someday
There was a house on the cliffs by the sea, and it was where I fell in love.
I fell in love with the way the lilies bloomed, and the vines twisted, and the willows swayed.
I fell in love with each new part of Lilymoor that unfurled itself, adding to my garden of memories.
In the autumn, Rus moved into the cottage with me.
He answered his phone less, and he spent more time in the gardens.
Damnit never stopped chasing him and eventually even learned how to use the stairs, to the absolute horror of everyone.
In the winter, we kept warm by the wood-burning stove in the cottage, or the fireplace in the main house whenever Eula felt the winter chill too lonely, and spent early dark evenings on the veranda with hot cocoa and stacks of library books.
In the spring, Eula broke out her favorite records and played big band music so loud you could hear it in the Willow Grove.
Yafir started bringing his kid to work, and the sounds of little feet pattering across the hardwood floors gave new life to the old house.
The summer brought a ring, and a promise.
And I learned to fall in love all over again with each new season, and each new year, some more surprising than others.
Juliette and Oliver left Lilymoor for a while on a road trip and sent back postcards at every new destination.
Wykofski fell in love with a touring harmonica player from Idaho, and eventually left to chase a new dream, too.
Rus and I stayed, and Eula stayed. She stayed for ten more years.
And then she fell asleep.
Most mornings I get up to listen to the birds, and each summer I taste the honeysuckle, and I kiss Rus in the golden hours of dusk every chance I get. I kiss him in the mornings, too, and in the early afternoons, and in the gazebo of that someday garden, when we finally built it.
I never heard Harriett’s voice again, and while the gardens spun strange stories for other people, Lilymoor’s magic politely passed us by.
Then again, we didn’t need it anymore as we fell in love over and over and over again, season after season, in that someday garden on the cliffs by the sea.
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