“And you are quite the charmer,” I replied before giving him a quick kiss on the lips.
A moment later, Trevor returned with the platter of cookies, and Daiyu came running back downstairs carrying a boombox and a small generator.
“Daiyu, the solar batteries are for emergencies this time of year,” Trevor gently chastised her.
“No, we have another one that is strictly for emergencies,” Daiyu countered.“This one is only for when we need it.And we need it right now.”
Trevor laughed, and she went about setting up the boombox and generator on the coffee table.A moment later, Donna Summer came blasting out of old speakers, and Daiyu pushed the table to the side of the room, presumably to make room for a dance floor.
“Oh, so it’s gonna be one ofthosekind of nights?”Trevor asked with a smile as he danced his way over to her.
Jordy took my hand, and we went over to join them.He still had his pouch of grinleaf, and he carefully doled out the flakes.Two small ones each for Daiyu and me, two big ones for Jordy, and four huge ones for Trevor, who insisted he always needed a bigger dose of everything because of his size.
“The trade off of being nearly seven feet tall by the time I was in high school was that I need to down a full bottle of wine to get buzzed,” he’d explained when he took the tabs.
As Donna Summer’s music pulsed through the speakers, our laughter grew faint and our movements loose.The languid euphoria of the grinleaf was taking hold of us all.
Daiyu spun in the center of the makeshift dance floor, arms flung wide, her usual sharp energy softened into luminous joy.Trevor’s giant frame swayed with surprising grace, his face split by a dopey grin as he twirled Daiyu and dipped her with exaggerated flair.Jordy even pulled me into his arms, moving with me in time to the music.
It all seemed to melt together, with one song blurring into the next, until it felt as though time itself had changed, stretching out to hold us all.And for once I feltgood, with no guilt of the past or worry of the future.I was only here, in the glorious present moment.
“I think I may have had a bit too much wine tonight,” Trevor said, sometime later.My hair was damp with sweat, and I was only vaguely aware that my legs were sore from dancing.
“Oh no!”Daiyu rushed over to comfort him, standing up on her tiptoes to touch his face.
“I’ll be okay.I think I need to lie down.”He took a staggering step toward the stairs, and Jordy rushed to catch him by the arm before the big man tumbled over.
“Here, let me help you,” Jordy offered, and Trevor leaned on him.
“You know what that is?”Daiyu asked me, pointing at the two of them going upstairs to the bedroom.“That is a sign we need to hydrate.”She turned down the boombox, then went to get us two glasses of water from the kitchen.
While she was gone, I went over to her shelves to admire her various collectibles when I noticed several framed pictures.One was of Daiyu with a young girl, and another was of Daiyu and the same girl, older now, in her twenties, in a wedding dress.
“Are these your family pictures?”I asked.
“Yes.I made sure to take them with me everywhere I’ve gone,” Daiyu explained as she joined me.“I knew how much I’d need them if I were to survive.That’s my only child, Emily Mei.”
“She looks just like you,” I said.
“She did, but she wasn’t much like me at all.So much kinder and more generous,” Daiyu explained wistfully.“She was seven months pregnant when the virus broke out.By the time I was evacuated, she and the baby were gone.”
“I’m sorry,” I replied simply.There were no words large enough to encompass a loss that great, so sometimes the simplest would do.
“Me, too,” she agreed with a sad smile.
“Do you ever regret it?”I asked, emboldened by the wine and grinleaf to pick at a wound I usually preferred to leave alone.
“What?”she asked.
“Living when they didn’t.”
Daiyu looked at me thoughtfully, her eyes full of something I couldn’t quite read.“Sometimes in my dark moments, yes, I do.But part of Emily lives on within me, so I still live for her, for the grandbaby I never even met.I carry them with me wherever I go.”
“And that’s enough for you?”I asked, my voice thick.
“That’s all there is, so it has to be,” she replied simply.
“Got the big man to bed,” Jordy announced as he came down the stairs, pulling Daiyu and I from our somber thoughts.
