Maybe...

  One routine day, my friend asked me if I wanted to meet for lunch.  Of course, I said, “Yes”.  I mean what girl could pass up pancakes?  And, of course, girl talk?  With strawberry cheesecake pancakes on my mind and sweet syrup conversation, we sat down and talked at IHOP.  Little did I know, the dollop of whip cream information she would lay out on the fluffy hotcakes.  She preceded to say that she knew a Christian man who loved God and his family.  Could this mysterious man be the creamer to my coffee?  She also threw on the blueberries that he played bass on the worship team at their church.  Sounds like a man I’d like to sing a tune with.  A little more information was exchanged of the mystical man and I thought to myself...maybe I’d divvy up the cards.  God has always led me in the right direction and maybe this meeting was the door to love.  We talked a little while more over steaming java about life and how God has intervened in our lives, then we parted ways.  I got in my car and headed home to mountains of maybes and passionate possibilities. 

Where did it start, you ask?  None other than Facebook city…filled with hope, love, and dreams.  I sent my friend a message saying if I should send this unknown man a friend request.  She said, “Of course!”  I sent him the request and to my surprise he accepted.  The looming letter was sealed with “Carl and Brandy are now friends”. 

I decided one day to share a post about Superman ice cream, a delicacy of my little girl Michigan days.  Carl waved a French flag and included himself in the conversation.  The likeness he had for Superman drew him in.  We went back and forth with banter.  The banter finally sauntered into me messaging him.  “Hi!  I thought I’d message you…”  Ring!  And they’re off!  Out of the “love gate”.  Daily messages led to, “Would you like to get ice cream?”  My heart sugar-coated over with excitement.  With Meg Ryan’s smile in “You’ve Got Mail” I replied back and said, “Yes.”

June 27^th, 2017, I met a man…Cajun, green-eyed, and genuine.  We met that fateful summer day at an ice cream parlor, Scarlett Scoop.  Very soon we would be scooped into each other’s life bowls.  “Hi. I’m Brandy.”…“Hi, I’m Carl.”  My Michigan accent was as bold as the sweetness in the java chip ice cream that we ate.  Carl John Baudoin would soon hold my heart like the plastic spoon he was holding in his hand.  The conversation melted into stories and pasts.  Laughs and smiles plastered the vintage wall of the parlor.  Chit-chat popped and sopped like the Swamp Pop that was in the cooler just beyond.  What lies for us beyond this pink building and cypress trees?  Only God proclaims and sees. 

It was fading into the dusky eve when we both decided to meet at the marina and take a short walk.  A short walk lengthened into two cans on a string from one heart to another.  Eight hours of talk and play crashed like the waves that beat against the marina wall.  Boats made their way up and down the canal as we stood in the blooming bond breeze.  Will I be bonded together with Mr. Baudoin like the ropes on the ships that sail by?

After “Candy” ventures, jokes, puns, and likeness spun, love has risen like the Louisiana sun.  We were forging together through everyday life and through families.  Bowling and Books a Million dates were established and ravished my heart.  Giggles sat upon the bookshelves and caramelized our coffee.  Affection struck me like the bowling bowls we threw down the alley at Creole Lanes.  We were pins that were about to fall into the depths of love.

One bowling night, we decided to take a drive in his little red car.  We stopped at an unexpected destination and walked amongst veteran warrior statues and lights that shone our path to “mounting maybe”.  We tarried over a bridge that led to a romantic pink plantation.  We talked deeply, as deep as the glistening bayou waters.  Carl moved me right under the moon and said I shone from the bestowed beams.  Maybe…just maybe, love will be bestowed upon Southern and Northern hearts.

July 11^th, 2017, mountains of maybes and passionate possibilities progressed into a yes.  1:00 am we arrived at my house.  I remember nervously sitting in Carl's car awaiting the obscure kiss.  We ended up under the tabernacle starry sky.  The moon glowed and our eyes sparkly toned.  I whispered, “I know you want to kiss me.”  A gentleman, that he was, he gave me time to get my beating bearings.  We stood in each other’s presence, illuminated by the night temple.  We rested forehead upon forehead, crowning each other with respect.  I finally tilted towards beard, mustache, and lips.  Carl followed and met me with a magical movie kiss.  He said, “Are we doing this?”  I said one simple word, one inevitable syllable that would change my “Houma world”…”Yea.”  We were bound with "love crowns". 

Cajun Crowned

Midsummer come-with-me flight

Red hearts floating

River of maybe’s and might’s?

Oh! Thee Louisiana hold-me heat!

Passionately, swiftly, reap!

Longing love, take a gander

Take moonlit, progressing seat

Beat, where to? Beat

Cajun man, enwrap thine hand

Feet leaping leap

 Jazz town beat

Scamper off sleepy Sandman

Song note night,

linger…lovingly  linger

Bully Bullfrogs,

crooning singers

Pink house haven

God, soul-mate paving?

Star bright waters,

 Irish-French saunter

eyes glisten, bathing

Thee heart, I’ll be saving?

candid moon fella’

Where will hearts twinkle?

where will they light

heart rhythm beat, beat,

zydeco beat

Amid night castle

notorious nerves cast

on star mast

Oh! How highly nigh

Pressing fateful kiss

Gentleman awaits

Heartbeats sway,
chime

Foreheads crown,
bind

Tilt, to the hilt, kiss!

Oh my! Mister! What bliss!