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“I think you’re going to be calling me Benjamin before too long, son.”
I stand tall, nod his way, and head out the door. Nicole is waiting. The nosy woman she is, she’d been eavesdropping.
“That sounded like a spirited conversation.”
“I just convinced him that he loves you more than he hates me is all. Come on, those lanterns aren’t going to light themselves.”
* * *
As the FallBall King and Queen, our job is to light the lanterns of the attendees as they walk by. Some of them designed their own, and others got theirs from a local gift shop. There are traditional Chinese-style lanterns, as well as a whole assortment of witches, ghosts, pumpkins, and even the stray turkey lantern.
It’s a tradition that one of Burly’s families introduced when they immigrated from China, and it’s been adapted and adopted over the years, and now it has a distinctly Burly style to it. Most of the people here don’t think that deep into the tradition, though. They just see lots of pretty lit-up lanterns, and let them float into the sky like little hot air balloons.
One by one we light them all, and then stand side by side as we watch the sky fill with lanterns. My hand rests on Nicole’s shoulder as I hold her close. My queen, literally, as she wears that autumn-themed crown, and I wear my matching one. A few of the older residents still look at us with surprise, knowing our last names, but the younger folk don’t care.
The world is moving on. The deaths of those people in the nineteenth century surely affected their families dearly, but we can’t keep spitting venom at one another just for them. Whatever happened then, penance had more than been paid.
Now it’s time for reconciliation.
“You really are my queen, you know.”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it. We’re cosplaying royalty.”
“No, I mean it. You’re someone I’d go to war for, Nicole. And I might have already, depending on what you want to call that talk with your father.”
“You both seemed open-minded and rational.”
“With how much I had to prepare myself? War. Let me have this, Nicole.”
She giggles, slapping me on the chest. She leans in closer to me and I notice that we’re getting an awful lot of attention from the festival’s attendees. The kids focus on the collage of color in the sky, but the teenagers and older folks?
They’re looking at us like we’re the stars of some sort of will they, won’t they sitcom. Waiting for us to break down, and to express the love we both clearly feel for one another.
“We shouldn’t keep them waiting,” she says, noticing all this too.
“Then let’s give them what they want.”
We kiss. With an audience, we make a show of it. We hear some cheers as we make out, trying to keep it strictly PG for any kids who may look our way.
“I keep thinking about it, Nicole,” I say, our kiss breaking, but our loving gaze not. “But I can’t say it yet. Not to you. I told your father this... but... well, it’s harder with you right here.”
She laughs. “I know what you're thinking, Nelson. You can tell me. You know it as well as I do.”
“Then to hell with it. I love you, babe. So much.”
“And I love you, Nelson. Enough to stand up to my father, and maybe the world. Although thankfully the world doesn’t seem to have much of a problem with us.”
She’s a treasure.
I’ll hold and protect her for as long as she’ll let me, and I can only hope that it’ll be the rest of our lives.
I’m going to make it official sooner rather than later, but I’ve been busy.
I just need a moment to find the perfect ring.
8
NICOLE
