Epilogue
January 2015
I unfolded the map and it creaked with age. The advent of GPS systems and cell phone maps had made it a relic. Isaac stared at it, then at me.
“What’s this?”
“It’s a map.”
His smile was bemused. Indulgent. “Okay, smartass, I can see that. But…”
“I know—it’s probably ten years old.”
“I would say twenty?”
“Okay, yeah. I’m sure some of it has changed in the past few years, and we can use your GPS or our phones for actual navigation. But I’m pretty sure the cities and states haven’t moved and major highways are the same.” I smoothed it out on my lap and laid it between us. “Close your eyes.”
His brow swooped up.
I waited. He closed his eyes.
“Give me your hand.”
He did so, and I balanced it above the map.
“Use your finger, and without peeking, pick our destination.”
His eyes opened, hand still hovering between us. “What? I thought we were going to get breakfast, discuss our options. I made lists of possibilities and notes concerning cost of living and weather patterns and crime rates.”
“Close your eyes! Now I’m going to have to rotate the map around so you don’t cheat.”
“I could peek and you wouldn’t know.”
“But you wouldn’t.”
“You said I might cheat.”
“I meant accidentally. Because you are one of those people who probably not only know exactly where every state is in relation to the others, you know the capitals and the other major cities, too.”
“Possibly…” He laughed softly, and my heart melted as I stared at his face—smiling, relaxed, the planes and angles smoothed by the curve of full lips and the tiniest little lines at the corners of his eyes, which were closed.
“All right. It’s set. Choose.”
He rotated his finger around in an exaggerated show, finally stabbing down—in the Gulf of Mexico. He opened his eyes. “Unless you got a yacht or a rowboat or something, we’re in big trouble.”
I sighed. “Try again.”
This time, he took my hand in his, extended my index finger, and stared into my eyes as he rotated the map in awkward circles. “One. Two. Three,” he said, and down our hands went.
We stared at the city under my finger and then at each other.
“Ever been there?”
“Nope.”
“Me neither.” He was still holding my hand, our arms entwined. “You sure about this?”
“I’m sure.”
He tugged my hand up to his mouth and laid a soft kiss against my wrist, and then his opposite hand slid across my lower jaw to cup my face, the pad of his thumb skimming the surface of my lower lip, pressing gently. Breathless, I watched the contemplations of everything and everyone we were leaving cross his furrowed brow and the dark eyes that stared at my mouth. When his eyes rose to mine, there was no indecision there. My own burned with tears that were all relief.
“I’m sure too.” Isaac did not make careless promises. He was offering his heart and soul in exchange for mine. “C’mere,” he said, and I obeyed. He swept a tear away and kissed me. “I love you.”
My heart ached from joy. Sliding my hand behind his neck, I kept him close. “I love you too.”
A cold, wet nose snuffled between us and we separated enough to assure Pete that he, too, was loved. His tail thwacked the seat in a joyful cadence and he woofed his love back at us.
“Pete, sit on your blankie.” That was the first time I’d ever given him an order. He angled his head left, then right, licked my chin, and hopped back on his blanket, tail still thump-thumping like a heartbeat. “Scamp,” I said. He took it as praise, judging by his answering yap.
I dug a red pen from my bag and drew a crimson heart around the city we’d chosen. Isaac chuckled—at the profound girliness of the gesture, I was certain. As I folded the map against the creases to display our destination and the surrounding areas only, it protested by creaking and throwing off dust that all paper eventually became. But it would survive to be framed and hung in our new place. And the one after that. And the one after that, where we would settle and make a home of our own.
For now, Isaac wedged the ancient map between the dash and the center console, the heart-encased spot in the center, facing us, and then he fired up the GPS and got more current routes and directions.
“We’ll take shifts and stop for the night when we get tired, but we can be there by tomorrow afternoon.” He kissed me again, and we were off.
I chose “Heads Carolina, Tails California” from my phone’s playlist, dancing and singing in my seat and proving beyond any doubt my months-ago claim to tone deafness. Pete howled along in delight—or agony—and Isaac laughed at the both of us until he had to wipe tears from his eyes.
Reconciliations would be made here and there with some, but not all, of my family members. Some immediate, some years in coming. Some surprising, some not.
Isaac and I would calm each other’s nightmares and support each other’s dreams. We would shape our futures into what they were meant to be. We would take risks and stand our ground and learn and grow and be brave, because love is a tenacious, powerful, infinite force, and it can change the world, one heart at a time.