The Return of Donna Anna
By Kate Quinn, (c) 2004


He saw her waifish form glide over the sand towards him. Just on his left, Don Octavio and his lovely wife were dancing. Such was the effect of the island of Eros.
Don Juan sighed.
I am Don Juan, he thought with an inner smile. I've always known this, and no one believed in me. Now--now, my Donna Anna is returning to me. Ah, yes, he thought. Life is good.
She slowly made her way to where he stood, his beautiful black hair blowing in the breeze, his deep chocolate eyes never moving from her gaze. Oh, he thought. How beautiful can a woman be before a man loses his mind completely?
Donna Anna took off the mask. "I believe," she said in a soft womanly voice, "that this belongs to you."
Don Juan swallowed the lump that threatened to choke him. He didn't speak. He only took the mask, but he did not put it on his face.
No more masks, he thought.
Then he took Donna Anna into his arms and slowly brought her face to his and kissed her lips with a soft slow passion. She folded into his arms effortlessly, and her mouth matched his lip to lip.
"I've missed you so," she breathed into his ear when the kiss was done and they just stood there, holding one another in the soft warm breeze. He still couldn't speak for the tears that threatened to flow. He didn't want to break down in front of her; that was not a manly thing to do. But he was so overcome with feeling and the knowlege that she was actually here, in his arms, that he hadn't dreamed the whole thing, that he wasn't sure he could hold back much longer.
It was the whole thing with the "medication."
The past week had been like a surreal kind of dream for him, a nightmare really. He had been losing his identity, slowly beginning to believe these poor deluded souls who kept insisting he was NOT Don Juan. In the end, they'd dressed him in a costume and he'd gone along with Don Octavio's suggestion about "making them believe" that he was "cured." That was the only way he could get out of there.
It had been the best acting job he'd ever done.
Never, in a million years, had he ever believed his reward for such a horrible week would be the return of Donna Anna to his arms.
Or finding such a good friend in Don Octavio and his lovely lady.
Don Juan stroked his lady's hair and her tears fell on his shoulder. Slowly his tears fell too, and then theirs mingled together. Slowly, the tears turned to another passionate kiss. After the kiss, they just stared at each other, not knowing what to say, but then not needing to say anything.



Finally, without another word, they turned and waved to Don Octavio, who waved back with a smile as his lady danced around him with her scarf. Don Juan took his Donna Anna's arm and they walked together toward the sand dunes.
He had come full circle in his life. Now, at last, he was home.