What is your favorite Spring beer?

Monday, August 29, 2005

Tea- Chapter 14

Chapter 14

The thing Miles liked the best about working school groups versus family and recreation groups was that the fullest days with school groups never started until ten in the morning or so since the kids had to first get to their school at around eight to get on another bus for a multi-hour ride to Ontonagon. The days of guarding the tubing hill at seven in the morning trying to fend off frostbite were a distant and salty memory.

He curled back into Sophie when he saw that the clock was two hours short of serious. She made room for Miles though she was probably not conscious of the action.

When the pace of the clock was unable to be ignored the two grudgingly swept aside their blankets. Yawned morning greetings were exchanged and the tacky blue polo shirts they were both so used to wearing were found amongst the mound of clothing on top of the dresser and re-worn.

Miles and Sophie walked hand in hand until they knew they were in possible view of guests. Their newly freed hands made shy acquaintance with the cold air on their way to less-friendly pockets. The pair was the last to the staff table. Two minutes short of being late was just fine by them. Miles had recently switched to the harder stuff and made his way to the coffee machine before going to the buffet line.

Sophie almost immediately snuffed a frown upon seeing Miles’ breakfast. Some eggs and a few pieces of burned bacon tried to spread themselves across his plate while black coffee billowed a distinctly fragrant haze next door.

Miles pursed his lips and shrugged at Sophie’s reaction. The gesture was not meant as a defiant gesture and she knew Miles well enough not to take it as such. She squeezed his arm under the table which elicited a warm smile from Miles. It seemed to Sophie that every time she pulled Miles out of his stressed mindset over careful and tender days he was thrown back into anxiety as soon as they left the haven of one another. She saw it in Miles’ diet, his emotions, his physical…any number of things, really. If it had been because of her, because he was unhappy with her, she would have understood. The terrible part of it was that it was because of her, because of the most wonderful love she had ever received. At times Sophie wanted to stop everything and let go of Miles before the damage became irreparable. Every time she had that thought, however, she remembered that she had already done him in, in a manner of speaking.

Sophie watched him trying not to watch her and felt the heat build behind her eyes. She had caused what he was going through; whether or not it was unintentional. Sophie knew she had to be the thing to bring him out of it but her options and ideas were running out. She squeezed his arm again to push back the water from her eyes. Sophie knew that Miles seeing her in the state she was close to being in was the worst thing for Miles. She nearly laughed out loud when she was reminded that the reason for their grief was the same. Miles wanted to be the world for Sophie and Sophie wanted to be the world for Miles. Is that what love was? Sophie smiled at the thought. If what they felt was what love was supposed to be then the world was being mislead through delusions of happiness. Love was periodically crashing Sophie’s world to a halt, and that applied to every metaphor she had thought of. Sophie squelched her thoughts when breakfast ended but made a point to sneak a kiss from Miles before they were split into groups.

The outdoor education aspect of the camp was not the strongest. This was due mostly to the outdoor education director being relatively new and having a number of other hats to wear and budget. Summer camp was where the biggest money was, but recreation weekends and retreats were the biggest off-season cash cow. Public schools just did not have the dispensable income that eight hundred New England bourgeois spread over two months had.

As a result the activities offered for outdoor education at Ontanogan were sub-par at best. There were no classroom-type lessons offered at all. A geo-dome activity which was supposed to tie into geometry and a few predator-prey variations were really all there was during the day.

The saving grace of the outdoor education program was the evening-long Underground Railroad scenario. UGRR, as it was called for short, was a pre-civil war scenario about escaping slaves and those that helped them to Canada. The students played the role of the slaves being herded around the property by guides while a ‘sheriff’ tried to recapture them. It was always a crowd pleaser amongst students and teachers alike and a fun activity for the staff since they got to yell at kids and pretend to be mean for a change instead of pretending to be nice.

About half of the staff, including Miles and Sophie, was dressing up in straw hats, long skirts, and old overalls to play double roles as slavers in the beginning of the program and landowners, authorities, and Quakers for the remainder. Miles was the Sheriff that evening. Sophie was the last safe-house proprietor before the ‘slaves’ made it to Canada. They always had a good time acting like nemeses.

They chose to hide themselves in one of the closets in the room and jokingly make out while Charles, the OE director, gave the kids in the meeting room an explanation of the scenario and a colorful history lesson. At a premeditated point Charles said a key word and the program staff, garbed in faded and too-large clothing, burst out of closets and through doors to ‘capture’ the students and begin the program.

Miles wandered around the grounds after the kids had been separated into smaller groups and given maps of the safe-house location. His job was to lurk around Sophie’s house and question her about suspicious noises and stirrings. It gave the kids one last little scare before they ended up back in the meeting room they had begun in which had magically turned into Canada.

After the kids got a cookie and a paper cup of punch they were sat down and introduced to the staff that had been either harassing or helping them that evening. Charles led a rather long-winded debriefing session after which the kids were sent to their cabins and the staff was let off.

It was almost ten by the time Miles and Sophie got back to his cabin. Miles was glad the door was unlocked because the only thing on his mind was sleep. When his eyes adjusted he could see the Scott and Kyra had beaten him to the punch. With barely a sound save the meeting of warm lips Miles slid into bed with Sophie until the morning came.

There were only six people at the breakfast table the next morning. Breakfast was the one meal that no one came to unless it was required. Miles looked groggily at Jabari, Gerri, Christopher, and Emma looking groggily at one another. He sipped his coffee and wished it was cooler so he could get it down and working faster.

Miles knew that as soon as he was caffeinated it would not be that bad of a day. The kids left after lunch and they had only used four cabins so cleanup would be a breeze with six people working. Past experience gave him the prediction of a two-thirty wrap up on the day. The group would give him a twenty-two hour workweek but that was alright by Miles. He had not thought of what to do over the weekend except fill out a marriage license application online, which reconnaissance surfs had shown to be easier than setting up an Ebay account. The entire process would take under a half-hour.

Both of them were wise enough to realize that cutting hours was not a problem if they also cut their spending. The big trips they took in the beginning were nice to bond with one another and the group but not really necessary. Going out to eat three times a week and day-long shopping trips were also laid by the wayside in favor of having money reserved for whatever happened next. They could always find somewhere to be by themselves if they needed to be or somewhere were people were hanging out if they felt like being social. Most often the former was what the two were after.

