起床後，山腰下的大橋，在落地大窗外朦朦朧朧；水村山郭中雨橫風斜，江闊雲低，已然薔薇報仲夏。

嬝嬝炊煙裡，啜飲著咖啡，看著一則傳奇，旋即為這則現代童話故事所吸引而震憾。

尤其訝異的是五歲的男孩，就能，就知道，牽挽著年方四歲女孩的手，無畏的走向女孩的媽媽，為他們倆求婚去了。女孩的媽媽在不可置信中，訝異的望著牽著他女兒手的男孩，那麼無畏，那麼純真。然後，年輕的媽媽也畢竟給了這個長著一頭金髮的男孩：她底的祝福。

更讓人感動的是：長大成人，重逢後的男孩，載著女孩---覆上她的眼睛，回到他們幼年初識的地方--幼稚園--當面向她求婚了。

於是，遂想起了 "長干行" 所說的：『妾髮初覆額，折花門前劇。郎騎竹馬來，繞床弄青梅。同居長干里，兩小無嫌猜。』         

我那初戀的情人，誠摯的情懷，火一般的年少。愛情，一生的記憶，一生的遺憾，一生的無愧。

於是，遂想起了 Connie Francis 唱的 Kiss of Fire.

於是，遂想起了 Celine Dion 唱的 The Power of Love.

愛過，方知酒濃；只是，當時惘然。

然後始曉：圓融是智慧，掙扎方是人生。

淺情人  不知啊！

<<這個故事原是國家郵報在去年2月刊出的，當時就覺

   得這個故事很傳神不可思議。看完之後，如喝了一

   口好茶， 一直笑。>>

原文如下：

"When Andrew met Olivia"

A Valentine's Day love story

Once upon a time there were two children, Olivia and

 Andrew, who met in nursery school when they were

just four and five years old.

Andrew fell instantly in love with Olivia the moment he

saw her, and later the same day he decided to cement

their relationship.

Leading her by the hand to her mother's car, he asked

 for permission to marry her, and the astonished mother was so charmed by this polite and earnest, golden-haired five-year-old she gave them her blessing.

All through playschool and primary school in Victoria, the two little children were inseparable. They went to each other's parties, played baseball together, and one day he made her a necklace out of chestnuts. But gradually they drifted apart; after all, Andrew was a year older, which was a lot then, and they went to different schools.

Talents and interests steered them down different paths, too. The little boy grew up and went to Royal Roads University, where he studied computers, which led him to a career with Microsoft in Seattle, as a software test engineer. The little girl studied animation in Vancouver and eventually began working for an American company here, with her background in computer systems analysis.

But serendipity brought their parents together a few years ago. Delighted to see each other again after 20 years, the moms jokingly bemoaned the fact that their children had never married and decided to trade their children's e-mail addresses. Each mom hopefully passed on the information to her child. The moms kept their fingers crossed and left the rest to fate.

After exchanging a few e-mails and finally meeting, the grown-up children started dating seriously and then one day, just over a year ago, while in Victoria to visit family, Andrew Quakenbush announced he had a surprise for Olivia. He blindfolded her, drove her to their old nursery school on St. Charles Street, and proposed at exactly the same spot where they first met.

The rest is history, and the couple's romantic story and their beautiful outdoor wedding last summer, at Goward House, will be featured Monday and Feb. 23 on TLC television's The Wedding Story.

"Obviously, arranged marriages do work," Olivia said in a telephone interview from Seattle, where they now live. She admitted she had gone through a string of "weird boyfriends" before meeting Andrew again, and he, too, had not been lucky in love. He had been married and divorced.

"The moment I saw him, I looked right into his eyes and fell in love all over again," she said, explaining they got in touch through e-mail and then met when she traveled to Seattle on a business trip. They arranged to meet, and went to an IMAX film together.

"His eyes and smile were just the same. I recognized him as soon as I saw him and knew he was the one. After my string of bad boyfriends and super-tough guys, he was adorable, thoughtful, so caring and considerate. And the funniest guy in the world. We love to talk, and talk."

It was easy and comfortable almost immediately, which she puts down to their love of hanging out together in kindergarten.

"They were always wonderful together, and very happy," remembers Olivia's mother, Cathy McLeod, from her home in Penticton. "I liked Andrew right from the start. I'll never forget this little boy who came out pulling Olivia along. He had beautiful blond curls and was so polite. He asked: 'Are you Olivia's mother?' and then said, 'Well I want to marry her.'

"And so I gave her away at five," said a laughing McLeod. " It was an arranged marriage, but mothers know best.

"She says they are starry-eyed romantics now, and very good for each other.

Andrew, now 32, and Olivia, 31, dated for about a year and their newfound happiness was only marred by the tragic deaths, shortly before the wedding, of both Andrew's mother and his best man. They both passed away in the same week of long-term illnesses.

"Olivia and I had never known each other as adults, so meeting again was pretty interesting," recalls Andrew.

"She still looked the same and the attraction was still there, right off the bat. But it was kind of weird. I mean it sounds crazy when you think about it. What makes you attracted to someone at age five? We played it really low key at first, just talked to each other through

e-mail ... but we both knew.

'It's like we were engaged for 25 years.' "

青青子衿，悠悠我心，但為君故，沈吟至今。