Certainty (30 page)

He was always more coherent when he was amused.

“Good,” she said, relieved.

“I want to go with you,” Derek said.

I exchanged an alarmed glance with Mom. “Uh, you mean to the wedding, or the uh…honeymoon?” I asked. I didn’t mean to blush, but I did.

He gave me a disgusted look. “Of course not. When you go…away…” he gestured out the window. “To the ocean.”

I stared at him for a moment and he waited patiently while I put the pieces together. Ren and I had talked a lot about going to college in California, so everyone already knew our plans. The marriage was a bit of a surprise, but school wasn’t. The light must have dawned on my face because his expression relaxed.

“You want to come with us to college,” I said.

He nodded at me like I was a dense pupil who finally figured out that two plus two equals four. Maybe that’s how he felt while he waited for the rest of us to decode his new language. During the weeks and months of rehab he’d lost his childish impatience with his inability to speak and had become incredibly patient with himself and everyone else.

I was surprised he wanted to tackle college, though. School was a lot of work for him.

“Sure.” I stopped, remembering that it wasn’t just my decision anymore. If I wasn’t part of a team before, I was about to become one at the altar. “I’ll have to ask Ren, but that sounds like fun.”

He sighed, apparently relieved that I figured it out. “You have to go and do the ring now.”

My mom looked at her watch and gasped. “Oh dear, he’s right!”

We rushed out of the room, my dress rustling through layers of crinoline, tulle and silk. My stomach flip-flopped and I grabbed Derek’s hand for comfort as we walked down the long hall and out to the car. He held my hand firmly and looked down at me.

“It’s okay,” he said. His eyes were calm, but not the dead serenity of the amnesia he had before. It was just simple, quiet confidence.

I nodded, swallowing the nervous lump in my throat. “I know.”

Ren confessed later that he wasn’t nervous until he saw me in my dress. Then he thought he was going to faint. The thought of Ren fainting always makes me laugh. He speaks with ghosts of the future so I was sure a bride was not that intimidating. I told him he was exaggerating but he insists he’s not.

During the ceremony we held each other’s hands. We stood facing each other, everyone watching us and waiting. The minister spoke the words that Ren was supposed to repeat. Ren stared at me and suddenly there were tears in his eyes. My own eyes started to water, but I wasn’t sure why. Was he overwhelmed? He ignored the awkward pause as everyone waited for him to repeat the first phrase the minister gave him.

Instead, he leaned towards me to whisper, “I only see you.”

I stared back at him and  the realization hit me.  In this room full of people with so many futures to tell, all the
Yurei
had faded away, giving us this one moment for just us. We gripped each other’s hands, in awe of the rare peace, until the minister said the words again.

Ren repeated them, but he didn’t hear them and neither did I.  We were in our own world, just the two of us.

It wasn’t until the last word was said and we kissed that the peace was broken and all the
Yurei
returned. It was a miracle we couldn’t share with anyone, and that made it even more special.

Derek has graduated from high school and Ren and I are waiting for him to come next month. My mom and dad are helping us with our rent so we can have a bigger apartment he can share with us, at least until Mom and Dad feel sure he can handle college on his own. I’m looking forward to having him with us.

James has taken to watching medical shows that gross out my mom. Dad says James is so smart it’s scary, and even though he’s only twelve, my parents are researching medical schools for him.

A raindrop fell on my hand and I looked up. A handsome young man in a blue button-down shirt with his sleeves rolled up to his perfect elbows was coming towards the tree. His coal-black hair was spiked in his mysterious, dark, beautiful eyes and he was smiling at me. Because he loved me.

I walked up to him and kissed him with great enthusiasm. He still makes me dizzy.

“Been waiting long?” Ren asked, smiling down at me.

“No. I just barely finished lunch.”

He  looked down at the apple core in my hand. “Wow. A fruit. Are we out of pop-tarts at home?”

“No. I think I like apples now.”

“So California is getting to you, huh?”

“A little,” I confessed, tossing my hair. I’d read that a man’s heart rate goes up when a girl flips her hair. I liked making his heart beat faster.

He put his arms around me and gave me a quick squeeze and a peck on my nose. It must have worked. “Let’s go, Beautiful.”

I don’t know everything about our future because Ren doesn’t know. He’s looking for a part-time job right now and can’t seem to find one. There’s some kind of weird mold growing in our bathroom that might be toxic but the landlord keeps saying he isn’t responsible for mold growth. One of my professors hardly shows up and when he does he gives exams that have nothing to do with what we studied. I might be failing.

Life is not quite paradise. So what? I’ve got everything that matters to me, beside me every day. We sort of know what we’re doing, and the stuff we don’t know only adds to the mysterious charm of it all. Of course, being married to a guy who sees future shadows of what will be is always interesting. I just try to be the dull, familiar part of his life.

“I’m making dinner tonight,” he said, pulling me along.

“Mmmm. Fast food, Baby.
 
You’re the best.”

He laughed, “So you can see the future now?”

“Am I wrong?”

He smiled. “Not when it matters.”