That touch.
The sensation you get when someone is close.
The feeling of such an intense binding that's all too comfortable.
I was attending my quite "purposeful" A.A. meeting today, as condoned by my Case Manager. I walked into a room that was twice as deep as it was wide. The walls were an off-teal paint you'd find in an aged bathroom at a gas station.
There was a couple who sat in front of me. They were young, close to my age; if not younger. The boyfriend, wore a fitted hat backwards. His skin somewhat greasy, his clothes stained with a dark overall tinge. Clean but somehow filthy. The room made most people look this way. As if they spent most of their day under the sun laying in the street. The girlfriend had unkempt hair with a dry dark dyed red that's easily imagined to be done as a sub-conscious rouse to make her believe she's a different person. Everyone there had a reason hate being in their own skin. A small portion of her hair was kept up with a quarter sized hair clip atop center of her head that barely served purpose.
I saw them the last 2 days here and now this the 3rd. As I was contemplating their background stories and making note of their character, the woman spoke, "Hi my name is Rachel." The room, "Hi Rachel." (Fictional name.)
She had a tremble in her voice that were hands after prolonged use of a hammer; post traumatic. She told the crowd of drunken addicts, "My friend has been gone for the past two days. We've alerted the police, I would just ask that you would pray that he's okay. We fear the worst." I imagined this is only one of the all too recurrent events in her life. I felt empathetic but the sharp contour of life's chisel outlined the shape of my empty heart to my mind. The boyfriend remained quiet but looked at her as she spoke. A couple that agreed to get better together seemed to be one of the stronger that I've seen.
She leaned as she spoke.
Close to him.
Her arm dangled from her frail shoulder toward the ground. I imagined she were a different woman; Not his, not mine, just a lover. The size of her arm fit perfectly into the groove in between my thumb and index finger. I used to hold such arms so gentle. It used to have such an intense meaning that was a path in my mind routinely traveled. I remember it now in value of every millisecond that I had held my lover's arm. But in the actual moment, times of embrace were regrettably in fast-forward. There was never a second thought of the magnitude of emotion that was blooming in those days.
I tried imagining myself as her boyfriend.
I couldn't.
I couldn't find the warmth of tactile sensation. I couldn't see the texture of skin that was unique. I couldn't find the glory and righteous light in the firm grip of a hand. I couldn't imagine it. I felt my memory erased. And so, with this lack of emotion, I've forgotten love.
It left me hopeful, that I may learn to be myself again, so that I may actually re-learn it's way. Of rooting in the dirt, finding it's way back into my heart, with a new home.