Epilogue Han
EPILOGUE
HAN
FIVE YEARS LATER…
K enny and I stood at the doorway of a house down the street from my tíos’ place. Our house. The Realtor had handed Kenny the keys earlier in the day, but since I was at work, he waited until dark to go inside with me, as the official new owners. We’d be bringing Luna, Thornelius, and the rest of our stuff here later, but for now we just wanted to enjoy the house as the owners as soon as we could. Kenny unlocked the door but held his hand out for me before opening it. I happily took it.
“Ready?” he asked.
“Ready,” I said, and we both took a deep breath before we pushed the door open together and walked inside.
We’d already seen the house, of course, but that was before it was ours . Now that we knew we had it to ourselves for the foreseeable future, we both started running and skipping around like kids, excitedly yelling out ideas about what we’d do with the place.
With his free hand, Kenny gestured to the wall in the living room with the higher ceiling. “Instead of a painting, or a big mirror or something here, we can make a big blowup of your degree and hang it right there! The real copy will go in our room, of course.”
We both laughed while I led Kenny out of the living room to the hallway, where the other two bedrooms were. “Our family photos can go on this wall.”
Kenny squeezed my hand with a smile and skipped along, practically dragging me back into the main area. “Thornelius will go on the dining room table. Family dinner just wouldn’t be the same without him.”
“Of course,” I said, then gestured to the walls in general. “We’ll have to redo the paint.”
“Oooh, can one of the walls be periwinkle?” Kenny asked, folding his hands together like he was praying for me to grant his wish.
“At least one of the walls.”
He pulled me in for a thankful kiss, pecking his lips against mine several times in quick succession before pulling away and pointing to the wall that separated the kitchen from the living room. “We can mark up this one with how tall our kids grow! Different colors for each kid.”
I beamed. We’d decided a couple of years ago that we’d adopt after I graduated. I really wanted to adopt kids who were more likely to be stuck in the system, like older kids, or siblings to keep them from being separated. I could have easily ended up in a similar system if I didn’t have my tíos. Kenny loved the idea, so we started the application process as soon as I secured my first post-degree job as a substance abuse counselor.
We continued pulling each other around the house and blurting out all our ideas, eventually making our way to the backyard. It was pretty barren save for a tree stump and a boulder in the middle of the yard. It was a bit of a fixer-upper, but we’d make it home.
“Maybe we can grow a garden out here?” I suggested.
“Yes! And we can get a fire pit and put it between the boulder and the stump!” Kenny let go of my hand and ran toward the stump, sitting down on it and grinning back at me. “Add maybe a log and another chair, and it’ll be our bonfire hangout spot!”
I followed and sat across from him on the boulder. A phantom fire crackled between us under the stars, lighting his face with an imaginary orange glow, and I could picture it. This felt like home. He felt like home.
And I could stay as long as I wanted.