Paper Flyers

Chapter 7- Quinn

 Winifred in one hand and stack of flyers in the other, we ran down the street as fast as we could. Not for any particular reason of course. More of a “just-because-we-can” sort of thing. But those are the best sort of things. The slap of my shoes hitting the destroyed pavement was in sync with Winifred’s, and for a little while, the universe left us in peace. Winifred’s smile lit up the world, and I was willing to do anything to keep it there.        

   To put it simply, she was beautiful. Her red hair licked at her cheeks and danced in the wind, freckles dotting her skin like sprinkles, and eyes a shockingly innocent blue. But she constantly doubted herself. You could see it in the way she walked, the way she blushed at the pauses in our conversation, like she was afraid she had said the wrong thing. And I wished more than anything I could show her what I saw.

  For now, I settled for helping her. Up and down every street, we plastered the fliers to telephone poles and the sides of buildings. We went inside coffee shops and cafes and tacked some to the bulletin boards in the back. Then in a few popular bars and clothing shops, I distracted Clerks and owners while Winnie taped a few copies to the glass front windows. Whenever I glanced over at her, the happiness in her eyes was so big it was practically bursting. Her lips couldn’t help but curl up, her hands almost trembling with it as she finished taping a flier. I felt like her joy could’ve taken us all. It certainly had me. Heck, I’d lost my job and I couldn’t have possibly been less worried. Of course, I’d have to think about it eventually, but for now we were allowed to just be.

 We raced out of the Macy’s on Fourth Street before anyone had a chance to see it was us who put up the last of the posters on the counter and in the changing stalls. Then we were back out on the street, walking down to the Puget Sound, a rare sunny Seattle sky shining down on us.

 “You’re incredible, Winnie, you know that?” I asked.

 She stopped walking and stared at me, the blush I’d become familiar with overwhelming her face.

There was a long pause, and then she whispered “You make me feel like I’m in a fairytale.”

 I felt her hand tremble in mine, scared but strong. She’d picked her words carefully, I could tell. Words were her currency, and she’d just dealt me a million dollars. They filled me with a feeling I’d never felt before, a rush that sent my heart scrambling and my brain swimming. This time I was the one who paused, who let the words flow through me till they filled every ounce of my being. I could feel them in my lungs, taste them on my tongue, hear them play over and over again in my heard. “You make me feel like I’m in a fairytale.”

“I also love it when you call me Winnie.” She whispered, smiling shyly.

“Well, Winnie” I said, stressing the Winnie part as I grinned.

“You’ve made me happier than I’ve been in a very long time, perhaps, maybe ever.”

 I expected her to look down, embarrassed, but instead she reached up on her tip toes. Later, in one of her letters she told me she felt like she was flying. She kept reaching until suddenly her soft lips were on my cheek. It lasted only a second before we both came back down to earth, but cliché as it sounds, in that second there was no one else but us.

“You deserve to be happy, Quinn.” She said simply, shrugging her shoulders. She grinned like a little kid on Christmas morning, and again my heart swelled. Nothing could bring me down. Not even the rain. It began slowly, dripping on my arms and sprinkling the top of my head, but then was pouring down on my face, soaking through my t-shirt. But like I said, there wasn’t a thing in the world that could upset me right now. I was high on Winnie and her awkward manner, her impossible kindness, and her, well, Winieness. I began to laugh. I picked her up and twirled her around until she was laughing too, the rain soaking completely through us both.

 “Hey, come here,” Winnie said, tugging at my hand and pulling me to the left. “I have something I want to show you.”

 And with that, we took off running down Strawberry Street.