“Welcome and thanks for joining us tonight to celebrate the Weird But True Wilmington Museum.”
Applause echoes throughout the building.
I introduce Olly, Mom and Fred, and the team that so diligently helped me make this place happen, offering my thanks for their support.Marnie tears up over my words and leans comfortably against Grady as the crowd cheers.
While the noise dies down, I glance to the hallway—still empty—and fight back my mixed feelings over this proud, but imperfect moment.Suddenly, I wish I’d waited for her just a little longer, but with a room full of expectant faces now staring at me, I must go on.You must go on.Dr.Blake’s words swim in my head—it’s what he said to me in the greenhouse after explaining that my sunflower believes she’s a cactus.Does she still believe that?The hurt and confusion resurface, too, jumbling my thoughts.I glance at Mom, and she gives me an encouraging smile.
“Um, Uncle Jay started this place with a dream to bring together everything he loves… history, mystery, curiosity, and people.That dream took a few detours over the years.Mom and I weren’t too happy with its gator and serpentarium era… or with the serial killers…”
Laughs.
“… But we always understood the vision.Jay taught me to love the past and question the present.He showed me how to spot a fake ghost-sighting video and what pirates’ treasure really looks like.We’d talk about alien theories for hours, which always felt way more interesting than anything taught in school.He told me scary stories, against my mom’s wishes, which Venus?—”
My voice catches on her name, and my thoughts skip, like the needle bumping over a scratch on a record.“Um, Venus…”
My eyes drift to my feet, trying to piece together what I meant to say.But my thoughts get lost in her, and fears over why she isn’t here.I went a decade without her, and yet, all that yearning stacks up, tightening my chest, and this moment becomes the hardest.She belongs here.With me.With us.
Someone clears their throat, and I blink, returning to the present.A crowded room.Jay’s museum.My speech.
“Um, sorry.What I meant to say was,” I say, looking up, “Vee?—”
Her name sticks for a third time, only because my sore eyes find hers.Her gentle smile locks with mine as she slips into the crowd from the side hallway—a breeze, filtering between guests.
“Venus…” Her name falls from my lips, this time with relief, and echoes over the loudspeakers.The crowd turns toward her, shifting to let her through.She looks incandescently beautiful.She’s wearing her dusty pink prom dress, this time with proper shoes, and every move she makes sparkles under the twinkling lights.My favorite scarf waves through her hair, filling me with heat as I remember it tied to her wrists.Her sweet surrender.Her with me.
“Um, hi…” I mutter, rather forgetting the crowd.
“Henry, forgive me for being late,” she says, fiddling with her rings and bracelets.“I-I had a dilemma.”
My brow pinches.“Dilemma?”
“I couldn’t decide what to wear,” she says, unsurely.
Laughs.
“Happens to me all the time!You look gorgeous!”DeeDee slips beside her, taking her arm, and escorting her to the stairs next to Olly and me.My son automatically slips his hand into hers.My tension dissipates in a breath.Now, everything is as it should be.
Blushing and grinning to the point that my face hurts, I force my attention on the crowd.“Um, where was I?”
“Scary stories!”someone calls out.
“Right, Jay’s scary stories that would’ve caused nightmares and sleepless nights, if not for Venus refuting them with scientific counter-evidence, making me feel better.Temporarily.Until Jay would tell me the next one…”
Laughs.
“He encouraged me to find the stories behind objects, oddities, and people, and then to go deeper to see the storiesbehindthose stories.What are we without our stories?”
I take a breath, my throat closing up with emotion, until my eyes land on Venus.She smiles softly, and it’s just enough to take the edge off my nerves and pull back the tears threatening to fall.
“He taught me to be there for the people I love as often as they need me...To live and love fully.Rebuilding his dream has helped us grieve him, but it’s also been a celebration of his life.That’s what he wanted this place to be—a celebration of life, all that’s weird and true.”
I hold up the glass in my hand.
“So, here’s to Jay, forever in our hearts.”
The crowd clinks glasses and toasts, “To Jay!”
My glass gently meets Olly’s and then Venus’s.I lean closer, kissing her cheek and breathing her in.“You just made tonight perfect.”
