Twelve
Once upon a time there was a girl, who was younger than she ought to have been, but who figured she had survived to her twenties and had the right to make up for lost time.
There was also a boy, even younger than the girl and yet wiser in the ways of the world. He was a city mouse, which rather impressed the girl, being a country mouse herself. The city mouse would grow up to become a great traveller, and he would bring the country mouse on many fantastic adventures. They would see a tremendous amount of theatre, and meet witches and dragons and friends worth keeping for years and years and years, and they would eventually iive in a fairytale city amidst a people who spoke the language of the mice in funny accents.
Initially, they didn't like each other, but here is not the place to tell that particular story. The boy and the girl never agree on the telling anyway and there are much better stories to share.
There is the story of 16.5 years together (14 of which have been poly). That's 6,030 days of taking care of each other, in sickness and health (too much of the former, time for more of the latter), in mirth and reverence, in the exotic and the mundane. They have grown up together, confronted many demons and monkeys, nurtured each other to become better and more interesting people. They have learned how to do the WORK and how to get by with a little help from their friends. They continue to worry about each other in ways that have become part of the story, sharing a secret language of memory and meaning that is immensely sweet and touching. They obsess over Shakespeare and history and literature and music, and they continue to add to their private lexicon of experience and exploration.
They are resilient and stubborn, they are practical and sarcastic. They take care of other people, not just each other, and they have become guardians in an amazing community that have helped build. They have retained a vast silliness that is joyful, unapologetic and highly opinionated. They know that cheese is love, that pupdetz are made of Id of pure Ego*, that poly drama llamas can be tamed (or tranquilized in advance), that magick is real, and that neutrinos leave tiny, tiny footprints that are very easy to miss.
12 years ago the boy and the girl were caught in a dreadful storm of anger and hostility and fear. It was cataclysmic (although no actual cats were involved). They were very unhappy and had forgotten how to talk to each other, and so they wanted to throw away four years of investment. It was a very scary time, although surprisingly, not the scariest they would ever face together.
Did I mention they are resilient? And stubborn? And wonderful?
And that they don't celebrate Valentine's Day, because they have a much more important remembrance to celebrate?
Sometimes when you lose, you win.
I love you Nomad. Happy Double D Day #12, baby.
What some folks call impossible, is just stuff they haven't seen before...
* I can't believe I messed that up. Everyone knows that there is Id and Ego. Pupdetz are pure Ego because Id sounds dumb. Id is the sound you make when you fall off a truck (cue visuals): "Id."