Drown #13: the story we tell, part 5.3

August 2086. Stephanie Nova and Justin Kim are 26. Willow is 5. 




Justin bought a cannoli at the cafe, but he didn’t have the appetite to eat it. He took a seat on the patio, overlooking the town square. He watched the door to the community center and his eyesight was just good enough to make out the rough shape of people coming and going. He could tell only as much as whether they were men or women or children, but he was certain that none of them had looked like Jeremiah so far.

He stopped just short of bringing binoculars because that would have been paranoid.


Then, after about an hour, his phone rang.

"I’m so sorry to trouble you," Mrs. Blair said. "He called to confirm, I was certain he’d come. But he didn’t. It’s been an hour. You can come collect Willow now if you like. Sorry to have wasted your time."

"Don't worry about it, I’ll be right there," Justin said.



"I’m sorry, girlie. Are you very disappointed?"

Willow sighed. "Uh huh. I thought I was gonna spend the whole day with my daddy. I thought it was gonna be the best day ever."

Outside it was a gorgeous summer day, warm but not sweltering, breezy, with a cover of fluffy white clouds overhead. Justin had some sunscreen and water bottles in the car.


"Hey, I've got an idea," he said. "I know it’s not what you were looking forward to, but maybe do you wanna hang out with me instead?"

Willow grinned. "Yeah!"

"What should we do first?"



Right outside the community center was a huge fountain. They took a picture together in front of it.

"First, we should send this picture to your mom," he said.

Justin texted the picture to Stephanie and called to check in.

"It's so bizarre," Justin told her. "He just didn't even show up. He didn't call to cancel or anything. In fact, he actually called to confirm, but then he was a no show."


"After all that trouble, he couldn't even make his first visitation? What is wrong with him?"

"I don't know. But I thought I'd take Willow out for a little while, before we come home. She was pretty disappointed. But only if you guys are okay for a while longer. How is everything there?"

"Oh, kind of fine," Stephanie said. "Now we're fine, anyway. Benji was fussy all morning, but he’s sleeping now. Lily was upset because I promised her a movie, then the TV broke. But now, we're all fine."

"How did the TV break?"

"I have no idea. It's kind of sparking a little. It's not on fire, though."

"Steph, don’t try to fix it on your own."


"Don’t even worry, I wasn’t going to try," Stephanie said. "I’ll just wait for my handyman to come back home. You guys have fun. I love you."

"Love you, too," Justin said.


"Last one to the park is a rotten egg!"














"Well, girlie, I think we did it all," Justin said. "It's getting kind of late, we should probably head back home now."

"Today was the best day ever," Willow said.

"Yeah, it was pretty great. Let's go tell your momma and Lily all about it."

—

notes: did you look at all the pictures closely?

outtakes: Stephanie's cozy day at home