We laugh together for a moment, standing side by side against the countertop.
“Hmm.” I smirk as I laugh to myself.
Ben looks over at me with one eyebrow raised. “What’s so funny?”
I tip my wine glass to point in Charlie’s direction. “I had to go to the past to find my future.”
The love I have with Charlie is something I never saw coming, and I surely never expected to have to time travel to find it. It’s not a sappy you complete me, I was nothing before I met you, I can never live without you, kind of love.
He didn’t save me. I needed to save myself to not only be able to give love in the way he needs but learn to feel worthy of accepting it in the way I deserve as well. It’s like inThe Wizard of Oz, when Glinda tells Dorothy she had the power to go home all along but wouldn’t have believed her if she hadn’t experienced the journey first. Part of my journey has been finding him and letting him love me so fully. He protects my heart and loves me so completely that I only feel admiration and respect for that love, and not a crippling fear of losing it.
He didn’t complete me, but he helped me complete myself. It’s like I had the tools all along, but someone had to hand me the instruction manual to see how they all got put together. It was all in front of me. I just needed someone to turn the light on.
And I believe that’s the best kind of love. I can live without you, but I don’t want to. I wasn’t nothing before I met you, but I’m even better because of you. I give you the power to break my heart, but I trust you not to, because what we have here between us is worth protecting.
Ben puts his arm around me and squeezes me close, and I rest my head down on his shoulder. Charlie looks up at us and smiles. I can’t stop staring at him, wondering if this was all a dream.
Most of all, I just feel incredible gratitude for our safety and the journey that has brought us all here. I know the road ahead will have difficulties. No doubt Charlie will work through survivor’s guilt, as will I. And the acclimation to life in the modern age will surely be full of adjustments for Charlie. I feel grateful to be here at this moment, safe at home with my family, the two people I love most in this world. Right here, right now, I am incandescently happy. Instead of fear, I am full of hope. For tomorrow. And all the tomorrows to come.
I walk over to Charlie and wrap my arms around him. “What now?”
He leans into me and gently traces my jawline. “We have nothing but time, love.”
Time.
It’s a curious thing, isn’t it?
You can’t see it, but you sure can feel it as it passes by.
It flies. It waits for no one. You can’t turn it back.
Or can you?
Epilogue
Forever by Dropkick Murphys
One Year Later
The sun shines brightly through the trees, bursting with vivid hues of orange and red. There’s warmth in the air. This may be one of the last mild days lingering from summer before the chilly, brittle autumn takes over.
I sit on my usual bench in Boston Common. I suppose it’s actually Dad’s bench now. I paid for a memorial plaque a few months ago to benefit the park, so it’s now the Samuel Murphy Memorial bench. In a way, it ensures he continues to become a part of my Saturday tradition as I now share it with Charlie. I sit propped against the rail on one end of the bench, my legs stretched out and crossed at the ankle, with a book in my lap. Charlie sits at the other end with his legs crossed, reading through the real estate advertisements in the newspaper for commercial space.
The past year has been an adjustment for him, for both of us, really. I’ve gone from living alone to having a partner in life. Someone by my side every day that pushes me to be the best version of myself that I can. Charlie has been working to adapt to an entirely new century and all that goes with it. Watching him experience things for the first time has made me realize how much I take for granted. But it’s also made me appreciate the small things.
Soon after settling in, he began picking up carpentry again, revisiting all the techniques his father taught him. It helped him still feel connected to his past while he settled into a new life. He started with re-furnishing my office at Chisholm, which impressed most of my colleagues, and he had a growing list of clients from there. Eventually his business grew, and now we’re looking for a larger retail space for him to showcase his work. He’s fortunate to have learned woodworking from his father and bookkeeping from his mother. His shop,Two Worlds Furniture, is a nod to the circumstances in which we found each other, and remains a private joke between us.
I feel my phone buzzing in my pocket. I pull it out and see Ben’s picture lighting up my screen.
Hey Al, you still picking me up at the airport on Friday?
We’ll be there! How’s vacation?
It’s been great. Mom and Dad seemed to really like Peter. We stayed with them at the beach house for a few days and then drove up the coast to Napa. It was awesome. I’ve got lots of wine for you! I’m ready to get home, though.
Just in time for the home opener!
Hell yeah! Even though I have to fork over a fortune for my own season ticket now that you’ve got yourself a permanent plus one.
