Lady Labyrinth

Natalie Gets a Phone Call

After graduating last December, I took the spring semester to substitute teach. I mostly subbed for my own field, but there were a few instances where I stepped into the general education pool, which was more fun than I thought it would be. During the spring, the jobs began to open up, and I began applying for as many as I could. People did not like to hire first year teachers. By this point, I would take what I could get.

Fortunately for me, as I was applying for all these positions, Rowan called me. His program grew large enough to qualify for a fourth director. The position didn't even go on the market. I was hired right on the spot. I started with them during their spring training. In between spring training and the start of the school year, Blake proposed. Now we were planning a wedding.

I told my students about my engagement when school started.

"There is something very special happening to me next year. Any guesses as to what that is?"

"You're moving to Europe?" a kid asked.

"I want to, but no. I just got here."

"Sorry to say this," said a girl. "But are you pregnant?"

"No, but you're on the right track."

"Did you just get engaged?"

"Yes!"

The kids cheered for me as I flashed my ring.

Our families helped us throw a wedding of about 100 people. Our invite lists shared a lot of guests. It was probably the most fun I ever had. We honeymooned at Disney World.

Blake and I were already living together, but we hadn't yet turned our house into a home. I spent some time doing that after my season ended. We settled down with our lives and lived as a normal couple. We frequently traveled with Rowan and Jade and did couples things together, including Blake and I's first trip to Europe. All of us wanted to move to Europe some day. It was a matter of deciding where. Twice a year, we all went together to Europe. Within two years, we visited the United Kingdom (and Ireland), Norway, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. We avoided France, Ukraine, and Russia for now, but we'd go there some day. So far, we all like the Netherlands the best.

Life was pretty good. We decided after a year of marriage that we did not want to bear children. Blake was already 30 when we got married and we decided that bringing a child into our fucked up world was not a good idea. We did consider getting into the foster system, though we needed a home with at least four bedrooms before doing that. We decided that if Blake got to 35 and we still didn't have or had fostered children, we would not do it at all.

Often times we would get together with Rowan and Jade after work. It was August, and school had just started. It was a night with no practice, and the four of us decided to have dinner in the same town as our school after work. Blake was not flying at that point in the week, and he offered to pick up Jade from her and Rowan's house on the way to the restaurant.

Rowan and I drove separately to the restaurant and walked in together. The restaurant was not busy, and the host let us sit in a booth while we waited for Blake and Jade to get there.

"Let's see..." Rowan said as he looked on his phone. "Looks like they're only ten-ish minutes away."

The town Rowan and Jade lived in was about twenty minutes away, so it made sense they weren't quite here yet. We chatted as normal while we waited for them to arrive. When ten minutes went by and they were still not here, I checked my phone. Using the Find My app, I saw that Blake was still about ten minutes away and on the highway.

"That's weird. They're still, like, ten minutes away."

"There must be traffic," said Rowan. "I'll call Jade."