Two people walk down a road together, hand in hand. People called them "peanut butter and jelly", Romeo and Juliet. The man and the woman loved each other and have always loved each other. They made each other smile and when they looked at each other, their eye's would dance. Soon after they first met, they got married, and did everything together. They would wake up together every morning and the man would make cook two omelets and butter the toast, while the woman would make coffee and get the paper from down the road. They spent all of their time together, and not one minute apart. Their life together was a living fairy tale. As the years went by, the woman and the man started a family together and the woman believed that they would continue living a perfect life. Everything was fine for a few years, but when their first child was born, the woman saw some changes in the man. He would leave for hours at a time and he constantly was talking to himself about the neighbors spying on them.The woman ignored this all and went on believing in her dream of a perfect life. As the couple welcomed two more children into their lives, the man started to deteriorate.  The woman would come home to find the man taking apart the bathroom, claiming he was looking for the hidden cameras the neighbors were using to spy on him. The woman would be drying dishes in the kitchen and would look out the window to see the man on the bench outside, alone, and talking to himself out loud. The woman still believed in the perfect life, until she woke up in the middle of the night once, to find her husband curled up in a ball, in the corner of the kitchen. he went to him and asked him if he was alright. He continued to stare straight ahead, and the woman heard him whisper over and over again " ...they are coming for me...they are spying for me...they are coming for me...they are spying on me...". Now the woman stood by and watched the man pace and mutter to himself constantly. The woman sat down on a wooden bench and looked on as the man paced and muttered, as if he was in his own world and she didn't exist. A single tear rolled down the woman's cheek and the woman's hand flew up to wipe it away. Her hand then rested on the back of the bench. She felt a indent in the bench and her fingers traced familiar markings. She looked up and recognized a carved heart with the man's and the woman's initials in the shape. They had sat together on this bench several times in the past and one night, as the woman remembered, the man had asked her to marry him. After she had given a tearful yes, they had carved the shape of a heart with their initials in this same bench to declare their love for each other. That was when the woman believed in a perfect life and the woman now realized how her love for the man had not changed. The woman loved the man and always would no matter what happened. The woman stood up and walked over to the man, and gently placed her hand on his shoulder. The man quickly threw her hand off his shoulder and starred at her as if she had punched him. They starred at each other and the woman looked into the man's eyes. These are the eyes of a wild animal, the woman thought, a stranger's eyes, but not the eye's of the man I love. The man looked at her now with a gentle expression and softened eyes. He said softly that they should start walking back now because it was starting to get dark. The woman smiled and placed her hand on the man's shoulder. This time though he did not resist her hand, but placed her hand in his and started on their way home. The man and the woman walked back down the road together together, hand in hand. 

By: Alice Merkel 

"Love is everything it's cracked up to be...It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for." -Erica Jong