Page 120 of Lake
Tears streamed down my cheeks at a steady pace.
I looked up at him once again after I read the last word.
I was happy.
I was sad.
I was… everything.
“I love you, too, old man,” I whispered.
I sat there until Bridget came back in. I sat there feeling like I was in some alternate reality. Like this was just a joke. That I’d snap to any minute now and he’d be laughing hysterically at me.
But I also felt a calm peace settle over me.
Because he was going home. He would be with his love again and I knew he’d be watching over me. Over us.
Her hand was reassuring as it landed on my shoulder. My hand moved to cover hers. She grounded me. She made me feel like it was all going to be okay.
“I love you, Bridge.”
“I love you, too.”
“I don’t want you to ever question that. I’m going to make sure that you never do.”
“Lake,” she said softly.
I reached over and picked up the mug and my fingers traced over the outline of a seahorse.
“Ed and Gertie had been married twenty-three years. One day he woke up and called in sick to work…”
I started the story.
The one that was his favorite.
The one that I loved too.
“He took her just down the road to the aquarium.” I tried to tell it just like he had. “It wasn’t a long trip but he woke up that morning and couldn’t be away from her, not even for a few hours. She sat there forever watching the seahorses. She loved the way they moved so gracefully and how they seemed to just float there in place. Ed thought they were the ugliest things, all bumpy and with their weird looking eyes that you couldn’t tell what the hell they were looking at.”
Bridge let out a wet laugh and I didn’t have to look at her to know she was choked up too.
I went on. Talking about how they spent most of the day there even though it was a small ass aquarium. He had packed a lunch and they ate in the middle of the park nearby. They talked about what it would be like to live in a boat on the ocean and how both of them thought it sounded like a terrible idea.
When I was done, I softly placed the mug back down on the table.
After he’d been taken away and Bridge had the information that she needed, we decided to do a walk-through just to make sure that everything was cleaned up and put away.
“Lake,” she called out from somewhere in the back of the house.
It was then that I realized I’d never been anywhere other than the living room and the kitchen.
“Look at this,” she said as I stepped into what I assumed was his bedroom.
And sitting there, on his perfectly made-up bed, laid out like he had a purpose for it, was his old man sweater over a blue button-up shirt and a pair of khaki slacks. There was even a pair of shoes sitting on the floor in front of the bed.
“Blue was Gertie’s favorite color. She said it made his eyes come alive.” I had no clue why I felt the need to say that, but I did.
He’d even thought to pick out the outfit he wanted to be buried in.
