Page 44 of Down Memory Lane
Autumn
The summer sun blazed in the sky above and seared Autumn’s skin. The heat in Phoenix was oppressive, every moment spent not in an air conditioned building feeling more and more like being baked alive inside a large oven, only there were no candy-coated walls for her to munch on once she escaped like in the Grimm fairytale about hungry old witches. There were, however, delicious tacos, enchiladas, and burritos for her and Felix to gorge themselves on as they embarked on yet another journey down memory lane.
This time they were walking around the campus of her first elementary school. The bright white walls nearly blinded the two of them, the sun’s rays amplified and reflecting off of them as she and Felix rounded the corner near the smaller playground and walked over to where a Ramada sat in the middle of an open field. Nothing about the school or its grounds seemed familiar to Autumn, but that didn’t matter as long as she had Felix beside her.
After the wedding, she and Felix had talked to her parents about staying with them for two weeks, but no longer. It had been a bittersweet pill for them to swallow, but ultimately they felt better about leaving Autumn in Applewood as long as she had Felix around.Foreversounded good to him because that’s exactly how long she planned to have him in her life. Listening to him so willingly offer to sacrifice the life he’d built in their small town if it meant doing something that was in her best interest had her already full heart overflowing with love for him. Luckily, Felix wouldn’t be going anywhere and neither would she. No matter what the future held, their immediate plans meant staying where they were with only a few adjustments.
Felix was still in the early planning stages, but it looked like he might be able to move his cider operation completely downtown. Autumn loved her little studio at the orchard, but she was a little envious of his having what felt like a real business while hers still felt a bit like practice. Day by day, she was getting better at her craft, but she was impatient for the time where she would be able to create pottery with far less thinking and far more feeling involved. She glanced across the small picnic table toward Felix, watching as he licked a dab of hot sauce from his lip.
“What?” he asked, raising his brow. His hair stuck out at odd angles since he was growing it out, but she loved seeing it look a little wild. Thinking about tugging it while he went down on her certainly didn’t diminish the desire that had started to pool low in her belly just a moment ago.
Autumn smirked and shrugged. “Nothing. I was just thinking about how you helped me with my pottery.” His eyes darkened more the longer she stared at him, licking her own lips despite there being not a speck of food on them. “Do you think you’d be willing to help me with that again?”
Felix nodded so quickly it was almost comical. “I am at your beck and call for that service.” He popped the last bite of his burrito in his mouth, chewing as he wiped beads of sweat off his brow. “Do you want to walk around a little more, or can we get out of this heat?”
Autumn glanced around the schoolyard and sighed. “We can go.”
It had been a slim hope that being in Phoenix would stir up something from the recesses of her mind, but she’d let herself fall prey to it anyway. In the one week they’d been there, Autumn had seen the church where she attended preschool, her old neighborhood, and the restaurant that had been around longer than she was alive that they would have Sunday dinners at. Each time she was met with disappointment as far as her old memories were concerned, but the new ones she had there now were pretty special. Patting the pocket that held the photos she and Felix had taken on the swings about half an hour prior, Autumn stood and held out her hand for him.
Felix took it with a sad smile, lacing their fingers together and steering her towards their rental car. “You know,” he said as he opened the passenger door for her. “We should look into getting you a new car.”
Autumn groaned at the thought. She had no recollection of the accident that shaped the last few months of her life and was fine when other people drove, but whenever she thought of herself behind the wheel, she panicked and her breath came in short bursts. Muscle memory was definitely a thing and while her mind had no idea about what happened that day, clearly her body had kept score. Felix hopped in the car and blasted the AC, draping himself over the steering wheel dramatically as he sucked in as much of the icy cool air as he could manage.
Autumn laughed at the sight of him. “Dramatic much?” He winked at her as he continued to bask in the breeze coming from the vents. “Should we get you a fainting couch in our new apartment?”
Felix smiled and leaned back, his skin looking less tomato red and more the ivory color she was used to. “That’s not a bad idea actually.” At her raised brow, he shook his head and poked her side, steering them back toward her parents’ house. “Not the fainting couch, obviously, but new furniture. We can leave the old stuff where it is in case someone else wants to make use of the apartment, or we can sell it. Either way, I think we should decorate the new place as a couple instead of piecemealing it together over the years like we did last time.”
Autumn hummed thoughtfully as she considered his idea. “That could be fun.” She pulled out her phone and navigated to a site from an artist that lived one town over in Redbrook. “Maybe we can get some of these for the walls.”