“Are we going to have room for all of our stuff in your Jeep?” Sophie asked absently as she lay against Miles, who was propped up on a pillow in his bed. She was lightly scratching the side of his head above his left ear, which was the surest way to get him to fall asleep. Sophie knew exactly what she was doing.

“Probably. It wasn’t completely full when I came out here. Although both of us have accumulated our fair share of junk since we’ve been out here.

“Mostly me. They didn’t let me bring nearly enough on the airplane.”

“We’ll figure it out. If it doesn’t all fit we can UPS stuff. Boxes of clothes can’t cost that much to ship.”

“Oh, good idea. I never thought of that.” Sophie continued scratching and Miles’ eyelids drooped steadily until they were both asleep. They dozed on top of the blankets and still wearing their Ontanogan shirts until Scott and Kyra came through the door.

“How was the group?” Scott asked after sitting on his bed and shucking his shoes. Kyra followed him like a synchronized swimmer. They both lay on Scott’s bed and got comfortable.

“Pretty good. Nothing out of the ordinary.”

“That’s good,” Scott yawned, “We’re working the group coming in tonight, a father-daughter thing through a church. Should be mellow, it’s basically a rec weekend.”

“Well, I hope it’s as uneventful as our time was.” Scott hummed a short reply and within moments both pairs were sleeping the afternoon away.

Hunger roused Miles from his nap. There was no dinner in the dining hall that evening since the new group did not arrive until the evening. Having no camp food for a night was not a particularly bad thing, but the store of food that he and Sophie actually wanted to eat was dwindling. He was pretty sure the cans of pineapple (ingredients for a pina coloda night long ago?) and the bag of black beans as well as an armful of other random dry goods would be passed on to the next generation of program staff whether they wanted them or not.

Sophie woke up shortly and had no objections to going to the lounge. They tiptoed past Scott and Kyra and out the door.

“What do you want to do tonight?” Sophie asked.

“We could apply for that license; get that out of the way. I shouldn’t take to long from the looks of it. Send it out tomorrow morning.”

“Sounds good.”

“Then, I don’t know. Watch TV?” Miles could tell the kind of mood Sophie was in before the all the words came out of his mouth. “Or we could drive into Avon and go to Chile’s, then walk around and end up in Borders.”

“Mmhh. I want to end up at one of those high little wire tables outside of Starbucks.” They sharply switched direction toward the parking lot.

“We have got to quit doing this, you know.”

“I know. We’ll stop in another month.” Miles rolled his eyes and continued walking.

They had been doing fairly well; it had been nearly two weeks since they had trekked to the city shopping centers had built. It looked to be the same as they had left it. The first stop was Chile’s, where, after a twenty-two ounce glass of Sam Adams, Miles did not feel so bad about spending money. They did go to Borders afterward to walk off fajitas and forty-four ounces of beer. After a routine of browsing the two had down to a timed science they ended up, according to plan, sitting outside of Starbuck’s sipping macchiatos.

Miles stared at Sophie in the brashness of the streetlamp and remembered that he would be spending the rest of his life with the woman across the table from him. He was still waiting for the other shoe to drop; when he would see things in Sophie that would make him feel resigned to his fate rather than elated at his fortune. When was he supposed to be indifferent to Sophie and start treating her like a family member he had to like because he loved instead of a gorgeous exotic plaything?

At least he had always noticed the former attitude in most married people and even most people who had simply dated one another for too long. He was far to cynical to believe he had stumbled upon his perfect match or found some kind of wonderful solution to the relationship but he could not think of anything more logical.

Miles realized that he had been staring to long when he realized Sophie was staring back at him quizzically. “Nothing, nothing,” he mumbled, answering a question Sophie had not asked. She shook her head with a smile.

“We’ve done everything we can do except think about how we’re going to have this wedding, you know.”

“I know,” Miles answered. “What do you think? This is pretty much your department, right?”

“Well, I was thinking it would be nice to have it near your parents so they could at least see it if mine can’t. But, I don’t want to have photos and whatnot with only one set in them, and we’ve never even met. The only people we have in common are these people.”

“My parents would fly out here for sure if you want to do it in New Hampshire. I never thought of that. Marriage licenses do go by county.”

“That would be nice. It’s not that I’m opposed to meeting them, but just the four of us, or the four of us and your college buddies would be…”

“I know what you mean. And I’d like the people here to see it all, too.”

“Emma will probably be my maid of honor. That will be a funny conversation.”

“She is the logical choice. So, do we just want to find a local chapel, or city hall?”

“Well, you know I’m not that religious, but I would like a church, I suppose. Seems cozier.” Miles nodded.

“Like I said, if we pick one, I’m sure my parents will fly out. That way they won’t feel excluded and we’ll still have the comfort of our friends.”

“Who’s your best man going to be?”

“I have no idea.” Miles had friends, to be certain. He had grown up around Chicago, went to UIC, the whole bit. He had a lot of numbers in his cell phone and a lot of options on a Saturday night, but none of his friends seemed like the best man type. He hardly kept in touch with high-school buddies and college had been such a blur that even those friends he had going back five years from UIC seemed to be on the fringe of his life. It sobered him to realize that he did not have that childhood buddy straight out of a hallmark commercial, that he had caught frogs and climbed trees with. He shrugged again.

“I don’t know. Scott? You’re picking your roommate.”

“Oh, that’s such a cop-out.” Miles did not respond because Sophie was absolutely right.

They finished their coffee and their talk just before the place closed at ten.

“I mostly just want to get it done,” Sophie said, continuing the wedding conversation on the drive home. “I always thought I would want a big wedding, fancy everything and whatever, but I never thought I would be in this situation. I just want to make it official; not for us, for politics. That’s more important to me than aesthetics, I guess.”

“I feel the same way. But that’s probably because I’m a guy.”

“Well, whatever. I just want to get this past us. What happens after this whole thing is the most important part, right?”

“Of course.” Miles took his eyes from the road to look into Sophie’s. He took her hand and slid her arm alongside his over the seats. “Have I ever told you how much I like your accent?”

“I don’t know,” Sophie smiled, wondering where the question was leading.

“I do. It’s sweet. And different. Kind of soothing, even besides your voice. I like it.”

