Epilogue
Aster
“This job actually requires no alpacas.” I said.
Aladdin kept pace beside me, eyeing the remains of the large bowl of salad.
“No alpacas needed at all, for this.”
Stitch joined us, on my other side.
Mickey laughed as he came out from the farmhouse. “Need some help?”
“Just a little.”
Between us we got the salad inside the house and safe from alpacas.
Tane, Dillon and Harlow had driven off a half hour before and we were slowly packing up the leftovers from the barbeque. Mickey had moved the picnic table out to one of the fields with a nice mountain view so we could hang out with the alpacas but keeping food from them had proved tricky.
All the same, it had been a really successful day.
I was ready to become a farmer’s husband. (Not that he’d proposed or anything, we were taking it slow and steady and that’s fine, but like. I could see it.)
I slept well, curled against Mickey’s side.
The alpaca all knew me now and were very close to listening to me.
We’d saved the lake, Mickey and I were starting the second season of X-Files and he’d promised to show me another old Japanese movie that night.
Life? It was fucking good.
To top it all off, I was writing an article about the adventure we’d had, exposing the proposed data center. I was confident someone would pay me to publish it when it was done.
It wasn’t poetry, but maybe, just maybe, it could change the world.
Empower concerned citizens to fight back, defend their habitats from unfeeling corporations.
“Come here, boyfriend.” Mickey was sitting on a park bench by the flower bed.
I sat beside him.
“My heart still flutters, hearing you say that, you know.” I pecked him on the cheek.
“Mine too, from saying it.”
I leaned against him and he slipped his arm around me, even though it was far too hot in the sun for that kind of behavior.
“I love you, Mick.”
“I love you, too.” He squeezed me close to him with his strong arm. “You sure you’re happy to stay here, at the farm with me?”
“Mmhm. If I get invited to perform in shows then I’ll go do that, wherever I can get to,” I said. “But I won’t stay away too long, and I’ll come back to you. I like it here, it’s quiet and I can get work done. Besides, my favorite person in the world lives here, so of course I’m happy.”
Mickey sighed, relieved.
“Good.”
“It is good.” I nuzzled my face against his. “You’re good.”
We sat like that, watching the alpacas. I knew I would be happy, and I could look after Mickey, and he would look after me, and we’d continue to communicate and enjoy ourselves and whatever happened, I would be happy.
Later, tonight, maybe I’d put some music on, turn to him and say ‘Shall we dance?’
Maybe we’d dance and maybe that was a job the alpacas could help us with.
But that was later.
For now, I was content just to sit with him.
Thanks for reading!