Chapter 29 #2
I take the box and remove the bow, placing it on top of Diya’s head. When I get the wrapping paper off, Izaac smiles.
I grin back and open the box.
“Oh my god, you guys. What? How? ”
It’s a camcorder, exactly like Naomi’s. Did they put it back together somehow? But no. That thing was totally destroyed. There’s no way.
“We went down to the old photo shop on Howe Ave right before the Bazaar. That guy had so many vintage cameras, but this one jumped out,” Diya says.
It isn’t the same model as the one I had, but it’s pretty darn close, and in excellent condition.
“I can’t believe you guys did this.”
I look at the camera. I can’t wait to get rolling. I flip it on and it’s fully charged, but it doesn’t have an SD card. Which reminds me that I still don’t have a gift for them, now that my footage is gone.
“Oh, and also…,” Diya says, reaching into her pocket. As if she read my mind, she pulls out an SD card and hands it to me. “I took all the pieces of your mom’s camera this morning. I figured I could recycle them. It was totally destroyed but somehow, this was unscathed.”
I look at the card. “Diya, are you telling me…”
“It’s your footage from yesterday. It survived. And I took the liberty of checking the storage. You should have plenty of space left on there to do some filming tonight, too.”
I cannot believe my eyes. I throw my arms around all three of them at once.
I can still create the gift I planned to give them, except it means something different now.
What started as a way to reach Eve, prove to an admissions committee that I am a serious artist, and hopefully remind my friends that traditions matter, has become less about persuasion or accomplishing some goal, and more of a reflection of the reality—the adventure we just lived through together.
All that aside, I now have footage of this very special adventure, and that is a gift I could never have come up with on my own.
“Listen, I’m going to have a gift for you guys too, but I need a little time.”
“Well, we’ve got time,” Izaac says. “We’re happy to wait.”
I can already imagine a screening at my house. “But in the meantime, I wondered if you guys were free to come over tomorrow night? Naomi said she is going to bake biscuits.”
“Don’t toy with me, Bosley,” Cash says, more serious than I’ve ever seen him.
“I never joke about biscuits. And maybe we can even strategize for your next steps?”
“Actually, I have an update,” Cash says.
“Oh?” I look to Diya. She shrugs, as if to say that this is news to her as well.
“I got the apartment,” he says. I search his face, trying to determine how I should react.
Do I congratulate him or cry? I can’t stand the idea that Cash will be leaving us so soon.
But I’m not going to make the same mistake as this morning.
It isn’t my place to tell him not to go, if this is what will make him happiest.
And he does look genuinely happy. Excited, even. So I clap my hands together and say, “Wow! I guess we know where we’re spending spring break then, huh? What’s the weather like in the city in April, O wise one?” I direct the last part to Diya.
“Actually, that reminds me I have a development too,” she says, and takes a dramatic sip of cider.
We wait as she swallows and clears her throat.
“Well, yesterday made me think about a lot of things. It may not have gone exactly as you hoped, Bosley, but you taking that risk, going after what you believed in… it inspired me.”
Izaac and Cash look like they are about to say something, but Diya stops them.
“So even though it scares me, I’m going to tell Seichi how I feel.”
“Ah!” Izaac gasps and claps his hands together, and Cash bounces in his bejeweled boots.
“Uh, love this news!” he squeals, then throws an arm around her in a signature Cash side squeeze.
“So, so proud of you,” I say, and drape an arm around Diya’s shoulder on the other side. “And… I may not have written the script myself, but I’m pretty damn sure you’re going to get your HEA with this one.”
Diya puts her head on my shoulder.
“Well then,” Izaac says, nodding to my camera. “You’d better get rolling. I want those fireworks immortalized on film.”
“I still can’t believe you guys did this,” I say, lifting the camera, shocked to have it in my hands. This isn’t Naomi’s camera, and I’m sad to have lost that one. But this one is mine, the start of a new story, and I’m choosing to be excited about that.
“Don’t worry, it was totally selfish,” Izaac says. “If I’m going to launch my own PR firm, I’m going to need a reliable videographer.”
I raise an eyebrow. “PR?”
Izaac shrugs. “Just exploring my options. The world is full of dreams you didn’t know you’d have,” he says. “Or at least, that’s something Audra showed me yesterday.”
I nod, because it’s something I’ve been thinking about since yesterday too.
“Now I suggest we try to hit the buffet,” Cash says, before I can get too deep into that thought. I put it on the shelf where his birthday once was for now.
I say yes, absolutely, because this lovefest distracted me from the fact that I am actually starving, but Izaac puts his hand out the way a driver throws an arm in front of a passenger at a sharp stop.
“Wait, you guys, is that…”
I follow his shocked expression to the door of the barn. What could possibly be so major?
And there it is. Softly falling, sparkling in the triangles cast by the parking lot lights. Unmistakable.
Snow . On Christmas Eve.
The haloed moon Eve and I saw together last night is keeping its promise.
“It’s a miracle!” Cash shouts.
“But how?” Diya says. “This wasn’t in the forecast at all!”
I never got a chance to tell any of them about what Eve and I saw. She and I were the only ones who could have known this would happen and I decide to keep it that way.
“Sometimes, we silly humans can’t predict things,” I quote Diya back to herself with a smirk.
“However it happened, it’s beautiful,” Izaac says.
He’s right. This is a gentler snow, flurries that don’t feel like they’ll threaten the rest of the evening, but only add to the glittering ambiance. And for the first time since this morning I feel it coming back. It’s…
“Magic,” I add.
A moment later, old man Cooper appears in the big open entryway to the barn and taps a microphone to confirm what we’re all seeing.
“Well, folks… the curse has been lifted!” he shouts, and the whole barn erupts in cheers.
I’m sure there are some people in the crowd who feel less than enthusiastic about shoveling snow on Christmas morning, but for the moment, they’re outnumbered.
“And now I have to make good on my promise, I guess.” Cooper chuckles.
“So, let me see if I can channel Oprah here… You get a turkey! And you get a turkey, and—well, you get the point,” he says, and the crowd laughs along at the very stale joke.
I have questions about the logistics of this turkey distribution, but for now I stay focused on the snowfall.
“But more than that, I want to thank everyone for another extremely successful Cooper Christmas Eve Bazaar, which is pretty darn impressive given that we all had to brave the Polar Quasar to make it happen!” he goes on.
“I especially want to thank our departing seniors. You have made our farm stronger and given us incredible memories. And as a gift—one that I arranged before I realized I was going to be giving away dozens of turkeys—we have a little last-minute surprise for y’all this year.
So, if everyone would form an orderly line, please! Right this way…”
We all look at one another, puzzled, then stand and follow the crowd to see what’s happening.
There are knee-weakening aromas coming from just outside the barn.
Woodsmoke and spices that are familiar, but that I can’t put my finger on…
until I see it there in the distance. Lit up like a beacon all the way from Brooklyn, New York.
Carlos and Tía’s taco truck.