Ocean View Park
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“I’ve got a message for you, Mrs. Bowers,” I said, “from my mother.”
“Oh dear!” she cried in dismay.
We stood on the sidewalk outside of Oceanview Park, watching her walk away from me with her hands clasped together tightly. She seemed to be walking fast but there was no real rush about her; she just wanted to get where she was going before we had a chance to talk.
It took us a few minutes to catch up with her, and when we did she stopped abruptly.
I tried to put myself in her place—she’s just given me this big speech about being careful who I date because some men will use sex as a weapon—and now here she is standing alone facing me, waiting expectantly to see what my answer is.
It doesn’t matter that it’s only been three days since we last saw each other. In the time since then, she’d gone out with me two times; both times ending at our homes. But she knows I’m not like them. She’s heard about my past. And even if I weren’t, she would still have the same question burning in her mind: What does it mean?
She looked up into my eyes and asked again, “What do you think?”
Before I could answer, I realized that I had a lot of questions I needed to ask her too.
Why did she come to me today of all days? Why did she look so concerned when she spoke to me yesterday about being careful and meeting people on the Internet instead of bars or clubs? If she really knew what sort of man I am, why didn’t she warn me against it herself? Why is she suddenly being so sweet and kind to me after the way she’d treated me before?
The questions kept piling up until I couldn’t handle them anymore. Before I could answer, I felt my mouth fill with the words of something I’d never said to anyone before. “I love you.”
She smiled at me. It was the first smile I’d ever seen her give me. “Then what are we doing here?” she asked quietly.
It was hard for me to say. There were so many reasons, but all I really managed to tell her was what she already suspected. “We’re waiting for your son to wake up. He’s sick, you know?”
My voice trailed off as she stared at me in confusion. Finally, with an exasperated sigh, I continued, “He’s had this problem since he was little. When we went out for the first time, we stopped by his doctor’s office and he told me to be there at nine in the morning.
That was five hours ago. I came here looking for you, hoping that maybe you could help get him to the hospital. The doctor is on vacation and they need to see him right away.”
Mrs. Bowers’ lips formed the beginnings of a soundless laugh and tears began forming in the corners of her eyes. “Of course, of course! How stupid of me,” she said in a low, raspy tone. “I should have guessed that you’d go straight to his bedside instead of wasting all that time sitting around at your home.”
“No, Mrs. Bowers, it’s not that. We—”
Before I could finish, she interrupted me by taking my hand and holding it to her cheek. “I’m sorry,” she said softly. “That was cruel of me to ask. You have done nothing wrong.”
And then she leaned forward and kissed me tenderly on the mouth.
***
It was strange how easily everything had changed.
In just the blink of an eye, my world had been turned upside down. A woman I hardly knew had suddenly become the most important person in my life. She had a son I barely knew—one who was in very grave condition—but that didn’t matter anymore either. All that mattered was her.
She was mine now. Not just any woman—the only woman for me. And she knew it. I saw it in those eyes of hers when we made love. I saw it every time she looked into mine. She loved me, and she knew it. And I loved her with all that I had in me.
But there was one thing we didn’t know yet: what was happening to her son. Was he getting better? Worse? Or was he still as bad off as he had been the night before? We’d been here since nine o’clock, sitting outside Oceanview Park until she called his doctor’s answering service and was told that the doctor on call hadn’t yet gotten back to her. So we sat, and we waited…
And then the doctor finally called and left us a message.
***
Dr. James Wainwright (on call): Dr. Wainwright, I apologize for bothering you so late but it has come to my attention that I might have inadvertently given Mrs. Bowers the wrong information. As you can imagine, my schedule is quite busy these days and sometimes things slip through the cracks.
Unfortunately, I must inform you that there is no cure for Mr. Bowers. In fact, the prognosis is not good at all and he has only a short time to live. Please call me when you get this message; I want to explain more thoroughly why I gave you such inaccurate advice. Thank you.
Dr. Wainwright was right about one thing. This wasn’t a good news call. But it was better than nothing. After all, at least it lets us know that her son would die soon enough—that we wouldn’t be making an enormous mistake by staying with each other for the next several months before his death.
“You heard,” Mrs. Bowers sighed after I’d listened to the message.
I nodded and wiped my forehead with the back of my hand. “What do you want to do?”
“Go home and pack, obviously,” she said matter-of-factly. She got up from the bench and stretched her arms over her head, then stood on tiptoes to kiss me again. “But first…”
She reached into her purse and pulled out some folded papers, setting them on the table between us before folding herself onto my lap. Her arms slipped around my neck and she pressed her breasts against my chest.
Our kisses grew deeper and our hips moved together, rubbing against each other as her hands traveled down my stomach, then down the inside of my thighs, stopping just before she reached the hem of my trousers.
“We can’t start the journey of a lifetime without proper planning,” she whispered in my ear. “It will be too much of a distraction if you are worried about whether I’ll like my room or where we’re going to eat or how far away everything is.”
