The Love Letter

With some friends on Fire Island. It’s cold and the season is over so there is no one here. Fire's burning. We're drinking red wine. I put on one of your CDs. All of a sudden, silence. Everyone stops talking. It's not the first time this has happened. Something about your music. They listen to one song, then another. Transported. Each one to a different place, a different memory. This goes for a while. Then, someone at the table wants to know. Who made you this mixed CD? And so I tell them about a boy I met at a cemetery. Who took me to a beach once and under the moonlight played me a song about two people who together forget the world. And you can tell by the look in their eyes that they are overwhelmed by the story. The romance of it all. It's a love letter this CD, they say. Then they ask that question. The one I know would make you smile if you were here.