Chapter . 1
Shes amazing, the girl sitting here with me in the park, on a blanket, half asleep. On this planet, earth, we are just a small speck, another number, but not her. To me and only me, this girl is my little dot on the world. Her name? I just told you, her name is Dot. I'm trying to forget her last name, for soon it shall be my last name as much as it is her’s. Her name carries a great pain. Her father was abusive, mother died, a sister who disowned her for every reason under the sun, and then there is her medical record. Everything in it is chances, seventy percent chance of our children being autistic one day, twenty percent chance of breast cancer by the age of forty five, and a long history of mesothelioma in her family. Mother, grandmother, great grandmother, and a baby sister at the age of three. All in the same year, Dot was only seven when she lost them.
It was at family gathering where a tile fell from the adic into the middle of the table were the for women sat talking about how big Dot was getting and how her new sister was growing too. Dot’s older sister Megan wasn't at the gathering and dot was playing with her cosens in the playroom down the hall. The tile was old and was made with asbestos and it caused the deadly cancer known as mesothelioma to set in fast as the tile seemed to turn half to dust in the air as it broke on the table. Nothing was detected in Dot for the past eleven years. I don't care what the medical records say, the tests say that she's safe so I think thats good enuff.
So today I sit her with a ring in my pocket, nineteen years old, with my girlfriend falling asleep with my chest as her pillow. Tonight we were out in the park, stargazing. I thought this would be perfect to propose but we got distracted. I love the night sky, the stars shimmer like her eyes, the moon glistening off her gorgeous brunet hair and her slight blond highlights. I couldn't resist her, her velvet lipstick in the dim light was enough to drive me up a wall mad wanting to kiss her. It was still a spark like our first kiss, a magic that led to me falling back on to the blanket on the grass hill. We were tangled together with our own love, a symphony played between our hearts beating. then we laid back and looked at the marvel that is our planets surrounding space. It felt like all the space we saw was all ours,
“Its just you, me, and the stars.” I said to her as we sat there looking at the sky.
“Just you and me,” Dot replied. “The man in the mood can look away.”
She leaned in and kissed me like I just carved her name in the moon.
“To us a star is like you, a Dot\, but up close they are a burning inferno of light and energy.”
Dot smiled and gave a little chuckle. “You know what I think is interesting about these stars?”
“I don't know, so I guess youre going to explain.”
“These stars that we are looking at now, they could be dead. The light travels for years just to reach us so when we finally get it the star could already be destroyed. The light is a lingering last breath of the star, and the ones that are alive, we get the old version as it makes a new one.”
“Like iphones?” I asked.
“Exactly!” She yelled laying back on the blanket with a cushiony thump.
We sat and laughed at the jokes we always make about stuff like that. The night was fading as my watch had beeped forever ago for two am. Even with the threat of her dad and my parents killing me with curfew over my head, I still managed to lay there past the three am beep.
“Ray?”
“Yah?”
“If I die like a star, what would you do?”
I laid there thinking for a second. “Nothing.”
“What?”
“I would be happy.”
“If I died!?!?”
“Yah, I'm not going to see the day you die. I will die before I ever let you die.”
“Oh, for a second I thought you were sick of me or something!”
“If I was sick of you why would I ask you to the found town fair this weekend?”
“I guess not.” Dot said as she closed her eyes and fell asleep on my chest.
“Good night my bright star.”
I carried her to the car and I drove to my friend Matt's house next to Dot’s house. I parked in the driveway and carried Dot out of the car. We do this all all the time, so all I have to do is open don't windo and duck threw it carrying her. I made it thru the window and laid Dot in her bed and tucked her in. I kissed her forehead and watched her smile and curl up with her pillow. As I climbed out of the window I got out and looked to see Dots father looking me in the eyes.
“Oh, good morning sir.” I said with a smile that just reeked of fear and guilt.
Dots father, Pat, or as I call him sir, but what like to call him is “The Window Keeper”. the man is a good height, about as tall as me, give or take about a half inch, unlike Dot who is about half a foot shorter than me. The Window Keeper always wears blue jeans, a t-shirt and a ball cap of some kind.
“My ass!” Pat yelled. It was a decent yell not loud enough to wake nabors, but it was loud enough for me to know the meige is clear. “I'm leaving for work, I leave for work at five o’clock. Is Five O’Fucking Clock!”
“Oh I'm sorry. If it's five o’fucking clock than you running a whole fucking behind!”
“Don't be a smart ass with me!”
“I'm sorry sir. I couldn't resist the chance to make a good joke.”
Pat siyed and shook his head in the palm of his hand “Raiden, you a good kid. You bring Dot back every night, safe, happy, and not pregnant. So why do we have to fight?”
“Because, and I quote ‘ you're an immature little jack ass who probably just wants to screw my daughter then ditch her at the first sine of a kid‘ as you put it on my third date with Dot I think it was?”
“Ok, I take that back,”
Oh my god, is pat trying to get on my good side?
“Raiden you are a good kid. I think of you like a sun to me. I heard about what you're planing.”
“Planning? Whos planning? I'm not planning! Are you planning? what are we planning? hahaha.”
Pats cold stare could tell me that he saw how bad I am at lying.
I looked at him for a second “God damn it, Matt!” I muttered
“What was that?”
“Oh nothing I was looking at my shoes”
“Youre a good kid Ray.” Pat said smiling at me.
Pat, the man who has been the window keeper this whole time actually complimented me and smiled at me.
“So does that mean?”
“Marry her boy. Shes all yours.”
A smile grew on my face as I walked over to my car.
“hey what happened?” Matt said running out of his garage in his jeans, forgetting his shirt because hes a stripper like that, “Did he chew you a new one?”
“I got two things for you” I said digging in my school bag in the back seat.
“Sweet! Is it a cheat sheet for the math test I flunked?”
“It’s a book.”
“A bo..” before he could finish I had hit him with a hardcover copy of David Levithan’s Every Day. “The Fuck!” Matt responded.
“Thats for ratting my plan out to the gate keeper.” I reached under my seat and pulled out a big envelope and a tape measure and slap it into Matt's hand.
“The hell is this, slap Matt with paper shit day!”
“No, look.”
Matt opened the paper envelope and took the papers.
“A tux order form?” He looked at me for a second. “OH! He gave you his blessing!”
“Yah!!” I said with pure excitement!
