She listens carefully, then nods. ‘Yes. Thank you. I think that would be a really lovely thing to do.’
93.
Rachel
June 2037
I open my eyes. And at last: there they are.
My wedding and engagement rings, in a little glass dish on my nightstand.
I reach out and pick them up, nearly dropping them as I do so, because I am really quite useless at holding things now.
Eventually, with shaking hands, I manage to slide them on to my ring finger. They are a little loose, which is odd. I can’t remember taking them off. But that’s hardly surprising. It’s a struggle to recall very much at all any more.
And then, quite out of nowhere, I feel a kind of dreamy peace wash over me. Calm and warm, like spreading out a picnic blanket on a summer’s day.
I turn to my nightstand again, open the drawer, and lift out the love letter I have kept for... Well. Let’s just say, it’s been a very long time.
I struggle to read now. But that doesn’t matter. Because I can recite this letter by heart. I just like the feeling of holding the paper in my hand, exactly as Josh would have done, all those years ago.
Hey, Rachel,
It was amazing to meet you, the other week. I’d really love to see you again. I sort of can’t stop thinking about you...! Hope that’s not too much. But I couldn’t not tell you.
I feel like this could be something pretty epic.
Here’s my address, and number.
Yours hopefully,
J xx
Shakily, I fold the letter up again, then slide it back inside the envelope with my university address on the front, and the nineteen-pence stamp.
I glance at the clock on the wall. It’s nearly five p.m. That means it won’t be long until Josh gets home from teaching. The last thing he did before leaving the house was lift my hand and kiss my knuckle, just as he did at the end of his speech on our wedding day. I remember that so clearly.
He told me he’d be back soon.
There is a vase of roses on the windowsill. He cuts them for me every summer, from the bushes he tends in our garden.
Outside, the sunlight is starting to soften. But the sky remains a tranquil, effortless blue. I can hear birds chattering, a distant dog bark, children playing. The tempting scent of a barbecue. It must be weeks since we had one. Perhaps I’ll ask Josh if he fancies that, this weekend.
My mind is beginning to slide now, slipping down a slope leading only to sleep.
I hope he’s had a good day, I think, as I feel myself go. We’ll cook something nice tonight, when he gets in. Have a glass of wine and watch the sun set together, his hand in mine.
94.
Josh
June 2037
Before I left the house just now, I set Rachel’s rings into a little glass dish on her nightstand while she slept. I asked Emma’s permission to do so, of course. She said yes without hesitation, fetched the rings for me from Rachel’s jewellery box.
I hoped they would be the first thing she saw, the next time she opened her eyes.
I took her left hand and kissed it softly, on the knuckle of her ring finger, exactly as I did on our wedding day.
