Epilogue
“Have you got everything?” Sam asked, fidgeting in the driver’s seat.
“Yes, I’ve got everything,” I assured him.
“Keys?”
“Yep.”
“Luggage?”
“Yes.”
“My stick?”
“Yes!” I exclaimed, almost laughing at how tense he was. I knew I shouldn’t have been- this was going to be a tough couple of days for him, but I was so proud of him for going through with it.
“So, we’re ready to go?”
“I guess so,” I nodded, yawning into the cool morning air. Sam started up the car, and we pulled out on to the street- and started on the road to Philadelphia. Goodbye, Kingstown.
It had been four months since I arrived in Kingstown, and I’d finished up my story a day before we were due to leave. It had been a difficult piece to put together-I’d spent many an evening on video chats with my editor asking him for direction, but I got there in the end. The piece I handed in the day before had been thousands of words long, and had chronicled the Kingstown Crow’s rise to success and what that meant for the players, the team, and the town. I was proud of it- damn proud, in fact. I knew the copy I handed it wouldn’t be the one that ended up in the newspaper, but I knew that I didn’t waste a single word in that piece. They would love it- and the team would, too, which made me even happier. And of course, it had ended with Sam; Sam leaving for Philadelphia, which is what we were doing at that very moment.
“Are you okay?” I asked gently, and he nodded. I knew this was a big deal to him. The biggest. He had broken the news about his decision to everyone else the day after he told me- his parents had been shocked, but proud; his teammates were jealous but hopeful that he could carve out a path for them down the line. Johnson teared up manfully, even though he strode off to his office at once to cover it up.
And, of course, there was us. After that night, we were a couple- a proper, bonafide one. My friends back home thought I was rebounding, but I knew what that felt like and this was different; this was real. Sam made me feel giddy, as though the world had tilted sideways every time he walked into the room. And so, when he asked me to come to Philadelphia with him, I agreed. Without a second thought.
Yeah, we were probably moving too fast, but fuck it- he’d waited around long enough to get his life going as it was, and I didn’t have any plans for after my article. I wanted to try something new, live in a city I’d never been to before. I revelled in the spontaneity of it, and watched proudly as Sam put together all the pieces for us to move down. He’d shown me pictures of the apartment we’d put a payment down on last month, but I hadn’t seen it yet- I wanted everything to be a surprise. I wanted to let go of some of the control I had clung on to for so long, and just go with it.
I reached over to put a hand on Sam’s leg, and we made our way in comfortable silence through the deserted streets of Kingstown. We were leaving early-it was a long drive, and we wanted to be there be nightfall. Suddenly, my eye was caught by someone I recognized.
“Oh!” I exclaimed, and Sam’s head snapped around.
“What? Did you forget something?”
“No,” I shook my head. “I just…saw someone.”
“Who, that guy?” Sam nodded towards the man we were passing. “Where do you know him from?”
I strained to remember; it took a few seconds, but finally I placed him.
“The night you came to mine and told me you were taking the Soars thing,” I explained. “We met at a bar.”
“Oh yeah?”
“He used to play for the Crows,” I continued. “But he left because he wanted to get out and see some more of the world.”
The man heard the car, turned, and raised his hand in greeting; we both did the same back, silently offering our hellos as we went by. I hadn’t seen him since that night, and I wondered if he was some kind of omen- an example of what Sam could be if he got out. I hoped so. I smiled to myself as we drove by, and Sam shook his head.
“Well, there’s something,” Sam commented. “I think I’m going to take that as a good sign.”
“I think you should,” I glanced over at him, and he grinned at me, all the tension from when we woke up melting away. I stared out on to the road, towards the long drive ahead of us and then God knows what else beyond that- and for once, I didn’t feel scared. I didn’t worry about the decision I’d made. I wasn’t worried about Sam, or the Soars, or the city, or anything else. No- all I could think about was how we couldn’t get there fast enough.
The End