“What do you see?”

He gave an annoyed sigh and looked over the vast green plains spotted with trees.  “Enough land for a decent sized parking lot at the world’s largest mall.  Now can we go?”  He turned away.

She grabbed his arm and pulled him back so he faced her.  Framing his face with her hands, she whispered, “I love you.  I love you with all my heart.  But I’ll never be able to love you with my soul if you can’t see what I see.”

“What does that mean?”  He could feel it.  She was pulling away from him—emotionally.  She gripped his arms and was in his face but a part of her was far away and getting farther by the second.

He grabbed her to try and hold her to him but the feeling wouldn’t leave him.  “Don’t.  The wedding is in a week.  Both our families will be there.”

“So?  What does that matter if we aren’t there?”

He looked over the plain again then back at her.  “What do you want me to see?  I’ll see it, I swear. Just don’t end it because of this.  Please.”  He wasn’t known for begging.  He wasn’t known for asking for anything.  People usually gave it to him.  For the first time in his recollection, he wanted something so very badly and might lose it without ever knowing why.

She walked him back to the railing and turned his head so he faced the plain once again.  “Look,” she whispered.  “Forget everything else—forget me—and look.”

His heartbeat thundered in his ears.  He knew everything rested on him seeing something, anything.  He stared and stared and all he saw was his future crumbling to dust as she left him.

The despair that enveloped him made his whole world black and his eyes unfocused.

A movement in the distance caught his attention. It wasn’t an animal or any other living thing.  He leaned against the railing to get a better look.  The movement happened again—rhythmic… pulsing…

Heat crept over his body and he suddenly felt like a peeping tom.

She hugged his arm and leaned her head against his shoulder.  “Aren’t they beautiful?”

He looked down at her then at the lovers.  Not human lovers. Nothing so mundane.  The land he’d seen as a financial opportunity was open and inviting her lover into her embrace.

And her lover?  The sky above.

Earth Mother Gaia and Sky Father Uranus met at the horizon… collided at the horizon.  It was an intimate act and he was equal parts ashamed and awed at witnessing it.

In hushed tones, as though she didn’t want to interrupt, she said, “They can only meet like this when Gaia is bare and clean then she can have her lover.”

He took her in his arms and they stared at the mating as thoughts of enjoying the same crept over them.  He said, “No one will ever touch this land.  You have my word.”