Page 61 of The Next Person You Meet in Heaven
“It’s notnotfor us,” Paulo said, mischievously.
“Are you hungry, Mrs. Velichek?”
A minute later, Paulo and Annie were playfully making sandwiches. Paulo stuffed them high with meat.
“Not so big,” Annie cautioned.
“Don’t listen to her!” Mrs. Velichek said.
“I always listen to her,” Paulo said.
“Hebetter,” Annie replied, but she laughed and elbowed Paulo when she said it.
“Friends, huh?” Mrs. Velichek said. “Honey, who are you kidding?”
***
They moved in together a month later, and their routines intertwined, like paint colors fading into each other. They shared breakfast, shared toothpaste, shared a cold, shared a mailing address.
Autumn came and winter came and spring came and melted into summer. One bright morning, before leaving for work, Paulo pulled the elastic out of Annie’s hair and she shook free her wavy locks. “Better?” she said, and he said, “Better,” and they could have been talking about everything.
Their marriage was a formality after that. But Paulo had a showman’s heart. He waited until one night, when he had things ready, and he led Annie to the roof of their building, which was lit by small torches and serenaded by classical music from a large white speaker. He pulled a sheet off a large lumpy shape to reveal an unusual sculpture: two giant papier-mâché frogs. He had made them to mark the day they met in the schoolyard. One frog wore a necktie and was leaping over the other. Attached to the necktie was a note.
Annie read it.
“One small step for frog, one giant leap for the two of us?”
She burst out laughing. As she turned to Paulo, he already had a ring box open, and Annie didn’t even wait to hear the question.
“Yes,” she gushed. “Yes. Yes. Yes.”
***
“No,” Annie whispered now.
Paulo blinked.
“You can’t be here.”
He opened his hands.
“I don’t want you to be here!”
He reached for her cheek.
“Don’t touch me! Don’t be here! You had to live! You had to live!”
His fingers grazed her skin, and her entire body seemed to melt with the contact.
“Look, Annie,” he said, “the northern lights.”
Beneath them, through the glassy surface, waves of green and red moved like smoke through the stars.
“Do you know what causes them?”
Annie felt tears streaming down her face.
“You told me so many times,” she answered, her voice quivering. “Particles fly off the sun. They blow to earth on solar winds. They take two days to reach us. And they break into our atmosphere...”
