She bowed her head.
“Thank you for just one more day,” she concluded. The top of her head slowly raised to show me a face of startled shame and sorrow.
“I didn’t realize that you were there,” she confessed to me. I could tell that she hadn’t wanted me to witness that private act of prayer.
Her golden eyes seemed to see right through me, straight down to my soul and she scattered my thoughts with her beauty. I had a sudden urge to reach out and touch the smooth plains of her face. I knew that if I did, she would withdrawl from me and disappear.

“Will you please not tell anyone that you heard this? Will you forget that you ever witnessed my prayer?”
I stared dumbly at her before nodding absently.

Everything about this womans body, mind and heart attracted me to her and awakened me in a way that was almost too urgent to bear. My body stirred and I took an involuntary step towards her.

The tip of my shoe brushed hers, and she disappeared.