SPRIG OF ORCHIDS SOAKING IN DOM PERIGNON by Miguel Forbus CHAMPAGNE FOR BREAKFAST copyright by Miguel Forbus Today before dawn, I woke and slid from the hammock and carrying a sling ran down to the ice factory and bought a block of ice and rushed back to our palapa and chipped it and carefully immersed the bottle of champagne, which neither myself or you, my love Rosita, had ever tasted. Yesterday you told me we were with child and the ecstacy screamed inside my heart, the salty rubies flowed down my face. I held you so tight I began to worry that I would hurt the child and you smiled a sunrise from your mouth and silently laughed a bit at my naive nature. We celebrated all day and told our family of our great fortune. You began to make the Chile Rellenos Nogados, a spcial dish of roasted mild chiles and special cheese that you make with a walnut cream sauce and pomegranite seeds sprinkled over the top. We would celebrate in our finest embroidered clothing that you had sewn for our wedding. I put the bottle in the ice for it's evening of repose. I was so excited I could not sleep. I laid in our hammock, first hot, then cold and no sleep would come. I laid there and stared at your cafe au lait skin and your exquiste ropes of curls of hair and your lovely breasts rising and lowering with each breath. We were so close that night that I could feel your heart in mine and your breath inhaled into my lungs. I got the bottle of Champagne, one I could not pronounce from a rich couple who I helped sail to safety their 3 masted schooner into a hurricane cove in the bad weather in the dark water season. He tried to give me money but I refused. We were poor but we knew to save someone's life is special, and you then must pray for their safety for your entire life and we did. Nightly we prayed for them as our last gesture to the Gods at the end of the day. It was a glorious feeling to pray for someone that you didn't know, had no idea where they were or what they were doing. I kept the Champagne in a box to keep it still and today was the day we would drink it. Before you stirred, I went and picked a sprig of purple orchids, your favorite and opened the Dom Perignon and poured some in our best glass and soaked the orchids until you woke. Your eyes were wet when you saw how I had cleaned the house and set the table and the orchids made your insides quiver. We had a day cleaved to each other, our eyes never left each other for the entire day. As you prepared the lovely feast, you fed me bite after bite of different courses. Finally we sat and prayed for the bounty and our deep love and took our first sip of the Champagne. I never knew until much later in my life what the cost of that bottle was. It would feed us for months. As I poured the sparkling wine, we smiled seductively at the other and took a sip. I remember the story the man who gave me the Champagne told me when the Blind Abbey who discovered the method accidently of making the sparkling wine, drank it the first time, He exclaimed to his God, "I am drinking the Stars" and you know at that moment we were drinking them with a hint of a special orhid as an aftertaste. I have never had a more glorious day. We were a little drunk when we went to the hammock, full of great food and liquid stars and more love then you can imagine. I have never had a better moment. My Rosita, we drank stars together in the jungle and then we got so close there could not have been an insect wing between us. Written by Miguel Forbus