“I’m glad. I’m sure you won’t think anything of it years down the road.”

“Just don’t become Americanized too quickly on me. We’re mostly an obese, ignorant crowd, to be honest.”

“Wouldn’t think of it.”

“Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

They were quiet for the rest of the ride home. Even though they had only worked two-thirds of a day the hours were beginning to catch up with them. There was no question as to whether dropping off to sleep was the immediate plan when they got back into camp.

“Okay, I filled out all my stuff. Your turn.” Miles handed Sophie the marriage license application he had printed minutes ago. All that was required was a processing fee and basic data like a name, social security number, address, and the like. I was as easy as filling out a magazine subscription card. Sophie filled her lines sans social security number and handed it back to Miles, who sealed the papers in an envelope and walked with Sophie to the office to drop it in with Monday’s outgoing mail.

“And now we wait,” Miles sighed, kissing Sophie’s cheek as they walked back to the lounge.

“I wonder what’s going to come first, the license or the fiancée

green card.”

“That should be coming soon as well. In about a week, I suppose.”

“We’ve done all we can do. I’m sure it will work out fine. You’re going to be laughing at yourself for being so worried about all this rubbish in six months.”

“I know. And you’ll be gloating because I’ll have to tell you you’re right again.”

“Nonsense. I’m positive you’ll tell me I’m right loads of times before then.” They lapsed into a bout of silliness before composing themselves and entering the lounge.

“The lounge was starting to remind Miles of the TV show ‘Cheers’. He knew who would be there, a different combination of the same people, talking about the same things in a slightly different way, it was at the same time comforting and making Miles wish he had a remote to see if there was anything else on. Jabari and Emma were playing foosball, Christopher, Sergio, and Paul were watching TV, and Gerri was leaning on the fridge and eating cottage cheese straight from the container.

It was half-past ten; too early for lunch at the dining hall even though both Miles and Sophie had skipped breakfast to fill out their last bit of paperwork. They split the last bagel they had and watched Jabari and Emma continue their season-long struggle at the foosball table. Emma won that particular game and swung around the table to join her foe against Miles and Sophie. In what may have been record time, the newcomers were disposed of.

“Well, I can’t really feel too bad. That’s the first time I’ve played this thing sober,” Miles said, leaning into the table on his arms. Sophie rolled her eyes. She remembered all too well the last time Miles had played foosball. Since that drunken debacle neither had consumed more than three or four drinks in a night, and even those instances could be counted on one hand with digits to spare.

“Are we going to do another trip? We talked about it earlier.” The question was from Jabari.

“I don’t know. We’ve got to save up for the wedding and all the paperwork that goes with that. There are a lot of hoops.”

“Word. I haven’t heard anything solid from anybody yet anyways. I think everyone’s in that getting finished frame of mind, looking toward the next thing.”

Miles nodded. He and Sophie had been in that frame of mind for months. Miles realized how hard it was to appreciate the situation they had been in when his thought were always looking ahead. Almost all off his happy Kodak memories had happened within the first two months of arriving in New Hampshire; before things had gotten complicated.

“Well, maybe we don’t have to do anything crazy. We should just get together one night, soon, before all the summer camp people show up next month. We could just go to that fire pit on the other side of the hill behind the lounge, right off of that nature trail. Get some drinks and some wood…Just chill.”

“I’d be game for that. I see what you mean. Even getting to a bar takes a lot of work with this crew.”

“And it’s not something we would have to plan anything, really. Whenever it seems like a good time, we can just go.” Jabari kept nodding and stroking his chin fuzz. Emma and Sophie were standing idly by, spinning the foosball players absently. Miles brushed his fingernails across the small of Sophie’s back. She scooched closer to let his arm curl around her hips while she spun her line of over-sized army men over a pock-marked field.

“What do you think of that, party girl?” Sophie made a sound somewhere between a sigh and a grunt, both positive sounding.

“What are we going to do all day?” Sophie cried in overacted exasperation. She flung herself into Miles’ arms and rubbed her nose on his shoulder.

“Are you itching your nose on my shoulder?” Miles asked incredulously

“No,” she said, without breaking rhythm.

“You are, too. You’re so strange.” Sophie stopped, but only because she was finished. She released her grip on Miles’ shoulder blades and leaned on the foosball table instead.

“In answer to your question, I don’t know what we’re going to do today. But we’re not going into town. We’re spending the whole day right here.”

“What could we possibly do here, though?”

“Well, there’s the company of our friends, board games, cable…The possibilities are limitless, when you really think about it. We used to just sit and talk all day long, you know. Quick, What color are my eyes?”

“You’re such a girl. And that’s trick question. You don’t even have eyes.”

“If you start being sarcastic I’m going to do a British accent…”

“Oh, God, I’ll stop. I didn’t know it was that important to you. And besides, I thought I told you that you weren’t allowed to be British ever again.”

“Well, you’d better be nice to me,” Miles chuckled, “Or else I’ll do it with your parents.”

“They’ll think you’re a mental patient.”

“Those are the stakes I’m willing to play at, baby.” Sophie grinned, unable to counter. A kiss quick enough to not cause an uncomfortable moment in the room full of people quieted Miles’ tongue as well.

There was nowhere else to go so the two found a free spot on one of the couches and eventually realized they were watching a movie called ‘Airheads’ on Comedy Central. They got into snuggled comfortable positions and let the think-piece on the tube carry them to the lunch hour.

The lunch table was a great place to be if you were not working. Anyone who had been on all morning used the meal time to recuperate but those who had been spending more time off of their feet than on them used lunch as an excuse to see if anyone else had done something interesting with their time off. Miles chatted with Scott, who had been in their cabin all morning with Kyra, as well as all the drifters he had spent the morning with. Everyone on the staff’s side of camp talked too much and ate even more because they had nothing to do but use their words up and wander back home to digest for the afternoon.

Sophie’s restlessness had calmed by the time they made it back to Miles’ cabin. “Six weeks,” she stated, flopping onto his bed. The topic was in heavy conversation rotation. Miles did not have anything to add so he just nodded a response and sat down beside his fiancée. He rubbed the small of her back consolingly.

“I’m looking forward to being back in Chicago, to tell you the truth,” Miles said, finding his voice.

