Moselle's Insurance

I saw you today. The refrain echoed like a song through Moselle’s mind as she slapped the newspaper on the kitchen table in her mother’s cheery kitchen. Every time she picked up the Platteville News, published weekly in this small Nebraska town, Eric Todd’s insurance ad jumped off the page.

Through many nights these past years, his face had haunted her dreams and circled through her thoughts as she went about her days.

Stop! She ordered her mind and turned to get bread slices for the toaster.

But the thoughts wouldn’t go away.

I saw you today. For real.

Laugh crinkles now formed at the corners of his eyes and deeper brackets framed his mouth. His thick tawny hair begged for a finger comb. Was his short beard soft?

Eric’s smiling face hit her full blast from this week’s front-page photo, where the caption congratulated him on the completion of five years as a volunteer firefighter.

The refrain burrowed deeper. I saw you in the flesh today.

The formal insurance photo revealed every hair in place. Unlike today’s front page, where he stood in casual clothes with his hair all mussed.

Now she could chase away the newspaper image and picture him the way he’d been in Today’s Café. Her new refrain could be, “You still make my heart sing.”