Every Sunday, I try to post an excerpt from my novel, The Awakening of Russell Henderson. Here’s another. The book is available at http://www.amazon.com/author/edwardlehner.

I declined and went over to look at the library. It was mainly books on Buddhism, but carried a large number of books on other religious belief systems. I was looking over the titles whenI felt her presence. I turned and she was about five feet away, her eyes wet with tears and her mouth quivering into a weak smile. Neither of us spoke. We just looked at each other for a long time. A lump came into my throat snd my eyes welled with tears. God, she looks so good.

She was dressed in the nondescript plain dress from the sweat back in Mission. I chocked out, “Hi, you look great.”

“So do you,” and she took a step and literally jumped into my arms. I lost my balance and we fortunately ended up in one of the soft chairs. She had both arms around my neck and started to giggle and kiss me. I couldn’t help it and just started laughing. We hung on to each other, laughing, kissing and crying all at the same time.

“God, Hanna, I missed you so much. I was so worried.”

“I’m so sorry. It was stupid of me to do what I did.”

“I’m so happy you’re okay. I was so worried and — ”

She let go and slid into the chair beside me, looked up, pulled me down to kiss her, a long, slow, sweet kiss. Her lips were cool and she tasted like incense.