paper rings (l.h.)

5

I had given him the address earlier this morning, before I got Grandma up and moving. She was glad I had made a friend around here, she had expressed once that it wasn't normal for me to be locked up with an old lady in my 20's. I didn't mind it very much, I guess should have.

I stood on the porch in my best black dress, which sat right above my knees. My legs, like my arms, were not untouched by the needle of my tattooist. I had koi fish above my knees, flowers beneath them. Black and red ink covered almost my entire body, and I allowed the sun to warm me. My hair sat on my shoulders beautifully today, most days I had to pray that it would eventually fall flat. I had inherited them from my Father, the salty sea water from his childhood in Southeast Asia made my hair a lot bigger than my Mom was used to, since she herself had straighter hair than I did. I had my Father's almond eyes as well, brown with hints of gold. I had my Mother's freckles and her smile, that's what my Grandma used to tell me.

There weren't many houses this far into the rural part of the town. I sat on the top step of the porch as the first car of the day met the gravel road that lead straight toward us. The long fields of wheat and corn made up nearly the entirety of this road, which all used to belong to my Grandfather but had since been maintained by local folks who my Uncle had employed. My Grandma still has her chicken coop, full of chubby hens and their straw oasis. The garden was full of lush tomatoes and collards, okra and watermelons.

I looked up to see the same car that Luke had pointed to yesterday, and I brought my head up from where it was resting on the post beside the railing. I was nervous, it had been a while since I'd entertained the thought of introducing someone new into my life around here. I had gotten comfortable, too comfortable with my solitude. I try to swallow down the knot in my stomach as the gentle hum of his engine comes to a stop.

"Hello," I greet Luke as he steps out of his chariot. It's perhaps the only car that isn't a truck that I've seen since I've arrived here, it was new but covered in the inevitable dust that came with gravel roads. He wore his hair pushed back again, sunglasses that he took off once he reached me at the top. He wore a shirt with the words Nirvana written across the chest. Black jeans, converse. I show off a half-smile as I move myself to my feet." Good Morning."

"Good morning," he awkwardly grins, a sort of smirk with two dimples that seem deeper up close. As I stand directly in front of him, I soon realize that I was right — his eyes were more striking as the sun casted it's light into them. "Your home is lovely. Are these fields yours as well?"

"Thank you," I rock on my feet until he stands on the concrete sidewalk before the steps. For once, I am taller than him. "They were my Grandpa's. But he's dead now. We called some of his family to do as they pleased with it."

Luke watches as I walk down to meet him on the bottom step, suddenly the gap in height was much larger than it was when I was on the top step. He holds his arm out for me to take. "Did you have a good night?" He asks, as if I had known him before yesterday, I take his arm gratefully, and I could feel my Grandmother's eyes as she peered from behind the sheer curtains out her bedroom window. She might not have liked the way he dressed, how we both somehow managed to both wear black on one of the hottest days of the summer. I tried to ignore the sweat beginning to bead on my forehead, and for once I was lucky to have the mess of hair covering most of my forehead.

"I did," I smile up at him as he opens the door for me, and I am suddenly hit with a whiff of cologne that I had caught the day before each and every time he happened to be near me. "Did you?"

"Not bad at all," he smiles before closing the door, walking to the other side to climb inside. His car was large, which made sense since he himself was. I pull my seatbelt on over my body as he climbs in, too, and does the same. "Are you alright with coffee? Or should we go somewhere else?"