Seer
Chapter 18

Brenda

We wrap up our desert trip soon after the sun rises and it starts warming up again. The night was remarkable. The best night of my life. I feel so secure again in Ron’s love. I have the ring on my finger, and it feels so right there. It’s a new ring, a lovely but plain band, a row of diamonds interspersed with my favorite gem, emeralds. He put a lot of thought into it, selecting a ring without a large gaudy center stone, because he knows that I find big rings uncomfortable and wouldn’t have liked it as much. This is perfect.

He put thought into everything. Every moment of our trip, I could tell he had planned meticulously. The way he packed, the food he brought, the timing of the breathtaking meteor shower, everything. It was all designed to demonstrate how much he loves me. And it worked. Oh, it worked.

I would say that I can’t believe that he has loved me this whole time, because it was so surprising to hear it, but the fact is that I do believe it. It was one of those earth-tilting moments, where you learn something that changes your perspective on everything. But now that I have incorporated that new perspective, I accept it utterly. He loves me, not just again, but still. Always.

My happiness overflows. We listen to the Eagles again on our way home, singing along together to our favorite songs. Everything is so perfect.

When we get home, I tell Ron I want to drop some things off at my place before we pick up Natalie. We’re going to come back here later tonight, but I might as well dump off my stuff now while we’re here. He offers to carry whatever I need in, while I go get Natalie. He’s still trying to do everything, to take care of everything.

So I head next door and knock. Laura answers the door quickly, and says “So? How was it? Did he…?” We’ve talked about it, of course. Rather than respond out loud, I smile hugely and wiggle my left hand at her so she can see the ring. She gasps with amazement, but I put my finger to my lips so she doesn’t say anything. She nods, understanding. Ron and I are going to tell the kids together later, at home. I don’t want Natalie overhearing anything before then.

Natalie comes running down the stairs before either of us calls up to her to let her know I’m here. She is smiling joyously, and rushes up to give me a huge hug. I think I see her eyeing my hand, but nah. She’s only 7, she wouldn’t really notice, I don’t think. Although, Natalie always has a strange way of seeming to know everything that is going on. She doesn’t say anything about it, though.

“Did you have a good time last night, sweetie?” I ask her.

She nods. “Yes, we had fun. We did some experiments, and watched a couple of movies.” Then she turns to Laura, and very politely says, “Thank you very much for having me.”

Laura laughs and pats her on the head. “You are very welcome kiddo. Come back any time.”

Ron shows up at the door. Laura grins and gives him a thumbs up, waggling her eyebrows significantly, and he ducks his head, smiling. “Ok, Nat, you ready to go?” he asks her.

She gives an unaccountable little giggle, almost as though she totally understood the exchange between Ron and Laura. But before anyone can say anything else, she says, “Yeah, let me just go get my bag,” and runs up the stairs.

Ron pulls me next to his side and puts his arm around me. He asks Laura how their night went. We will have to all wait to talk about the real topic of conversation until later, after we’ve told the kids.

“Good,” Laura says. “We watched a couple of movies from Blockbuster, but other than that Natalie and Timothy spent the entire time in his room, focused on one of their experiments. Those kids are going to grow up to be rocket scientists or something.”

“Works for me,” Ron laughs, “maybe they’ll give us all a tour of their moon habitat someday.”

Gabe

We’re playing with some of Jonathan’s robots when Dad comes over to get me. “Hey, buddy, how was your night?” he asks me.

“Good,” I tell him. “Thanks for the Gamecube game, we played that for a while.”

“Sure,” he says. “You ready to go?”

I look over at Jonathan, who is still putting together his robot. “Bye, Jon,” I tell him.

“Bye,” he says, kind of shrugging but not really looking up from what he’s doing. Okay then.

I get my bag, that I’ve already put the Gamecube and other stuff in, and we head home.

Jonathan has been kind of weird since yesterday. I thought he was mad at me over beating him at Super Smash Bros., but when I asked him later he said he wasn’t. But he’s been sort of quieter than usual since then. Oh well. I guess we’re both ready for me to go home.

When Dad and I get back, Natalie and Mom are sitting together on the couch, talking about last night. I drop my bag in the entryway. “Hey Nat,” I say, “did you have fun with Timmy?”

“Yeah,” she says, “we watched some movies from Blockbuster.”

“Really?” I say. “So did we! What did you watch?”

“Shrek and Knights Tale,” she says.

“You’re kidding! We watched Knight’s Tale too!”

Before we can get going on really talking about it, though, Dad tells me to come over and sit down. He sits next to Mom on the couch.

I look over at Natalie, wondering what this is all about, but she just looks at me like she’s really happy. I can always rely on Natalie to know what’s going on, so I guess nothing’s wrong. So why do Mom and Dad seem like something serious is happening?

Dad says, “We have something to tell you both. We made a decision last night while we were on our camping trip.”

“What?” I say. Natalie just sits there grinning ear to ear, bouncing on her seat like she knows we are about to hear something fantastic.

Dad looks over at Mom. She says, “Your father and I have decided to get re-married.”

Natalie jumps up like a balloon that has been popped and squeals. I just sit there, totally surprised. “Really?”

Natalie is obviously all in on this idea. She grabs Dad and gives him a hug, then grabs Mom too. “I knew it!” she shrieks. “This is so fantastic!”

Well, yeah, I guess. “Um, cool,” I tell them. I don’t really know how to respond. They’ve been divorced almost my whole life. I don’t really even remember when they were married before, I was too little. But I know that they’re not separated anymore, and we’ve all been living together in one house or the other for a while now. So I guess I should have seen this coming.

Dad looks at me and laughs. “Don’t hurt yourself with enthusiasm, Dude!” he tells me. He is holding Natalie in his lap, and she is still bubbling over with happiness. I figure she’s enthusiastic enough for both of us.

I shrug and smile sheepishly. “No, I think it’s great, really. I’m happy for you guys. I just wonder… like… what happens next?” The questions are starting to form themselves in my head. “When are you doing it? Where are we going to live?”

Mom looks at me and holds out her hand. I reach over and take it. She looks me in the eyes seriously, and says, “We aren’t sure about any of that yet. We haven’t set an actual date for a wedding.” Natalie squeals again when she mentions a wedding, then clearly remembers about the fact that an engagement comes with a ring. She grabs Mom’s left hand and stares at the ring she’s wearing and squeals some more, and we all have to laugh. It’s so girly.

Mom goes on, “We’re just gonna continue doing things like we have been for now. We’ll be here on weekends and at my house for school. Nothing will change yet. We’ll figure it all out.”

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