2005 10:45:00
Depression and dysphoria ooze from my presence, dimming the bedchamber to a hope-forsaken greyness. The rank odor of animal sickness permeates the air; my very breath is foul; I am choked in my own stench. I am unable to bear it, yet simply too apathetic to care. Life itself seems to wither under an acrid brume rising to pull me down to the murky abyss.
Piercing my aura of malaise, she extends a pristine white hand to touch me. Vile as I am, I flinch and shrink from her involuntarily; by instinct, I am simply embarrassed; I try not to breathe in her general direction. She understands immediately; smiling and gesturing for me to be still, she climbs atop me. Tangling one hand gently in the rancid mess of my hair, she kisses me full on the mouth: With her tongue sliding against mine, she wordlessly tells me the message that she is unafraid of my wretched filth, that she will taste it and so share with me my suffering, thus with me to conquer it. Aligning her body to mine so I can feel her soft curves pressing against me, she gives me a blissful pause as the first ray of light piercing my grey suffocation.
With one svelte arm encircling my shoulders, she gently hoists me to a sitting position. After a pause to let my dizziness subside, she winks convivially and slowly pulls me to my feet. I am shocked at the strength of her dainty form as she supports the dead weight of my body, half-walking, half-carrying me out to the bath.
Shortly thereafter, I behold the light of cleanliness. As she carefully laps the water across my skin, layers of vomitous grime are smoothly lifted. My features are gaunt, my frame emaciated from wasteful indisposition; yet under her ministrations, a glint of health is restored to my eyes, a shade of hope to my pallor. She washes me thoroughly, inside and out; then, in the same blur of ablutionary motion, she scrubs my teeth and brushes out my hair.
I sit in the chair wrapped in a towel, shivering slightly, as I watch her change the sheets on the bed. Her deft, competent movements mesmerize me in my state as she discards stale cloth, replacing it with fresh. Smoothing the bed with a final brisk sweep of her arm, she turns back to me.
And once she has slid me into the crisp, new bed, I begin to experience the true bent of her healing powers.
Though I relax and lie still, limp in repose as a doll, my body begins to twitch and shudder involuntarily in response. Her hands, her warm mouth, her wet and dexterous tongue seem to penetrate me, clearing away my spiritual crud as she washed the filth from my body. Burying her face between my legs, she sets to the business of making a fire; its warmth spreads like soothing balm through my body, caressing achy muscles and stiff joints; and feeding on me, she feeds me of her energy.
I am aroused fully, now, floating on a cloud of salvation where no illness can touch me. She climbs atop me, pressing me back into the bed; her smooth chest and sensual breasts slide against me; and with her lustrous skin and vital curves fit to my body, she gives me a deep kiss and makes full sex to me.
The heights of the sky could not stretch to cover the sea of passion she invokes. Carrying me away in her arms, she brings me to a celestial dream-pool where she bathes me in its healing light. In her, I find quiet solace; in her, I find boundless energy; and with the fondling caress of her hands, I am unleashed. Time slows down as my heartbeat hastens; and suddenly, it stands still in a captured frame of love and light, life and glory, preserved for a shuddering eternity.
Echoes of life-giving sex ripple through my body, nourishing me to health anew. I am weak, yet; but now, by her, I am recovering. Sinking back into the softness of the pillow, I close my eyes with a sigh; and on the edge of redeeming sleep, I speak to her with words few but potent.
To Life, do I whisper, Our Lady of Redemption. For she is an unconditional being, proven on the heights of joy and the depths of despair, and this do I know: Whither I go through life’s joys and travails, she will be with me; by sunlight and by storm, she shall stand at my side; through good and through bad, over triumph and under anguish, in sickness and in health, she is true as a promise made in Heaven.