"A kiss on the first date?"
"Only date according to you."
She thought about it for a moment, this would be the last time that she would know intimacy before... She could hear Hope's voice saying do it, do it, do it! "Alright," she answered softly, not to him, to herself.
He leaned in closer still and gently covered her mouth with his. When suddenly he could see images of her life through her eyes; instantly he was taken back to her childhood. He watched as she ran around in her backyard with a sheet tied around her neck. She climbed the slide on the swing set, slipping down the skid, stopping just short of the end, then jumping the rest of the way to land victoriously on her feet. Then sprinting over to the swing, taking a running jump and landing perfectly on the plastic rectangle. She pumped her legs as high as they would take her, her superhero's cape flying in the breeze behind her before flinging her body into the air with another triumphant dismount. She waited anxiously for her sisters so that she could save them from the imaginary monsters of the backyard. She pretended to fly over to the backdoor to see what was taking them so long. When through the screen she could hear her mother tell the other girls not to play with her.
Then suddenly he was in a dark hotel room. There was an older, blonde woman standing at the door with a cigarette in her mouth; her son was on top of her desperately trying to spread her legs. He could smell the bitter smoke from her exhaled breath. 'Quiet! She's making too much noise, put a pillow in her mouth or something, or someone's going to hear her and call the police!' He felt the sting of the slap across her face and even tasted the blood from her busted lip. He knew the added humiliation she felt when her family made fun of her for telling them; and how they called her a liar.
And again, he was snatched away and found himself standing in a backyard surrounded by magnificent, tropical flower bushes, a few friends, and a Navy Chaplain. 'I now pronounce you man and wife.' Then just as suddenly, the feeling of betrayal as her husband confessed to his infidelity; and that he and his lover were going to have a baby. He felt her heart break as she reluctantly caved under the pressure. 'Papi, I will give you the divorce.'
Then again, he was suddenly transported to a doctor's office. 'You have three months to live.' The images were so real that he felt he was, really, there. And then, in front of an unfamiliar, older woman. 'The Lord says that thou shall not die but that thou shall live.' He watched as she turned her face to a wall and cried for, she, would have rather died than to live with the shame of divorcing the man she loved.
And, the heart break of a mother with no answers. 'Mommy, what will happen to me? You leaving dad, I don't want to become a statistic.' Then years later, the court room, 'You are sentenced to 5 years in the Colorado State Penitentiary.' He felt her heart break in two as she hugged her son goodbye.
Homelessness, helplessness, loneliness, abuse, loss humiliation...Did her pain ever end? The images kept coming until he found himself seeing her through his own eyes. She knelt down in front of him and handed him a bag of clothes and food. 'God has a plan for you!'
Then he was whipped into the future, where he could see her plan to hike to a cliff and to jump to her death with the hope that her body would never be found. He withdrew his mouth slowly, hesitantly from hers, knowing that what he had seen was just a moment from a life of disappointment.
That was nice, she thought, but then stopped as she studied the odd look on his face. "What? What is it that you are thinking?"
He looked troubled for a moment, overwhelmed by the images he had seen. Then finally, awkwardly..."That you remind me of someone."
Season looked indignant, "What?" She shook her head angrily and with disappointment. "Well, I guess I walked right into that one." She turned to leave. Rome was powerless to stop her, but he began to pray. She turned back suddenly, helplessly drawn to him; for she had to know. "Who? Who is it that I could possibly remind you of?!"
He stepped in close to her again and searched her eyes with fierce honesty. "You remind me of someone I was supposed to love."
There it was again, the pounding of her heart as the limousine, the hotel, everything vanished and all she could see was him. She backed away from him as if he intended to do her harm. She would not be deterred, not when she had come so far, not when she was at peace with what she was about to do. She shook her head slowly and walked away from him, from endless possibilities, from love, but most importantly of all, from life.
Feeling helpless himself, all Rome could do was to watch her go.