AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Always. Forever. Eons.”
Later, we lie exhausted and sweaty in front of the big windows, me still in the see-through dress that I’m now wearing properly again and Bren in his black shorts. Eventually, he goes to feed Grey, whom he locked in one of the three bedrooms so he wouldn’t disturb us. Then he lies behind me, spooning me, and Grey hops up onto the couch.
Bren rubs my back and together we gaze at the lights of Seattle below us. Cars paint points of light on the streets, and planes and helicopters fly by. From time to time, we even hear sirens.
“If you close your eyes and think about the future, what would it be like if you could choose?” I ask after we’ve been silent for a while. I roll over to face him, and to my surprise, he actually closes his eyes and seems to focus.
“I see two children, a little girl…and a boy, a little older. They laugh and race around, the wind blowing through their hair.” He pauses as if sharpening the images in his mind. “The girl has your hair, blonde like flax, and in the wheat field, you can see it fluttering over her ears. The boy has dark hair and dark eyes. He is older and takes care of his sister. Always. He wants to protect her like I want to protect you. They run through the fields around their parents’ house. There are also cornfields, corn and grain, yes, and it’s a scorching hot summer. And at night, it’s so quiet that all you hear is the chorus of cicadas and, occasionally, summer birds or the animals that live on the farm, but often they are quiet, too.”
I tug at his hair and marvel at how concrete his vision is as if he hadn’t just conjured it up. “A farm? Seriously?”
He opens his eyes and looks at me intently. “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking these past few days. It doesn’t have to be the Yukon, Lou, not even Canada. But it should be isolated. Few people, lots of nature.”
“Sounds good,” I say thoughtfully.
“And what about you?” Bren asks after a while. “What is your dream?”
I roll onto my back, pretending to imagine the future with my eyes closed. “I see a little house in Ash Springs, the legacy of two people who loved each other and who had five children. Four boys, one girl. The now grown children sit in the living room together with a Christmas tree in the corner, a Nordmann fir from the Yukon, and next to it is a young man with dark hair. He hangs a red Christmas ornament on it…it has an inscription: Lou & me forever. The young man got it for the girl—she thought it was wonderful and he thought it was kitschy. The four blond men and the young man are friends. He has become part of her family. They laugh together.” I open my eyes and blink. “Sorry, that sounds crazy and childish, I know.”
Bren shakes his head, lips pursed. “Never apologize for your dreams. Never, Lou.”
“Okay,” I whisper. “I’ll remember that.” Ethan always said I dream too much. If you got paid for dreaming, you would be a millionaire and the beggars would be lining up, he has said more than once.
A knock on the door startles me. “Who could that be?” I think of Ethan, but the knocking sounds too polite. Besides, how would he know where we are?
Bren gets up and puts on a T-shirt. “Room service, ma’am. You’d best stay here before you turn the bellboy’s head!”
I’m too happy now to think about the Walmart incident.
Bren disappears and a short time later returns pushing an elegant cart. Silver covers conceal the plates and a bottle of wine peaks out of a bucket.
“I thought you didn’t care about all this?” I ask, amazed.
“I would have preferred to shoot a moose myself but they’re relatively rare in Seattle.”
I laugh and inspect the cart. “May I?” I ask, my hand on a silver hood.
Bren shrugs. “Sure.”
I lift the bulbous lid to reveal a plate of ice cubes and clams. “Oh, what’s this?”
“Oysters.”
“What are you trying to accomplish? Are you trying to show off?” I tease him affectionately.
“No, I want to pamper you to the fullest. At least once, so don’t fight it!”
I examine the shells. “I’m not refusing, but these things are still alive, aren’t they?”
Bren picks up an oyster and noisily slurps the white meat out.
“Yuck!” I risk a peek under the next hood and like what I see. Chocolate mousse in light and dark versions with currants, pomegranate seeds, and blackberries, everything artistically arranged.
Bren pours wine into two glasses and we eat our way through the various delicacies. Caviar, turbot with white truffles, various soufflés, pies, and tons of things I can’t even name. I almost break my finger cracking a lobster claw, and when Bren tells me they’re thrown into the water alive, I no longer care for it.
Eventually, we are just as stuffed as if the two of us had actually eaten a moose and fall asleep in each other’s arms in front of the picture window.
That night, I sleep dreamlessly, though even as I sleep, I know how happy I am. And although neither of us intended it, today the past was farther away than ever.
