7

Her name was Karen, and while we were each only undergraduates at the time she did go on to do graduate work in the field of Theology. She hoped that one day she could hold some high station in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints which happened to be the most backwards thinking social organization in the history of man in terms of gender roles. As a result of this backward facing philosophy, Karen would never be able to realize her goals.
When she told me about her greater theory of Creation and Prime Numbers, Karen was a Sophomore studying theoretical mathematics. By graduation, we were engaged and set to be married in two years time despite that we would each still be in school. I eventually found my way away from the Ivory tower. I work in hospitality, which is a good outlet for my terrible habit of being polite.
I can't recall a single salient event in the two and a half intervening years between hearing about Karen's greater theory of Creation and Prime Numbers and the graduation ceremony which I quite nearly managed to sleep through, save for this one:
During the Summer separating out Junior and Senior years, Karen and I went to a state park on the Great Salt Lake one night with her parents to eat barbecue. This was before we were engaged, and her mother asked some question about when we would get married and give her some grandchildren. I though this was a normal exchange, I thought Mormans made grandchildren like it was their day job, but Karen was incensed like I had never seen her before.
"Mother, you know I won't be giving you the grandchildren you want. If anything, we'll be adopting. I refuse to believe that there's something special about the love a mother has for her baby just because he sat inside her for 9 months, or because for nine months what I eat is what he eats. The strongest love I've ever known was given to me instantly, when I Jesus into my life. That's the love I want for and grandchildren we give you."
I loved the way the light of the moon bounced off the sea, and met itself again in the same place where the light of the fire was prancing about. It was all reflected at me in Karen's eyes, and for a moment, she was the most beautiful thing in the world, and I loved her.