“Me too,” Sophie smiled. “It just feels strange, though, to be thinking about somewhere else. Sometimes it seems like we’ve been here forever and this is where we’re supposed to be.”

“I’m sure we could get camp counselor jobs if you wanted to.”

“That’s not what I bloody mean, you.”

“I know. You’re going to miss this place.”

“I think what I’m going to miss is the people. I’ll have you, of course, but there are some great people here, even though we haven’t spent nearly enough time with any of them. But I guess what I’m really going to miss is the things we’ve done. In Chicago, we won’t be able to drive by the Borders we always go to or our Starbucks or the movie theatre.”

“We’ll have lots of other places, you know.”

“I know,” Sophie sighed and rolled over on her back. Miles smiled at the fact that he could graze his hand over Sophie’s breast so familiarly. “But these were the first memories and we’ll be leaving them all here. I mean, why else would we come back here?”

“I have a feeling we will. It will make those places even more special if we see them years down the road. If we saw them every day then we’d forget all about their significance. I’m not opposed to coming back here sometime. I think some people are even staying in the area. Gerri really likes it here, and Scott and Kyra are staying on this coast, anyways. I think they were looking at a place in Massachusetts for the next fall.”

“I suppose you’re right. I never thought I’d be getting misty over this place.”

“Well, like you said. It’s not the place, though it hasn’t been too bad, really. It’s the people. I mean, excepting the directors, our immediate bosses are even great. Except for a couple of people here, I don’t think you could ask for a nicer bunch of people.”

“Right again. Oh, maybe we should all do something together again.”

“I think the big bonfire idea is good. Why not end it in the place where it all started?”

“That sounds dangerously close to clichéd.”

“I’m sure it is. You know what I mean, though. Come to think of it, we’ve never really done anything here, socially. Why not give it a shot?” Sophie smiled and nodded. She closed her eyes and tilted her chin, which meant that Miles was to kiss her immediately. He followed orders.

Scott and Kyra walked through the door just late enough to keep a private display of affection from going public. Miles related Jabari’s in-camp idea to his roommates and received nods of approval.

“Do you guys want to go see a movie?” Scott asked. So much for staying in camp for a whole day.

“I don’t know what we were thinking,” Sophie smiled as they drove home as the sun set. “We can’t stay in camp on a day off any more than a minister can skip church.” Miles rolled his eyes and laughed.

“How’s that whole saving money thing going for you guys?” Kyra asked from the front seat.

“I’ve got enough for gas back to Chicago after all the fees and what have you.”

“When’s the wedding?”

“Um, we don’t really know. When, where, how, any of it.”

“Don’t worry. Most people spend more time planning a wedding than you two have even known one another.” Miles nodded.

“When we figure it out, you’ll be the first to know.”

“Oh, I hope you have it here,” Kyra gushed, “Weddings are so much fun!” Miles groaned.

Saturday, August 20, 2005

Tea - 13

Chapter 13

“It came today, Sophie.” Miles had just walked in the door to his cabin after getting their mail from the office.”

“This makes it kind of official, then, hey?”
“It buys us some time.” He kissed her forehead before sitting beside her on the bed. Miles unceremoniously opened the manila envelope with his pocket knife.

“Kiss me first,” Sophie squeaked, stopping Miles’ hand from reaching into the envelope with her own. Miles looked at his beloved. “For good luck. Just do it.” He did, with no regrets.

“Shall we start this up?” Sophie nodded. The words spoken in the parking lot two afternoons before were still ringing in both of their ears and it was with sober deliberation that Miles pulled the sheets from their sheaf.

“This doesn’t look so bad.” Miles said, pulling out a three-ring binder to write on. He started filling out names, addresses, a social security number…There were no questions one of them didn’t know the answer to and in well under an hour they had finished the form. Miles sealed it in the return envelope and the deed was done.

“It is out of our hands, my love.”

“That’s a good feeling. We did well, you and me.”

“We did. What do you want to do now?” Sophie shrugged. “From the looks of some of those fees I shouldn’t be spending any money right now, so we might have to stay here.”

“Yeah. And, Miles, I want to help with that. I’m not letting you pay for everything. That marriage form is seven hundred dollars.”

“Don’t worry about it-“

“No, Miles, I’m serious. You never let me pay for anything and it makes me feel awful sometimes. I’m helping with this, ok?”

“Oh. Ok. I didn’t know you felt that way. Sorry. Yeah, you can help.”

“It’s ok, Miles. I know what you were trying to do.” She leaned over and kissed his temple. “But we are going to be sharing bills and everything else soon enough so we might as well start now.”

“I suppose you’re right.”

“Of course I’m right. Smart boy.”

“Can we get out of here?”

“Where do you want to go?”

“Anywhere that isn’t here.” Sophie looked at Miles quizzically. Neither of them had to work for four days; starting with a jobs shift on Thursday.

They went to the nearest Borders, about forty-five minutes away and spent nothing more than three dollars apiece for drinks to carry with them as they browsed. Both agreed on the way home that it was a nice way to spend a day off.

“Only two more days to go,” Miles commented.

“It’s going to seem like such a long time waiting for those forms to go through.”

“I know. And it’s going to be getting close to the wire when they do, even if it only takes a month.”

“Well, let’s see. We’d still have a month here if they came one month from now. Then three months after that. It’s not too close, but I’m glad we didn’t wait any longer.”

“You’re right, I’m rushing. I guess I’m just excited.”

“You just want to be nervous about something. You’re going to give yourself an ulcer if you keep worrying so much. Besides, if we can’t do things legally we’ll run away to South America or somewhere like that and open a hotel or something.”

“Look who’s got the romantic streak now,” Miles chided.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Sophie rebuked. “Come on, let’s make some dinner.” Miles wrapped his arms around Sophie and squeezed her lovingly before they started for the lounge.

The weeks plodded relentlessly on and declared themselves May before anyone realized what had happened. May was the last full month of the season; there were six weeks of off-season programming left in total before the entire makeup of the camp changed for summer.

“We need to do one more grand thing before we split up,” Jabari said, leaning heavily on his arms against the kitchen counter in the lounge. It was the first Monday night in May. There had been no weekend group but there was a Jesuit school in for three days of low and high ropes. Gerry, Sergio, Christopher, and Paul were in charge of that group. Every one else was off. As a matter of fact, the change of groups had cut the hours the staff were used to by about ten hours a week. No one complained except when they saw skimpier paychecks.

