Last night I slipped into the weight of dreams and there you were. You were waiting for me. With a wide smile on your face and the look of mischievous wonder twinkling in your eyes. I ran to you, flung my arms wide, and tackled you with a hug.

“You’re here!” I cried out, and you laughed at me as you nodded your head. You took my hand and lead me down a dirt path winding through a maze of trees. We were in the forest, Yosemite to be exact, a place we never had been together but in the back of my mind always wanted to be with you.

“I can’t believe I get to see you,” I said in a rush of excitement, staring up at you. Your smile didn’t end, it split wide across your features and spread throughout your entire body. Your cheeks bloomed softly with enthusiastic color, and your eyes shown bright with the realization that we were walking together; that we found a place to just be.

“I’ve wanted to see you for so long. Just to know that you are real, that you exist. I know that’s silly, but it’s true.”

You look at me then, and the happiness falters. Your eyes turned soft with understanding, and they swam with the pain and yearning of a life that could never be. “You can’t have everything my sweetheart. It can’t be done.”

I nodded at your word despite my desperation to fight against them. “Just be here with me now, in this place and in this moment. I can’t give you what is not mine to give,” you said. “I can be here for you, in this remote place. You can have me here and I promise that I’ll never leave.”

It wasn’t enough for me, and you smiled again at my stubbornness to have what I wanted. “I don’t understand why I can’t be with you,” I said, stomping my foot with finality.

You pulled me into your arms and placed your chin on my head as you held me. And I wept. “Me either,” you said on a heavy sigh. “Me either.”