The Day That Lasted Forever

Part Four

 I awoke with a smile and the sunshine on my face, to the sound of my alarm clock blaring on my bedside table. I groggily rolled over and hit a few buttons, I wasn't sure which one it was to turn it off. The time on the clock had read ten forty-five A.M. I was happy to see that. I had to meet James at the tree house in an hour and fifteen minutes. Last night, we agreed on noon, and so I figure that means at twelve. I think it's safe to assume so. After laying for a minute or two, I got out of bed and began to get dressed for the day. The outfit consisted of a ratty, old Black Sabbath t-shirt, a pair of jeans, and my very trustworthy gray sweater, which apparently now had a hole in it. I didn't have time to think about the hole that somehow developed overtime. I grabbed my shoes and my backpack and opened my bedroom door, peering out of my room and down the hallway. It was quiet and my mother was nowhere to be seen, I assumed that she had left for work already. Although, I don't think she works on Sundays. I walked down the hallway and found the bathroom door to be shut.

"Lucy, is that you?" My mom shouted from the other side of the locked door. She swung the door open and looked at me in disbelief. "You're up early, honey. Do you have plans today?" She stood in the doorway, with lipstick in one hand and hair rollers on her head. She leaned in closer to the mirror, applying a dark rouge to her lips, and then looked back at me. This was an unusual sight for me to see of my mother, who never really dressed up, unless it was for an occasion.

"I was just gonna go meet up with a friend, but never mind me." I laughed in shock. "Do you have plans?" I asked playfully. She took her hair out of the curlers, letting it fall down to her shoulders, in one, swift, bouncing motion.

"Well," She started to say before turning beet red in the cheeks. "Lenny asked me yesterday if I would like to have lunch with him today." She coughed and looked at me nervously. "With him." She finished.

"Are you kidding! That's amazing, mom, what?" I said giggling, I ran up to give her a hug. This had surprisingly caught me off guard, but I can't say that I hadn't expected it. It was no secret in Sawyer that they were both in love with each other all of these years. They both thought that they were really good at hiding it, and we all just let them have it.

"Watch the hair, honey, watch the hair!" She shouted, laughing. I took a step back into the hallway and apologized jokingly. "I'll only be two more minutes, just let me finish up and you can get in here." She shut the door as I stood in the hallway waiting.

After finishing up in the bathroom, I laced up my boots and slung my backpack over my shoulder. I wished my mom well on her date with Lenny, although she insisted it wasn't a date, and headed out the door. I was truly happy for the two of them. They've both been widows for as long as I could remember, and I think they deserve a second chance at love. My father died before I was born, so I was never able to meet him, and Lenny's wife got into an accident years before he had met my mother. I asked him about it once when I was younger, and never brought it up again. He doesn't like to speak about it much, I understood that then.

The frigid winter air filled my lungs as I looked up around me. The sun was peeking through a group of clouds that rested in the sky, and that was the only glimpse of warmth outside for the day. The bare trees swayed side by side in the soft wind. This was one of the main reasons I loved Sawyer so much: The winters were beautiful. Although the trees stood naked and bare, I enjoyed watching them dance under the pale blue sky in the winter months. On my walk to the forest, I started to think about the passage of time, and how trees were, for the most part, the only thing that remained alive to tell the stories of the past. They've stood in one spot their entire lives, and still stand in that one spot of theirs, watching our world pass by. A red car speeding past, a woman walking her dog, the man that lives in the house next door go on his daily jog in the mornings. The trees truly have seen it all. I started to think about how some trees outlive even people. Walking down the road, I glanced at a large oak tree that sat planted to the earth just across the street. I began to think that surely that tree had seen it all. This was a wonderful thought, although kind of eerie, and I sort of felt attuned to the earth and the world around me. I felt an immense gratitude wash over me, as I walked past the oak tree that sat parallel to me, on the other side of the road. Today was going to be a good day.