“We’ve got a month,” Scott answered from one of the couches where he was sitting with Kyra and passively watching VH1: Behind the Music. “That’s enough time to plan anything. Where haven’t we been?”

Let’s see…Boston, New York, We haven’t been to Burlington. We haven’t been to Portland. That’s about it.”

“Burlington’s ok. I’ve never been to Portland. Never heard anything about it, really.” Scott said.

“Well, all I’m saying is let’s think about it.” Everyone present agreed to do just that.

Miles and Sophie were in a completely different world. They were three weeks into waiting for paperwork allowing Sophie to stay in America on engagement status. They were vaguely aware of the conversation taking place but in their minds the situation they shared had become so dire that it consumed every free moment they had and most of their working hours as well. If Miles had any fingernails left he would have been chewing on them feverishly as he stirred linguine on the stove. Sophie saw Miles’ stress reflected in his vigorous stirring and massaged his shoulder with her left hand while holding his right in hers.

“Hey,” Sophie whispered. “You’re getting stressed.” She moved her arms to cross his ribcage and squeezed gently. Miles realized it and tried to relax. He finished their dinner and they moved to the kitchen table, a wobbly and poorly manufactured number from Asia, to dine.

Sophie spent the meal staring at Miles reproachfully in an effort to calm him down. Since they had sent out the paperwork that would grant Sophie an American reprieve Miles had been edgier than an Arab shopping at a kosher deli. When they finished the two uttered a minimum of goodbyes and walked out into the night.

“I don’t like what this is doing to you, Miles.” They had walked past his cabin by then, heading down the road that would eventually lead them out of camp if they let it.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what to do, though. Nothing has at the same time mattered so much to me and been so close to disappearing on me than this. You. And I feel like there’s nothing I can do about it.”

“Miles, there’s nothing else you can do about it. And I’ve promised you I would never leave you. You promised me the same, remember?”

“I know. But that seems too easy. Does it really come down to that? You and I?”

“That’s always been all that has mattered.”

“What about the worst-case scenario?”

“Worst-case scenario is we get married and dodge bullets the rest of our lives.”

“You say that now.”

“I say that, and if that’s what has to happen then I’ll take it. But that won’t happen. These systems are in place for people like us, Miles. A white American wants to marry a girl from England in Vermont? No one is going to have a problem with that, sweetheart. We’ve got everything going for us right now.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“I think I am. But, worst-case scenario, we still end up together, right?”

“Definitely.”

“Then let’s go to bed. I’m getting cold.”

“This seems kind of pointless now, but I really love you, Sophie.”

“Oh, Miles. That’s never pointless. I love you, too.” They stopped in the middle of the road leading out of Ontanogan and held one another for entirely too long before they began the walk back to staff row.

Sophie’s reassuring words could not keep Miles from sleeping fitfully that night. Every day that they sifted through the mail and found nothing from Vermont added to the hill of anxiety in Miles’ mind. He was comforted, and rather surprised, that instead of the waiting game causing a rift between him and Sophie the situation had drawn them closer together. Miles had not thought that to be possible. If anything, he had been preparing for emotions to flair up and stress to turn to turn into grief or anger.

Miles sighed when he remembered how simple the reason was for their shared determination. They had vowed to stay together. A part of it, especially in the beginning, was clichéd puppy-love and big dreams. That was still there, in a measured dose diluted with more matured feelings. They were going to stay together because they saw that it was the way things had to be. Miles did not delude himself with thoughts of not knowing who he was before Sophie came along, but he could not even get to the point of wanting to try to think about what life would be like without her after their short time together. Miles could no sooner leave Sophie than cut off his arm. Miles knew, however, that certain qualified individuals could cut off his arm for him. He hoped those Hippocratic individuals did not have relatives in Vermont bureaucracy.

Sophie was awake but trying hard not to be. She mumbled something incoherently and squeezed Miles’ arm with hers. Miles turned into Sophie and let the smell of her hair take over his thoughts to finally put him to sleep.

“How are you, sweetheart?” Sophie asked as soon as Miles woke up the next morning.

“I’m good.”

“You didn’t sleep well.”

“I know. Sorry.”

“I know there’s nothing I can do to help. I wish there was. Does… do you get stressed like this a lot?”

“I don’t know. Nothing this important has ever happened to me, let alone been so out of my hands.

“I just worry. You seem so calm about it, and then last night…even after you finally fell asleep you tossed and moaned all night.”

“I’m sorry if I worried you. I don’t know what else I can say that I haven’t said already.”

“It just makes me feel like you don’t believe me.”

“What do you mean?” They had been staring at one another, lying on their sides in bed, but Miles inched closer to her after he asked his question.

“I know that this will turn out alright. And by that I mean the two of us will end up together somehow. And you’ve told me over and over again that’s what matters most. I’ve told you the same. When you worry so much, it makes me feel like you don’t believe me, or don’t believe that I’ll stay with you no matter what.”

“Sophie, it’s not that at all. I trust in you completely. That’s what has gotten me this far. I feel…I feel like you shouldn’t have to go through this. You’re perfect, as far as I’m concerned, and you could have anything, anyone, you wanted with all this drama. You shouldn’t have to deal with all this shit just to be with me. And I know you will the same as I would, but it doesn’t make it right. I want you to have what you deserve, for being the sweet, beautiful person you are, but I can’t even make sure that the first hurdle we came to will be taken care of. I’m just scared…I’m just scared that I can’t give you everything you need. Let alone want or whatever.”

“Miles, that’s so sweet. And that’s why I’m with you most of all. Say you couldn’t do everything for me or give me everything I want, whether it’s this or something else that comes up. Miles, I know that whatever that situation may be, you would do everything you could for me, for us. I would rather be with somebody who gives so much of themselves to me that the thought of not being able to take care of something like this does this to you. Even thought I’ve told you not to do this to yourself. Miles, if I need you, you’re there for me one hundred percent, no questions asked. That’s what I need. You can’t measure that with things or accomplishments. Nobody who could lead me down a golden path to bliss with a wave of their hand could ever mean as much to me as someone who gives so much of themselves. That’s just what we do, Miles. We do everything that we can for one other and if we fall we know there’s nothing else we could give.”

