Sunset on the Water
“Potential for a good little vacation, this one. Hmmmm.” Jeremy held out a photo. “Here Dez, look at this one. This is from our cabin on our honeymoon last year.” She took it from him. “Wow. That is lovely, Jeremy. Do you plan to take Em back there this year?”
Jeremy pushed his chair back from the table, gathered up the printed out photos. “While I was isolating the last week, I did quite bit of research on what might be available - besides printing photos from my computer. Don’t you miss having actual photos to handle? Makes a vacation or trip more real somehow. I don’t know. Maybe I’m just old fashioned. Anyway, I checked several places. Most are still open, taking reservations and just require the usual restrictions. Several are all booked up and it’s not even holiday time. Anyone going anywhere are going south where it’s a lot warmer - and drier - than it is here.” Jeremy paused and smiled, looking into a distance that only he could see. “Except our honeymoon cabin. We had such a great time there. Just the two of us. No phones. No pagers. No briefcases full of who knows what.”
Dez sat back in her chair. Taking the photos from Jeremy, she flipped through them again. “There’s still a lot of green this time of year, but only a few flowers. Snowdrops and, if we’re lucky, daffodils starting to emerge. Did you walk on the beach or was it too cold?”
They both looked towards the stairs to the kitchen. Jeremy’s voice dropped to a whisper. “That must be Em. I can hear her voice. You go downstairs and see if she’s going out again.” Before Dez could even stand from her chair, she heard her sister coming up the stairs. “Dez? Are you up there? Cook says she saw Jeremy’s car. As soon as she said it, she got a funny look on her face and said she had to get something out of the pantry. It was very strange.”
“Yes I’m here, Em.” Jeremy reached out to his wife and embraced her. “Oh, Jeremy it’s so good to see you! But why are you here? I thought you had to work all this week.” She pulled away. “Did you resign? You can’t be sick again or you wouldn’t be here with Dez.” Her sister was quiet, looking like she was trying to stifle a laugh. “Dez? What is going on?”
“Ok, Em. I’ll tell you. We’re going away.” She stepped back, looking puzzled. “Away? But you can’t. What about your work? And I have an appointment in the city with the accountant and I’m getting my hair done tomorrow. It’s just a mess. I wanted to get it done before I came in to have supper with you.”
Jeremy turned her around, running his fingers through her hair. He stepped back, put his hand to his chin. “Well, I guess I’ll just have to put up with your very untidy hair. But I’m not sure. Maybe I’ll just go to that cabin by myself. It would be a nice break for me. What do you think, Dez?” Dez just sat quietly, busied herself looking at the photos. “Don’t ask me. I’m not getting mixed up in this. I think I’ll go downstairs.” She got up quickly, leaving the photos on the table and disappeared.
“Now we’re alone.” Jeremy took his wife in his arms once more, nuzzling his face into her hair. “Jeremy, stop. You have to tell me what’s going on. I’m worried. You haven’t said anything about why you’re here. Jeremy, you didn’t lose your job. I know that sounds ridiculous, that’s impossible.” Tears bubbled from her eyes. Her husband wiped them away with gentle fingers. “I’m sorry, Em. I just wanted to surprise you. Did you forget? It’s our anniversary this month. We let the day slide right past and I decided to do something about it. We leave in the morning. Remember our honeymoon cabin? I’ve rented it for a week. We’ll go up there and walk on the beach. At night we’ll watch the moon rise and see shooting stars. It will be just like last year. And if it’s cloudy and raining, when we walk on the beach we’ll cuddle under that big old blue umbrella of mine. Then we’ll go inside and light a fire.” He stood back and looked at her with kind eyes. “There are lots of blankets.” Em’s eyes were still wet but she was no longer crying. “Can we sleep by the fire?” She looked up at her husband, her eyes soft and adoring. Taking his arm, she said. “Let’s go for a walk. Cook won’t have supper ready for another hour. You can tell me all about how you set this all up without telling me.”
~~~~~
“Are they all right?” Cook set mugs of tea on the table. “Yes, Cook, they are very much ok.”
“Love is that condition in which the happiness
of another person is essential to your own.”
~ Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land