I shuddered beneath her touch, then chuckled and kissed her on the forehead. “Well put.”
She giggled. “Then I think I should show you my room.”
***
The next morning, a Saturday, we walked to the local library and picked up a map of Florida, which Mrs. Bowers had found for me the previous evening in a pile of old paperbacks in the back room. The library was located near the ocean, just west of the park, and its windows overlooked an empty lot.
That was because they’d torn down the entire block and rebuilt a brand new building in its place, complete with air conditioning and heat, marble floors, elevators, and even a coffee bar in the lobby. It also replaced the library that was once located there.
But that didn’t stop us from looking at the old map for a little while before we went downstairs to rent a couple of bicycles and check out the area. As it happened, we ended up riding to the edge of town, which wasn’t exactly what Mrs. Bowers had in mind when she said she wanted to get an early start today.
By the time we arrived home, we were both sweaty and exhausted and starving—not to mention sunburnt, but that’s another story for another time. As I took off my sunglasses, Mrs. Bowers ran her fingers through my hair, combing it back from my face, then kissing me gently on the lips before pushing herself off my bike and straddling it.
“We need to go to the grocery store for supplies, then take a shower,” she said.
My mouth fell open slightly, causing my tongue to stick to my lower lip. “You don’t have to do that,” I said. “I’ve never taken a shower with you.”
Her blue eyes sparkled with mischief behind her glasses. “Are you sure? We’ll probably need to wash my hair again anyway.”
I blushed and tried to play it cool. “No, I’m good,” I said. “Why don’t you get on your own bike and pedal back to the grocery store?”
“Don’t worry,” she said with a grin. “I won’t go far. And I’ll be sure to bring a change of clothes for afterward. Just like you promised!”
***
That afternoon, we rode bikes down to the beach where the surf rolled in and out over the sand, sending small waves crashing along the shore. We lay back on our towels and stared up at the sky, watching the clouds drift slowly across the blue dome overhead.
Mrs. Bowers propped her head up on one arm and rested her chin on her palm, staring straight ahead into nothingness. “Do you ever wish you could freeze time?” she asked.
“Sure,” I answered without hesitation. “In moments like this, when I am lying on the beach in Florida with you, I always do. If only for a minute or two. But then I realize that if we stopped now, I would never be able to come back to moments like these again.”
“And do you want to live forever?” she asked.
“Of course not,” I said. “But it would be nice to have the option.”
Her smile grew wider and broader. She turned her head to look at me. “What would you do with eternal life?”
“I’d spend it with you,” I answered honestly.
She looked up at the sky again and sighed deeply. “So…if you could freeze time, what else would you do?”
I paused for a moment, considering it carefully. Then I smiled. “I’d fly.”
“Really?” she asked with a laugh in her voice. “Fly like a bird?”
I shrugged. “Maybe a little like a bird, I suppose. Or maybe just float through space, as if I’m weightless.”
“And why would you want to do that?” she asked.
“Because I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of flying. And it might give us some more options if we ever get stranded on an alien planet.”
She giggled. “Or if we get lost in the woods.”
“Exactly!” I laughed, and we continued staring at each other until she spoke again. “You know, I have been wondering about something. You mentioned that you had been to the North Pole.”
I nodded and leaned my head back on the towel to look up at the sky again. “Yes.”
“How did you manage that? I assumed it was too cold for humans to survive up there.”
“Not really,” I said. “At least for long periods of time. There are places up there where we can withstand the temperature for weeks at a time.”
She frowned. “But wouldn’t we die within minutes after exposure to the air up there?”
“Probably, if we stayed there,” I agreed. “There are other areas up there where the temperature is warmer than Earth’s, though. Places that even allow liquid water to exist. So it isn’t completely impossible to live up there, as long as you’re careful.”
She sat up next to me. “How did you learn all this stuff?”
I thought for a moment. “Well, I’m not entirely sure, actually. The information is sort of scattered throughout my brain as if it’s stored in a separate compartment like you said earlier.” I looked down at my hand. “And then, sometimes, the memory of it will pop out of nowhere and hit me all at once. It’s strange.”
She placed her hand on top of mine and squeezed reassuringly. “It doesn’t scare you?”
I shook my head. “No. I think it’s fascinating.”
She looked up at the sky again. “So what’s on your mind right now?”
“Well, I keep thinking about what Mrs. Bowers said yesterday. About how we are supposed to find the rest of our crew and then save the world from destruction. How can we do that?”
“Oh, don’t worry about it,” she said with a sigh. “The answers will come to us.”
“I hope so,” I whispered. “But they still seem to be getting further away every day. What if we never find them?”
She reached out and took my hand in hers and gave it a gentle squeeze. “We won’t. That’s okay. The fact that we have been able to find any of the members at all is amazing. It means that we already have more clues than anyone else has.”
She stood and stretched, then walked over to where my blanket lay and began picking up the sand toys I had strewn around earlier. “I’m going to start dinner if you want to come help.”
I nodded. “That sounds good.”
The End