“I guess…I guess I wasn’t brought up to think that way.”

“I know, hon. But that’s the way we both are. No one’s looking or the upper hand here,” she smiled lovingly. “Nobody’s looking to impress anyone or get anything out of this. We’re doing it for us. Just think of the two people in this bed as the only people that matter. No one outside of my family has loved me more than you do, Miles, but I know that if they disapproved of us that they didn’t care about me as much as I thought. Besides, you’re about to be my family. My most important family.”

“I feel the same way. I guess I just have to learn to ignore everyone else.”

“Exactly. The people in Vermont, dare I say your parents if they push you the way I think they push you, everyone.”

“You know, I should be upset with you for bringing my parents into this, but it wouldn’t do any good because I know you’re right, per usual. And you’re my family, too, now. You’re right about that as well.”

“You see, you bugger, just remember I’m always right and your life will be so much easier.”

“I’ll try to keep that in mind.” They both laughed almost silently.

“I really want to go to England sometime. All of Europe, for that matter. But I feel weird not really knowing where you’re from, personally, I mean.”

“Well, once this whole thing blows over and we’ve planned the wedding, which we should do soon, by the way, we’ll figure out how to get over there. Although London’s not a terribly romantic spot for a honeymoon, compared to France and Italy and such.”

“You can be in charge of that bit. Just tell me where to be, when.”

“Deal. Let’s go have breakfast.” Miles agreed and they broke away from the bed.

After a breakfast of Special K and the last two peaches they had Miles and Sophie took advantage of their sole occupancy of the lounge by curling up on one of the couches to watch TV. They settled on a John Candy movie. They watched passively, enjoying being alone somewhere they normally expected no privacy more than they cared about the television had to offer.

“One day we won’t think anything of a morning like this,” Miles said, giving words to what they were both thinking.

“I can’t wait. I wonder what I’ll be doing then. You’ll be a park ranger or something.”

“Hopefully. You would be a good teacher. Or a social worker or something, with your degree. Maybe a kid counselor?

“I don’t want to think that far ahead. Besides, you’re supposed to be making enough money to support me, right?”

“Right, right. As long as we work here for the rest of our lives I think we’ve got that covered. But you’re going to have to claim something like pregnancy as job-related if you want to get it covered by Camp’s insurance.”

“Already thinking of that, are you?” Sophie was kidding Miles. They had talked about incidentals such as children before. They both wanted to have kids, but neither had set an ideal date yet. They both thought they were too young and fun to start having babies which seemed like trading spontaneity for responsibility.

“Just another Wednesday in Paradise,” Miles sighed to change the subject.

“The first Wednesday in May. We should be hearing about things in a week or so.” Miles agreed. “So, how do you want to get married?” Miles’ breath hitched at the change of subjects.

“Um, I don’t know. Neither of us are church people. I wouldn’t have a problem going to the nearest city hall. What kind of wedding do you want?”

“Well, in any other situation I would say a decadent one. But A: We don’t have that kind of money, B: We don’t have that kind of time, and C: People flying here from England would be much too expensive.”

“You’ve thought about this, haven’t you?” Miles chuckled.
“Of course I have. I’m the girl. And it’s the most fun thing to think about out of all this stuff.”

“I thought I would see bridal magazines strewn about when you began planning.”

“Again, my tastes are far too expensive for our means. I’ve been meaning to talk about that with you, actually. You’re going to have to take on a second job soon because I’m a princess. You said so yourself.” Sophie tried to look very serious but it was an utter failure. After a confectious bout of sweet talk and affections they settled down again.

“I keep forgetting that the English have no concept of sarcasm.”

“What about Absolutely Fabulous?”

“Always an exception, then, I suppose. You know, we have to apply for a marriage license. I suppose we should have done that as soon as we found out you can get married without being a citizen. I don’t think it takes as long to get one of those, though. I think it’s mostly so whoever needs to know knows we’ll be married.” Sophie agreed.

“Let’s do it later. I’m having too much fun being a normal couple right now.”

“Fair enough. What do you want to do today, normal girlfriend?”

“I don’t care. We’ve got a month left here. Let’s go for a drive to somewhere. Do you mind?”

“That sounds like a splendid idea.”

“Good. Let’s go now, then. I want to have one of those days where the only person I see that I know is you.” Miles smiled and scooped Sophie off the couch. They lit out of camp before anyone was the wiser.

“I am looking forward to the next step, though,” Sophie mused as Miles drove. “Where we have a place of our own and we can lounge about all day long by ourselves if we wanted to.”

“You say that now because we live with an extreme amount of people. And I doubt we would be going out as much as we do if we lived alone.”

“I do like going out with you. We have a lot of fun together, don’t we?”

“Sophie, I’ve never had as much fun with a girl as you.”

“It’s not as though we like too many of the same things. Maybe that’s what keeps it interesting.”

“Yeah. What would we have to say to one another if we both knew all the same things? That’s why I want to go to England with you. If we hadn’t met, who’s to say I would have ever gone overseas? And going with someone who knows what they’re doing will make it all the better.”

“I forgot about that. That’ll be so much fun.”

“We’ve got so many of those experiences ahead of us. Ontanogan was just the starting line.”

“That’s a good way to look at it. I have been really happy here, because of you, though. Never thought in a million years…”

“That’s always when it happens. But you know something? I’ve been stressed about a lot of the logistics of you being able to stay here, but I’ve never been apprehensive about our decisions to make this happen.”

“I haven’t either, come to think of it. I’d blame it on worrying about other things but I don’t think that’s the case.”

“I love you, Sophie.”

“Don’t get mushy on me, Miles. But I love you, too.” Sophie leaned over and kissed the side of Miles’ mouth.

“I could tell you that I’ve never been so sappy before, but doing something as crazy as this should be more than enough to convince you.”

“Crazy, huh?”

“Bloody insane. Insane.”

“At least you’re not trying to do an English accent anymore.”

They continued into the closest shopping plaza to spend an afternoon walking around Borders and spending too much money at fancy eateries.

“I think that we should make a point of doing things like this in the future,” Sophie said as they browsed racks at a Victoria’s Secret, “I don’t want things to get stale, you know? We don’t have to plan elaborate trips, but I really like going out with you like this, sharing things like shopping and errands and what not. And I don’t think it’s only because I always want to get out of camp.”

