SHMILY
By: Kelly

Tommy and Kat have been married for alittle bit over a year. And during that year they started playing a special game. The goal of their game was to write the word "shmily" in a surprise place for the other to find.

They took turns leaving "shmily" around the house, and as soon as one of them discovered it, it was their turn to hide it once more.

They dragged "shmily" with their fingers through the sugar and flour containers to await whoever was preparing the next meal. They smeared it in the dew on the windows overlooking the patio where Kat always fed Tommy warm, homemade pudding with blue food coloring. "Shmily" was written in the steam left on the mirror after a hot shower, where it would reappear after the bath.

At one point, Kat even unrolled an entire roll of toilet paper to leave

"shmily" on the very last sheet. There was no end to the paces "shmily" would pop up. Little notes with "shmily" scribbled on them were taped to steering wheels.

The notes were stuffed inside shoes and left under pillows. "Shmily" was written in the dust upon the mantel and traced in the ashes of the fireplace.

This mysterious word was as much a part of Tommy's and Kat's house as the furniture.

But before Kat met Tommy, she had a different boyfriend, Scott. She thought

she loved him, but then one day he turned on her and started slapping and punching her, leaving bruises all over her once perfect skin. Scott had kept

Kat from believing in true love-one that is pure and enduring.

But when she met Tommy he taught her how to love, true love. He taught her that all men aren't like Scott. But one day she doubted his love, and to show that it was real love, he went outside and went to the beach with a shovel and started to dig into the Earth's ground. He dug as deep as he could, and when morning had come, he was done. When Kat came to the beach she saw that he had dug in the word SHMILY into the sand. He came up to her, and whispered into her ear what SHMILY stood for. After he told her, Kat started crying, and she never doubted his love again. It was more than their flirtatious little games; it was a way of life.

Their relationship was based on a devotion and passionate affection which not everyone is lucky enough to experience. Kat and Tommy held hands every chance they could. They stole kisses as they bumped into each other in their tiny kitchen. They finished each other's sentences and shared the daily crossword puzzle and word jumble.

Kat always talks to her friend, Amy, on the phone and Kat always used to tell her about how cute Tommy is. She claimed that she really knew "how to pick 'em."

Before every meal they bowed their heads and gave thanks, marveling at their blessings: a wonderful family, good fortune, and each other.

But there was a dark cloud in Tommy's and Kat's life: Kat had breast cancer. The disease had first appeared ten years earlier. As always, Tommy was with her every step of the way. He comforted her in their yellow room, painted that way so that she could always be surrounded by sunshine, even when she was too sick to go outside.

Now the cancer was again attacking her body. With the help of a cane and Tommy's steady hand, they went to church every morning. But Kat grew steadily weaker until, finally, she could not leave the house anymore. For a while,

Tommy would go to church alone, praying to God to watch over his wife. Then one day, what everybody all dreaded finally happened. Kat was gone. "Shmily."

It was scrawled in yellow on the pink ribbons of Kat's funeral bouquet.

As the crowd thinned and the last mourners turned to leave, Kat's aunts, uncles, cousins and other family members came forward and gathered around Kat one last time. Tommy stepped up to Kat's casket and, taking a shaky breath, began to sing to her.

Through his tears and grief, the song came, a deep and throaty lullaby.

Although Kat's and Tommy's family couldn't begin to fathom the depth of their love, They had been privileged to witness its unmatched beauty.

I bet you're wondering what "shmily" means, aren't you?

S-ee H-ow M-uch I L-ove Y-ou ="SHMILY"