Who: Bunnate Where: Dog Park When: Early evening, March 8th (backdated) Why: Nate got some things for his woman.
Nate didn't jump out of the truck right away, after he'd backed the truck toward their school bus made home. Bunny could know he was home. The flights would have flashed in through the windows but he was finishing his cigarette, finishing his bottle and finishing the song that was playing.
Not that he was really listening. Maybe he was peripherally. Nor was he organizing his thoughts. The last sip from the bottle had scrambled them and where there had been one or two, there were now several.
Kids
Kids plural
Marriage
Life as it was now vs life how it could be
The infinite change that was life.
Not one moment the same. ...
...
When he woke up it could have been minutes later or hours. He wasn't sure. He rolled his head, snapped his neck and all his vertebrae back in place from where he'd been slumped in his seat. For a second he wasn't sure where he was. For a moment he was back in Kentucky, a few years back before this mess had begun, days after he'd asked Bunny to marry him.
She'd said yes but even that answer hadn't alleviated the jitters he'd had that day. He could still remember the weight of the ring in his pocket. Everyone who was in on it had told him again and again that there was not a chance she would say no but he wasn't so sure. As much as he loved her, as much as she loved him...Nnothing was definite. And he'd been so impatient, all through dinner, all through feeding the geese and taking her up Ivy Hill so they could watch the sun set and he'd hesitated but had made himself get down on a knee and pledge himself to her forever and always. The high had lasted hours after.
He was sure he'd have kids before Bode and here it was, the uncertain future and his best friend was expecting two...any day.
He opened the truck and fell out. Then lay in the dirt laughing.