“That sounds like a good plan to me,” Miles agreed, squeezing Sophie’s hand.

“What do you think about this?” Miles had to take his attention away from a mannequin wearing something he had only seen in the dirty magazines of his youth. Sophie was holding up a set of underwear for him.

“They match your cheeks when you get embarrassed.” Sophie smiled and her cheeks did their best impression of an iguana. She put the set over her other arm and they continued walking. A few more items graced Sophie’s left arm before she found a cashier. She handed the woman a club card, which Miles noticed vocally.

“What, do you think this is the first time I’ve been in this store? We have them in London, you know.”

“I know. But I like to think that you were a perfect angel before we met.”

Sophie finished paying and they started for the Jeep. “A perfect angel,” Sophie answered slyly once they were out of earshot of anyone, “Would have no idea what to do with your appetite.”

“Touché.”

Getting back to camp was not the greatest of feelings. They were both on a Thursday-Friday group which would put them at about twenty-six hours for the week if they did it right. A casualty of the end of the fiscal-year budget at the camp had been jobs days and extra people working a group to ease the stress of large numbers of people. The cuts were mostly detrimental to paychecks; enough to have some of the staff up in arms. Miles and Sophie saw it as more days to spend with one another. They felt the monetary squeeze as well but could not complain when everyone knew they would much rather have more time together than money in their pockets.

“We should work on eating the food we’ve been piling up,” Miles said, looking over their dry goods above the stove.

“Oh, that’s sad.” Sophie tip-toed beside him and grazed her eyes over the cupboard. “The beginning of the end.”

“For here, anyways.” Miles pulled out a box of linguine and a small jar of pesto.

“I think we have some chicken breasts left in the freezer,” Sophie said.

“See if that bag of pine nuts is still rolling around the middle drawer in the fridge, too.”

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Tea - Chapter 12

Chapter 12

“Okay. So, who’s going to call first?” Miles asked.

“It’s almost ten, London. I’d better go. But you’re going to talk as well. You should at least say something to your future in-laws.”

“I was going to, don’t worry. It’s not too late to call?”

“Oh, no. I’ve called them at ten before. They know it’s just how it is with the time difference.”

“Alright.” In truth Miles was growing nervous. He had the picture in his mind of a stoic, smoking jacket-wearing father and a prim and proper mother. He rolled his eyes when he realized he was basing his characteristics on actors from ‘Titanic’. He watched Sophie punch in the number with trepidation. She put the phone to her ear and waited.

“Hello, mum. How are you? Good. Oh, it’s fine. The weather’s warming a bit and we’ve got different kinds of groups in so there’s some variety in what we have to do. Yeah. Listen, mum, the reason I called-“ Miles could feel his stomach clench, “-Is…well, I might be staying in the states for a bit longer. No, they haven’t extended my contract, really,” Sophie took Miles’ hand in hers. “It’s more like a different kind of contract. Miles…” She squeezed hard enough to make Miles grimace, “Miles asked me to marry him Tuesday.” Miles heard an unintelligible woman’s voice on the other end. “I said yes, mum. I’ve got a big sparkly diamond on my finger right now to prove it. No, I don’t know how we’re going to go about it. This was the first step of going about it, really.”

Miles still did not know what to feel He thought he was perspiring even though it should have been cold enough for a jumper in the lounge.

“Here, Miles. It’s my mum.” Miles took the phone with a damp hand and held it to his ear.

“Hell, Mrs. Martin. This is Miles.”

“Is it true, what Sophie said?”

“It is. I asked her Tuesday.”

“Well, I suppose it’s nice to finally speak to you, then. What are you two going to do?”

“Well, like Sophie said, this is pretty much the first step. I think we have to do it here for Sophie to be legal, but other than that we’re not really sure.”

“I must say, this is quite a surprise.”

“So was Sophie, Mrs. Martin.” Sophie brushed his arm affectionately. Yes. We will definitely be keeping in touch. It was nice speaking with you. I will. Ok. Here’s Sophie.”

“Mum? That was Miles. Yes, we’re going to try to figure things out very soon. We’re starting today, as a matter of fact, as soon as we get done making the phone calls. Well, we haven’t called his parents yet either. Well, it’s already ten there. We’re going to call them next. No, I haven’t. Chicago’s awfully far away for a weekend trip, that’s why.” Sophie made the universal hand gesture for gabbing and rolled her eyes. After a drawn out goodbye post-scripted with promises of updates Sophie relinquished the phone to Miles.

Talking to the first set of parents had loosened Miles up a bit. He dialed his parents’ number almost calmly and waited for them to pick up in Illinois.

“Hey, Mom. Good, good, how are you? Oh, it’s fine, getting pretty routine nowadays. We’re starting to get more teambuilding and outdoor education groups in, so it changes up from time to time. Listen, the reason I called you is, remember Sophie? No, things are fine. Actually,” Miles took a deep breath. “We’ve decided to get married.” There were no words for a moment.

“Are you serious?” Mrs. Drake asked her son finally. Miles affirmed. “Isn’t this a little soon?”

“Well, it might seem like that, but remember I spend almost twenty-four hours a day with her. As far as maturity goes, we’re at least a normal year into our relationship.”

“Is she pregnant?”

“Mom! I don’t know.” He turned to Sophie. “Sophie, dear, are you pregnant?” Sophie’s mouth gaped open and she slapped his shoulder before realizing the joke. “No, no, Sophie assures me she’s not. I don’t know how that would be possible since we’ve done nothing more than hold hands once.”

“Miles Jacob Drake, I know you better than that.” The joke seemed to ease Miles’ mother a bit. “Well, your father’s out golfing, but I’ll tell him. He’ll probably call you. You should call back if he doesn’t.” Mrs. Drake launched into a volley of questions from there. They were the same questions Sophie’s mother had asked moments before and they were answered with the same responses Sophie had given her mother. After they had all been asked Miles handed the phone to Sophie.

“Mrs. Drake? Hello, this is Sophie. It’s nice to finally talk to you, too. London. Yes, right in the thick of it. Tottenham Court Road. Oh, it’s been wonderful. Well, I’m sort of biased, I suppose. Miles and I met on the very first day of training and we’ve been more the most part inseparable since. Yes, he is. Yes, he has. I would have nothing to do with him if he wasn’t, believe me. He asked me over coffee in town a few days ago. People clapped in Starbucks. It was quite sweet, really. Yes, very much. I would have never agreed to such a crazy idea if I wasn’t. Thank you. Ok, I’ll put him back on.”

