He was staring at his reflection in the glass, every time a truck drove by on the street, the window would shake. This caused the reflection to shrink and enlarge in rapid succession, giving the effect of reflecting his very soul. Such immense energy pulsing with tense desire to burst fully into the universe and become a part of the eternal. He was waiting for another truck to pass when he noticed her staring at him from inside the store. How long had she been staring? Why was she smiling at him so sheepishly? He decided to go in.
"Have you got any mustard?" He asked this as he walked in, knowing full well this was a boutique.
"Mustard? Why would you ask me that?"
"Well, I thought that in fifty years it would be a funny story to tell our grandchildren. The first thing I said to your grandma was, have you got any mustard."
She laughed, "Well, you're not shy at all are you?"
He also laughed, "Just thought I'd take a shot at it. How long were you watching me?"
"A few minutes, when did you notice?"
"Just before I came in. Why were you smiling like that?"
"Like what?"
"Like you were trying to convince me that you weren't laughing at me."
"I wasn't laughing." She paused, gathering her words carefully. "I was wondering how you would look holding our first child."
"Why don't we find out?"
"Right now?"
"I was thinking it might take a couple of years, at least ten months if you're in a hurry."
They both laughed for a bit, when it started to get uncomfortable she spoke.
"What were you staring at?"
"My reflection." Now remembering the experience his mood turned much more somber. "They way it shook when a truck rolled by. It was if I could feel it happening inside me."
"It is." As she said this she touched his arm. "So much energy inside of you, your aura is like the sun, every color at once. I can feel it now, like fire inside you."
"It's infinite." He said in whisper, "Be careful who you tell, most will only get burned."
"So you know?"
"Of course, I can't breathe without tasting it." He recognized the sound of a big truck rolling over the sewer cap a block away. "Here comes another truck."
As it rolled by he was staring into her eyes, but he was remembering that feeling he had been experiencing on the sidewalk. She saw this in him, or sensed it, she pulled her hand back from him immediately. She looked away and seemed somehow shaken.
"You won't be having any kids." She spoke softly, as if she was sad. "What was that?"
"Everything, and nothing. Eternity, and yet only a single atom of hydrogen lost in the void of space, about to diffuse into un-noticeable particles. The rapture and the inferno. Do you understand?"
"No, but also yes, the unfathomable being what it is, not knowing it is knowing it."
"Wow!" He exclaimed, suddenly he was smiling again. "You do understand, what faith is it that gives you this power?"
"It's a mixture, Druid, Christian, Science, Zen, just the bits I like."
"She is wise who chooses her tenets carefully. We should talk later, when you are not working."
"There's only a half hour left. Jennifer!?" There was a faint reply from nearby, business was slow and Jen had been watching the two of them since she had noticed her, watching him, watching himself. "Can I leave early?"
"Yeah, go ahead sweetie."
"Ok." She looked back at him, "Wait here a moment, there's a coffee shop around the corner we can go to." Then she made her way into the back, presumably to get her purse.
"She is a spitfire of a woman." Jen spoke to him, hoping to sense something from him. "I've never seen anyone make her so nervous."
He smiled at her, Jen could sense nothing but the kindness in him as he spoke.
"I think she must have been worried that she was neglecting her duties."
"Not likely, she was looking you in the eye, she must have seen something."
"Nothing she hadn't already seen through the window."
Just then she returned, carrying her purse and also a sweater over her arm.
"Are you ready?" She asked.
"Yes, but we can't go to that coffee shop, those people don't know what they believe."
"Ok, I know a better one anyway, my car is around back."
With that they left together. The next morning when she returned to work Jen noticed her smiling as if the world was a paradise and she was the queen. She was halfway to the back room to deposit her things when a trucked went by on the street. She stopped in her tracks, she clutched at her chest, her eyes fluttered, and a single tear was flushed out onto an eyelash, and then it fell onto her clutching hand. She wiped it off on her skirt and finished her walk into the back, after several minutes she had not returned, Jen decided to leave her alone.