Autumn showed Felix the paintings at a stop light, chuckling when he’d gotten so caught up in looking that the car behind them started to honk. “Those look really nice. I’m down for a little watercolor action on the walls. As long as we still put up all our photos of course.”
“Of course.” Autumn slipped her phone away and leaned against the headrest, letting the cool air wash over her overheated body. The weather really was quite a switch from Applewood, and she was glad they’d made the decision to stay for many reasons, not least of which was because she felt like she was melting day by day in Phoenix,
“Where did you find that artist anyway? Is it someone you knew from before?” From before was always how they’d referred to her accident, but it didn’t bother her in the least, not anymore.
Autumn shifted and gazed at Felix, wiping away a bead of sweat that dripped down the side of his cheek. “Kind of. When I checked my website after the first round of emails you’d already replied to, I had a bunch of messages from past customers and other artisans wishing me a speedy recovery.” Felix awed like a little kid and it made her smile. “I know, so sweet right? Anyway, one of them was this artist in Redbrook who I had apparently contacted before about meeting up. That never ended up happening, but she talked about getting lunch again as soon as I felt ready and she was so nice that I looked up her site and fell in love with her stuff.”
Felix took her hand and threaded their fingers together. “That’s great. I love how you creative types support one another.” He smiled wryly. “I wish it was that way on the brewery circuit, but most people are too competitive to even entertain the idea of having lunch together.” Autumn nodded, Felix’s comment about creatives supporting one another taking root in her mind.
Hours later at dinner with her parents, the idea was still tickling Autumn’s brain as they passed around plates covered in grilled chicken and sweet summer corn. She listened as her parents talked about the rest of their plans for the summer. Her father was teaching a class to make up time for the short sabbatical he’d taken when she’d gotten hurt and her mother was thinking of taking a gardening class, something Autumn found hilarious since she lived in the desert and couldn’t even keep a succulent alive. Felix added in his comments here and there, but the entire time she was thinking, Autumn was acutely aware of him watching her.
It seemed as though his curiosity had finally gotten the better of him since he reached out and tugged at one of her short, pink braids. “What are you thinking about, Auts?”
The question quieted all other conversation at the table and Autumn smiled self-consciously. “I don’t know exactly,” she started, looking at her loved ones. “I was just thinking about how you wanted to expand your business and about the other artists I’ve been in contact with in the past and was just wondering if it would be possible for me to do something different too.”
“Like what, Pumpkin?” her dad asked. Her mom leaned forward, no doubt eager for all of the practical details Autumn had in no way worked out yet.
Autumn shrugged, weary of the attention but also wanting to put her idea into words, hoping that doing so would make it more concrete. “I was thinking that if other artists like me who work mostly online got together and opened a studio, we would have space to work and sell our stuff while also having someone around who understood what it’s like to work in the creative realm.” Her shoulder bobbed again involuntarily as she pushed a piece of chicken around her plate. “It’s probably a silly idea.”
“No. It’s a great idea.” Autumn’s eyes shot forward. Of all the people she expected to defend her wanting to do something different, her mom was not one of them. Autumn’s mouth opened and closed like a fish as she searched for something to say. Rolling her eyes, her mom shook her head. “I know I’m all about doing something financially safe and whatever.” She waved her comment away like it wasn’t a core part of her personality. “But you’re obviously strong enough to handle a lot tougher things, and I think that doing something like this could be really good for you. I know the larger your support group is, the better off you’ll be in all aspects of your life.”
“Exactly,” her dad added. Standing, he walked over to the small table near the hallway and grabbed an envelope. After handing it to her, he retook his seat and smiled at his wife. “Your mom and I were saving this for when you went back home, but now seems like a much better time to give it to you.”
He nodded at the envelope and Autumn tore it open, her eyes widening as she took in the amount written on the check made out to her. “This is a lot of money.” To some people, twenty thousand dollars might not be, but to someone who lived paycheck to paycheck, it might as well have been a million.
“Psh,” her dad said. “It’s something we’ve been squirreling away for a while. Between that and the payout from your car insurance, you should be sitting with a pretty decent down payment on a studio space.”
Felix smiled and grabbed her hand. “And I know of a few buildings downtown that are vacant.” He dipped his head, the tips of his ears pink. “That is, if you don’t mind us working so close to one another again.”
