Rodney said, “Hey.”
Don looked upon his worn and lovely face. “Hey.”
“You ever think we’d end up in a field in Ohio with hippies?”
“I’m surprised it hadn’t happened to us before, to be quite honest.”
“Sass,” Rodney said fondly. “Always with the sass.”
Pantomime brought the man over. They’d met him briefly before but hadn’t caught his name. He introduced himself as Juniper, and Rodney looked as if he wanted to jump into the fire.
“Pantomime said you’re married?” Juniper asked as he sat on the log with them, Pantomime in his lap, her long legs dangling off his. The man had long, beautiful hair that was braided and hanging off his shoulder. In the braid, wildflowers and twigs.
“We are,” Don said.
“For how long?”
“Legally, since 2015. But much longer than that.”
“Forty years,” Rodney said.
“Holy shit,” Juniper whispered. “That’s longer than any of us have been alive.”
“Yes, well,” Don said, used to the fact that most young people viewed older folks as dusty exhibits in a museum.
Juniper laughed. “I like you. You’re funny. Me and Pantomime, we want to get married. Haven’t been together near as long as you two, but when you know, you know.”
“And how long have you been an item?” Don asked.
Juniper frowned, the lines on his forehead deep. “Uh… hold on. Three—no,fourmonths.”
“Four months,” Pantomime agreed. “The best four months I’ve ever had.”
“Oh my god,” Rodney said.
“Yes,” Don said quickly. “That’s exactly right. Oh my god, how wonderful.”
“I saw her at a farmers market. Selling these wicked hemp bags. I must have bought three of them before I got the nerve to ask her out.”
“He was so awkward,” Pantomime said, smacking a kiss on the top of his head. “I thought he was trying to case the joint so he could rob me later.”
“At a farmers market,” Rodney said dryly.
“Exactly,” Pantomime said. “Luckily for me, he wasn’t planning on armed robbery. He was after something else.”
“Her heart,” Juniper said seriously.
“That’s achingly romantic,” Don said. He didn’t like to lie, but sometimes, a situation called for it. This seemed like one of them. “Congratulations.”
They both beamed. “Thank you,” Juniper said. “We all float through space on a rock, hurtling toward forever. So many of us forget that it’s other people who make life worth living. As much as we like to think so, we can’t do this alone. Everyone needs someone. Maybe not all the time, but enough that it matters. And hey, you could give us some advice. How have you made it work?”
“Made what work?” Rodney asked.
“The two of you,” Pantomime said.
Rodney and Don looked at each other. Rodney shook his head pointedly. Don ignored him. “I suppose it’s different for everyone. You could say it all comes down to love, but is that really all there is?” He paused. Then, “That’s a big part of it, perhaps the biggest, but I also respect him. I trust him. I know he wants what’s best for me, even if that means telling me something I don’t want to hear.”
We have to live, Rodney whispered in his head, a memory, desperate and aching.It’s not fair what happened—I want to scream until I can’t anymore—but we’re still here.