Polymath

Epilogue: Four Years Later

Epilogue: Four Years After

It was a regular case of the heebie-jeebies. Here I was again, stuck on the side on interstate twenty-seven. It was raining, but it was September, so I had high hopes of no ice. I had called Hancock earlier, but he hadn't answered.

My phone started to pour an ominous tune that I recognized as Caster's. He had been in and out of jail multiple times in the past couple years. He and I had recently made up, but I was still on the edge with our friendship.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Redford. What's going on?"

I shifted in my seat, propping my right leg on the dashboard, my toes tapping the glass. "Nothing really. My engine cut out, so I'm just waiting for Hancock."

"Do you need me to come get you?" he asked.

"No, he'll come." I looked at the digital clock. "I just called him, so I know he'll be coming." That wasn't entirely true.

"Okay. Tell your hubby hey for me when he comes. Nice talking to you."

I laughed, because I knew he was talking about Hancock, even though he and I weren't even engaged. "I will, and yeah, you too."

The call ended and I shifted again, sticking both feet through the top space on the steering wheel. The rain had picked up, and I could no longer see out of the front windows. I flipped on the wipers, but they just tossed the water around, so I turned them back off. My phone started to ring again. Hancock's song spun around my car like cotton candy at the fair. I grabbed for it. "Hey!"

"Hey, Ford, I'm sorry I didn't get your call earlier," I heard him clear his throat. "What's going on?"

"I'm stuck."

"Where?"

  "Interstate twenty seven, my car gave out."

"So, I'm receiving the implication that you want someone to come get you, and that person is me?"

"Yes, please."

He snickered. "Okay, I'll be there in five minutes."

"Thank you!"

Hancock drove past our neighborhood. He didn't seem upset or anything, but I refrained myself from asking. The silence in his cab wasn't deafening, but I wished he had a radio. I couldn't help it anymore. "Han, where are we going?"

He smiled. "First we have to pick up Jules."

"First? What? Where's Jules?"

Hancock's hand was on my knee, and the multi-colored butterflies exploded in my gut. "Just have patience."

I no longer needed the radio to occupy my thoughts, because all I could think about was his hand on my knee. It hadn't been just me and him for a long time, and I didn't realize how much I missed it, until now. We had been driving for a good thirty minutes, Hancock's hand not moving, before it dawned on me. "We aren't going to pick up Jules, are we?"

Han was fighting a laugh. "No, we aren't."

I felt my eyebrows draw together, but I wasn't going to try and wrench the answer out of him if he wasn't willing on relaying the information to me. "Okay."

He turned on his blinker and took a wide left. "That's not like you to not beg for information, especially from me."

"I do not beg for information. If you're not going to tell me anything, then obviously it's something that I should wait for."

"Well." Hancock pulled into a parking space in front of what I recognized to be Dunkan Park. "We're here."

My knee was cold after Hancock's hand departed, and I watched him walk around the cab to my side, opening the door for me. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." He slipped his fingers through mine and led me across the parking lot towards the back trail.

Dunkan Park wasn't a park with swing set and twisty slides positioned on padded foam, it was mature. There were multiple walking paths that took the walker through three miles of canopied woods.

"What are we doing here?" I asked Han, looking up at him. The sun filtering through the trees made him seem to glow. "Anything in particular?"

"That's the Ford I know," he smirked. "You'll see in a minute, don't worry."

The fact he said 'don't worry', made me worry. We followed the paved path for what seemed like an eternity, until the path stopped, and an impossibly large field greeted us. There was a small oak gazebo situated in what seemed like the middle, which gave the field a sense of purpose. It reminded me of a place where a princess would go to wish for a prince.

"That," Hancock pointed to the gazebo. "is where we're headed."

I nodded and let him lead me across the field and onto the gazebo. The view all around was more than serene, and I allowed Han to break the silence. "Redford, I'm glad you got stuck on interstate twenty seven, because you made it easier for me to do this today. I love you, you know? And I have wanted to ask you this question for a long time."

Before I could say anything, he knelt down on one knee and pulled a velvet ring box from his coat pocket.

          I said yes.