“Don’t make me repeat myself.”
That made him laugh through tears.
I held out my left hand.
It took him three attempts.
His fingers trembled too badly.
Finally, the gold band slid onto my finger beside the crooked copper wire.
We both stared at it.
The perfect ring beside the imperfect one.Metals & Mining
Fifty-five years apart.
Walter covered his face.
I reached out and touched his arm.
That was all.
No grand forgiveness.
No declaration that everything was suddenly all right.
Some things deserve more time than that.
Walter and I started having coffee together after that.
Mostly on my porch.
Sometimes his.
There was never romance between us.
People occasionally assumed there was.
At our age, two widowed or unmarried people sitting together apparently still creates gossip.
I found that funny.
Walter and I had something else.
A strange friendship built around a boy neither of us ever stopped carrying.
