Shadows

Eleven

My name is Divinity, well actually it's really Delphine. I call myself Divinity because my husband Prince has known me as Divinity since we met. I've grown up in the city of Greensville my whole life and I won't say that there's nothing here because there's a lot of good things here. Lots of good music and lots of different kinds of genres that get played here thanks to Prince. He's a popular musician and he's made himself more well known in the last decade. See, Greensville is divided into three sections. The Suburbs, Downtown, and Uptown. Downtown is also called the Projects and that's where Wade used to live. He had his own band called The Drapes, and every Friday I would sneak out to see him play. I'm almost in my thirties, in my last year of college, and at this point school is everything to me. I just want to give Prince the help he deserves, as he's been nothing but a saint to me.

When I woke up, I got dressed for school and put on Prince's coat. My eyes were barely open and somehow I made my hair nice after brushing it. I grabbed my school bag and managed to catch Lisa on the way to school. She lived in Uptown now which was way across the city, but was close to the university. I walked up beside her and she looked exhausted. "Hey, you excited about Spring Break?" She asked me. I yawned. "Sort of. Lisa is gay which is something my mother still doesn't fully support, but she doesn't even know that I have friends of all races and sexualities. I just don't see people any different and I never will. Prince taught me to love everyone as much as I loved him. "I want to see Prince play tonight. It'll bring back old memories." Lisa said.

We drove past the lake and the farm not far from it, so I knew we were getting close to my school. Eventually, I get to school and there are people walking around. Lots of people going to their classes or professors going to work and lots of other people going to their part time jobs in the campus shops. I walked past the first building and eventually I had to stop at the gate because I could hear a familiar noise. I heard a BMW 850I. It was Prince in a black outfit with aviator shades on. I could see the yellow car from a mile a way as he stopped by the red light beside the crosswalk.

Traffic was loud, but his BMW was the loudest vehicle. I turned my head to look at him to see he was looking right at me behind his mirror aviators. What a cutie. He KNEW he was being loud. He moved his shades down to look at the light before looking at me and winking. He fixed his shades before speeding off and I smiled with my heart fluttering. He just wanted to get my attention before heading to the club he was going to play at tonight. The way he dressed for success. He knew tonight's show was going to be good. I walked through the gate on time. As usual, first class out of two was Psychology 201 and the teacher really didn't make us do anything if we didn't want to since we took our finals. I just showed up today to see what my final grade was. I sat in my desk drawing on some paper from my legal pad and I was doodling my name and Prince's in a heart.

School didn't last long. I passed all of my classes and I was due to graduate next week. I knew Prince would be proud of me. Speak of the angel and he shall appear because I heard the BMW again. I turned around and sure enough it was my husband. I smirked and he stopped right beside me revving his engine. "Can you not so damn cute?!" I yelled followed by a giggle. Eventually, he killed the engine and I looked at my eyes. "You live in that big house with that handsome dude, huh?" He asked. "Yeah. He's a helluva musician, too." He laughed shaking his head. I was blushing. He knew a LOT about me. He started his engine up again with a smirk. "Come on, I'll take you to the club, baby girl." He moved his shades down and had a mischievous and innocent look in his eyes. I blew him a kiss and got in his BMW. I put my arms around his neck and kissed him before he started the engine and he sped off. We got off the dirt road and into downtown. He was speeding like crazy, but I was used to it. Prince loved this car and he worked hard to have it. It was beautiful in every way that we were living exactly what we wanted to do five years later. He was able to treat Greensville like a Kingdom and he was good at ruling it. Everyone knew him and respected him as he put Greensville on the map. We went to the club that night and Lisa and I watched him play. It was like old times. Deja Vu, if you will.

On the night I graduated, Lisa, Matt, Andre, and a few more of Prince's friends were there. The two people that weren't there were my parents...and I didn't mind that they weren't. When we threw our caps in the air, I went to find mine and met them at the door of the arena. Prince picked me up and hugged me. "I'm so proud of you, my Dove." He said in my shoulder. "Thank you, my Prince." I said to him. I got a hug from everybody and we walked out to Prince's BMW. "Do you guys want to go eat?" Andre asked. Prince had his arm around me. "I think we're going to take a drive. Let her enjoy the night." Prince said. I looked at him and I could tell he had some ideas of something we could do. Nothing sexual, but like he had been thinking about something. "I'll see you guys tomorrow. Feel free to stop by for my rehearsal." Prince said before giving everyone a hug and we got into his BMW and left the parking lot.

I unzipped my gown. "Where are we going baby?" I asked him. "A special place for us." He said holding my hand. We were taking some backroads and even wound up in the middle of nowhere. "I had to get Matt and Andre to get everything together. Even Bobby helped." "Bobby? God, I haven't heard from him in so long." I said. As soon as we took two rights in a row, I knew exactly where we were going. "Is it still standing?" I asked him. "It is. Through all these snow storms it's still here. It looks even better, too because I cleaned it up." I was correct because we pulled up to the old barn. The barn where our most intimate moments happened. Our first date, Prince's birthday, the conception of our son...and the day he asked me to marry him was in this barn.

Prince and I got out of our car and walked into this old barn. He had a small flashlight and was shinning it around the barn. There was a blanket spread out with a few pillows, a battery operated lantern, and a small radio. Prince took my hand and we walked to the blanket before he turned the lantern on and the flashlight off. "Well, aren't you the romantic?" I asked him as I laid on the floor in my dress. Prince laid down in front of me. "Remember everything that happened out here?" I nodded moving some curls out of my eyes. "Do you remember how you said you'd have a BMW in five years of years ago?" I asked him. Prince nodded. "I also said that we would have a family...and we do. We have Lisa and my brother...Andre and Matt. They're all with us." I nodded. "You're right. I said I would graduate and here we are." Prince rolled onto his back. "Every time I look at the stars I always think of our first date. I was in love with you before, but I fell even harder then. You're still as beautiful then." He stood and took my hand to help me stand up.

"We danced to Never Let Me Down by David Bowie." I said. "That's our song." He followed. I slipped my arms around his neck and he leaned his forehead on mine. "I don't think there's enough words in the English language to express my appreciation for you, my love. Everything we've been through in our lives brought us together so we could go through the worst." He said to me. "Although our lives are not what we thought they would be, we still have each other. The pain we've gone through we've gone through together." I nodded. "Remember what you said the day Dominic was in the hospital? You said he was a fighter just like you...and you are. When you had that wreck on your bike I thought the worst. I thought you wouldn't make it, but you did." He kissed my lips softly. "It's so we could continue our story. It's been hell, but with you and our friends...my brother...we can do anything we want." I nodded. "Just like our vows...we can do anything now...and forever." I told him. He nodded. "Now and forever."

We danced out at the barn until it got too cold to stay out and we went home. It was just the two of us and Prince was on top of the world while I was supporting him. "Want a Cherry Coke?" He asked me. I threw my cap and gown on the couch. "You know they're my favorite." I said as I walked over to him. I took the glass bottle and popped the cap on it while he was drinking some lemonade. "Do you think you're going to get your own psychology office or whatever it's called?" Prince asked. "Maybe. I mostly did this for us so I can understand you, but I would be open to treating other patients like you. I want people in the world to know what DID is." Prince smiled. "Jamie and Camille will be happy with that." Prince and I sat on the couch in our living room. "To forever." He said holding his glass up. I smiled. "To forever." We toasted to our life. It wasn't perfect...but it was ours. We lost family, we gained family, and made new friends along the way. It was always meant to be just us and the gang. Just like old times.