A Little Forbidden Love
by Maria Roth
Lizzie closed her eyes and stroked her sleeping husband’s shoulder.
Johnny, she thought.
Johnny came back, as if she’d never stopped dreaming.
“Why won’t you run away with me?” he asked.
“I’m married.”
“To a freak! What the hell were you thinkin’, Lizzie?” Johnny touched her stomach, leaving orange fingerprints on her white nightgown.
Lizzie rubbed his Cheeto-stained fingers. Johnny had always been such a slob.
“Sean is really sweet, in a mischievous kind of way,” Lizzie said. “You’d like him.”
Johnny groaned. “It’s magic, right? He put a spell on you, or bribed you. I know he’s filthy rich.”
“We met; he fixed my shoe; we fell in love. I could care less about his gold.”
“You must regret it,” Johnny said, shaking his head. “The height difference alone is…Don’t people stare? It’s just wrong. I know you miss me.”
“Sometimes. But I was so lucky to meet Sean.”
“Lucky!”
“Yeah.”
Johnny sighed. “I should’ve pretended to be Irish.”
“Don’t beat yourself up,” Lizzie said. “Maybe we’ll meet again at the end of another rainbow.”
Johnny smiled. “Lizzie, wake up.”
Lizzie opened her eyes, and saw her husband’s face instead of Johnny’s. His beard was the color of Cheeto-stained fingertips.
“There she is,” Sean said in his merry Irish brogue, his blue eyes twinkling. “My Lizzie.”
“There he is,” Lizzie said, smiling, wiping the sleep from her eyes. “My little green love machine.”
Popcorn and Pigtails 