Page 64
Chapter 19
No Questions
Rissa pulled down the Murphy bed to use as a workspace. The Q Lab wasn’t huge, and her only table was set up as a permanent computer station. She’d figured out ways to keep her desktop and other equipment safe while driving, but it meant it was a pain to clean off the table, so she never did.
Instead, she used her bed as a workspace when she wanted one. A strip of countertop became a table, then got tucked into the closet when it wasn’t in use.
Without an excess of money, she was using her creativity to make a gift Burke would love, one that would show him how much she loved him.
She also wanted to put together fun experiment boxes for Charlie and Ella. A microscope and equipment for Charlie, magnetic puzzle shapes for Ella, or maybe edible finger paints. She’d ordered her gift for the new baby, but she couldn’t regret that expenditure. This was her first time being close to a pregnant person, and she wanted to celebrate the baby with Amber.
Rissa pulled out her memory box from the bottom of her clothes closet and set it on the bed, along with the shadow box and kid and baby gifts.
Finally, she grabbed the gift bags and wrapping paper Amber had offered her. Her friend had realized she probably wouldn’t have any of her own and had told her to take what she needed from Amber’s incredibly organized wrapping paper storage system.
When she was set, she lifted Frizzle onto the bed. “I’m going to make it a horizontal display box, Frizzle. A memory lane of our time together. What do you think? Will he love it?”
Frizzle wiggled her butt in agreement and yipped as she sniffed at the box. Knowing her Yorkie wouldn’t ruin any of the items, Rissa pulled them out and spread them on the countertop.
A movie ticket stub from the time they’d gone to the movies. It had been Rissa’s first movie-theatre experience and it had been just the two of them. Her love of science fiction in general and the Star Wars franchise in particular had started that day. She dug in the box until she found the R2D2 USB flash drive that Burke had given her on her birthday that year.
She’d ordered the shadow box to be tall enough to hold photos pinned along the back edge. Halona had slipped a few photos into Rissa’s backpack over the years. She would use those as a timeline along the back wall and add the mementos at appropriate intervals.
Frizzle snuggled into her side, and Rissa patted her. “I didn’t forget you. The final picture will be the one they gave us on your adoption day. He’s never seen that one.”
She would glue R2D2 and the Lego people they’d created to represent themselves along the bottom, and pin the movie stub and other paper mementos on the edges of the pictures.
A paper bowling score sheet would line the bottom. The bowling alley where they’d played hadn’t had scoring machines, and Halona had enjoyed teaching them all how to track the scores and how to calculate the bonus scores for strikes and spares. Rissa had been a terrible bowler, but she’d never forget getting her first strike and how the entire Malssum family had celebrated. Mato had spun her in a circle until she was dizzy with laughter and joy.
Years later, she’d bought herself a dollar-store keychain holding a bowling ball and several pins. She attached it to hang from the box’s ceiling and added a keychain from the science center where she’d worked. Burke would like the connection to the time they were apart.
Almost all her good memories were with Burke and his family. She had a few of her mom and one of picnicking in the park with her parents. They’d been happy snacking on peanut butter sandwiches. Her dad had told her a wild story about a dragon and the princess who had befriended him..
She hadn’t thought of that memory in years, probably even decades. Frizzle yipped and licked her hand, so she stroked her friend’s head. “He wasn’t always a terrible dad, Frizzle. Mom’s death broke him. I have to remember that there were good memories from before that time. I wish I had something to help me remember those.”
She didn’t have a single memento of her father, and only a few childhood books from her mother. No photos or toys that she’d held onto.
“I’ll try to remember more of the good times, Frizzle. It was easier to lock my past away and only focus on the present. Now, I’m looking to the future, but I can also try to remember more of the past.”
Rissa pulled out her first library card from Burlington. That would definitely go into the shadow box. She and Burke had spent happy hours there, and he’d carried more than a few of her books home.
The tattered notebook where they’d written out their scavenger hunts was a treasure in itself. She flipped through the pages, remembering the tasks and the others’ triumphant laughter when they found a tough item or finished the challenge.
She hoped the Christmas scavenger hunt she’d planned for the group here on the farm wasn’t cheesy or silly. She wanted the online game to be fun and a way for her to show the Malssums how much she appreciated them including her in their family. They’d always had fun as kids, but maybe it was a silly thing to do for adults.
Rissa shrugged the worries away. She would play it by ear and see how she felt on Christmas Day. If it made her uncomfortable, she didn’t have to share it at all.
She carefully removed one page from the notebook to use in the shadow box. She’d created this hunt as a Christmas present for the family, and it had been so much fun. Halona and Mato had played along and insisted Rissa stay for their turkey dinner.
As the final item, she added the gingerbread cookie cutter Halona had gifted her.
Rissa blinked back her emotions and cuddled Frizzle. “So many good memories, Frizzle. I’m a very lucky woman.”
She checked the time and realized she needed to hurry to finish the gift and wrap everything. Burke hadn’t liked her being alone in the Q Lab, but she’d explained she needed it to work on her gift, and everything she needed was in the RV. He’d checked it out before kissing her senseless and waiting until she locked the door behind before heading to do work of his own.
Frizzle yipped, and Rissa nodded. “It’s only been forty minutes, but I miss him, too. Let’s get this done, and we can see him again.”
Finishing the box and wrapping it filled her with joy, mostly because she knew Burke would love it. She didn’t know if he knew she’d rescued his student card out of the garbage. She added the souvenir pin he’d brought back for her from Albany when his parents had taken the kids for a weekend. A list of the colleges they might attend and a candy necklace he’d given her.