“Miles?” He answered. “She seems nice.” Miles agreed. “Well, I’ll let you go, but call back tonight when your father gets back, ok?” Miles promised he would and hung up.

“Well, that wasn’t so bad,” he sighed, turning to Sophie.

“Let’s make something to eat,” she suggested with a kiss.

“Good idea. Jabari said that baked ziti stuff was for dinner tonight.”

“Oh, gross. Let’s make that pizza.”

“Ah! Here’s to being fat and married,” Miles exalted.

“Not yet, I want to look good in a wedding dress.”

“What’s the point? I figured we would drive to Vegas and get hitched at one of those drive-through chapels. You don’t even have to get out of the car or anything. Costs you around fifty bucks and you get ten of it back in casino chips.”

“Well, you and your future wife have fun with that road trip. Send me a postcard; let me know how that works out for you.”

“Oh, you. Let’s go make some magic.”

“Right now? I’m hungry!” Sophie’s grey-green eyes twinkled with mischief.

“There’ll be time for all sorts of things, my dear.”

“Thank God. I thought we were going to have to go without sex today.”

Miles stood back from his future bride and took her in with a grin. “What got into you, Miss Sarcastic?”

“Oh, for the day when I’ll be Mrs. Sarcastic.” That put the sobriety back into her eyes. “Wait a moment. I’m going to be…Sophie Drake. Sophie Drake. Mrs. Sophie Drake. Mrs. Miles Drake. Mrs. Drake. Wow.”

“That was my hope.”

“I didn’t mean to be so sarcastic. I guess I’m just relieved that our parents took it so well. Still have the jitters, I guess.”

“I figured as much. Think nothing of it. We can have sex tonight though, right?” Miles teased.

“I suppose. Quite a step up from holding hands once.”

Miles laughed. “Yeah, I know she didn’t buy that one.” They walked over from the phone in the living room to the kitchen where Sophie set about pre-heating the oven while Miles pulled out the frozen pizza and a pair of Guinness’s. They sipped as the pizza cooked and opened fresh bottles when they were ready to eat.

Jabari, Sergio, and Christopher were the only ones in the living room so instead of scampering back with their dinner to Miles’ cabin they sat on the remaining unoccupied couch to watch television. Miles asked the trio what they were doing over the weekend when there was a break in ‘Beverly Hills Cop’.

“Probably just staying here. Might go out to the bar one night. What are you two up too?”

“Well, we have to figure out how to make Sophie legal. Licenses and whatnot. In case there’s some kind of waiting period. But if we figure that quickly enough, we’re in the clear.”

“I never thought about that. Green card, right?”

“Yeah, that’s about all I know, too. We’re going to go online tomorrow and check things out. Speaking of that,” he turned to Sophie, “Don’t let me forget to call back home tonight.” She nodded.

After the movie finished Miles receded to the phone to call home again. He called for Sophie after a moment and they both talked to his father for a few minutes. The advanced state of the evening made the second Drake conversation mercifully short. Miles was also sure that his father had been filled in on all the pertinent details as soon as he had walked in the door.

“I want to put pajamas on,” Sophie told Miles after they hung up the phone.

“I think that can be arranged. Mine or yours?”

“Yours, of course. I wear them entirely too much, though. They smell more like me than you any more.”

“ Aw. So mushy.” Sophie denied the accusation. The two said goodbyes to Jabari and the Fearsome Foreign, still the only people in the lounge, and started for Miles’ cabin.

When they arrived the lights were off and the door was locked. “Looks like someone beat us to the nest,” Miles mused.

“We can go back to mine.” They did and found Emma reading in her bed. Sophie explained what had happened and reluctantly wore her own pajamas.

Emma tented her book. “Are you two serious?” She asked.

“Yes,” Sophie answered without looking for confirmation. Miles liked that.

“Really, married?” They both nodded. “Bloody hell. This is too crazy. I feel like I’m on a T.V. show and someone is about to burst out and surprise me with the hidden cameras.” Miles chuckled.

“Sometimes I feel that way as well.”

“What does that mean?” Sophie asked, already nuzzled into his collarbone for the night.

“You’ll think it’s cheesy.” Sophie goaded him nonetheless. “I keep expecting the cameras to pop out and tell me you’re a professional actress and this has all been a prank. Reality T.V.”

“Well, it’s not. But thank you for the professional actress comment.” Miles was too tired from the stress of meeting parents and surprising those he already knew to think of a witty retort. He merely kissed what he could reach and snuggled in with Sophie. Emma flushed the book back up to her chest.

A few seconds after Miles woke up he realized he was in Sophie’s cabin. Sophie awoke as always immediately after he did. They greeted one another blindly.

“What do you feel like?” Miles asked.

“Hmm. Staying in bed, but this room doesn’t feel right.”

“I know. We haven’t slept here in a long time.”

“I can’t wait until we have a real bed we can spread out in.”

“Yeah. Then we won’t even have to touch each other.”

“Oh, you know what I mean, you.”

“Yeah. I’m so glad I’m marrying you. I can’t think of anyone I would rather spend time with doing anything. Especially this.”

“Yeah, we’re really good at this, aren’t we?”

“The best, sweetheart. The best.” Miles kissed Sophie’s forehead before they decided to get out of bed.

“It’s still so cold in the morning,” Sophie lamented, hugging herself tighter on the way to the lounge. It was early yet, barely nine in the morning, and the road was empty save the two of them.

The lounge was empty, as they had come to expect. After the lights fluttered to life they leafed through their cupboard and decided on nothing more complicated than tea. Soon they had steaming cups and were curled up on the couch together; Sophie’s morning chills forgotten.

“We have to go online today and see about the whole green card process,” Miles said.

“I know. It seems like such a daunting task. Getting a driver’s license is hard enough. I can’t imagine what we’ll have to go through so that I can stay here.”

“It’s got to be done. And the longer we wait the more stressed about it we’re going to be.” Sophie nodded her agreement. “Well, we can finish tea first.” They did, perhaps a little more slowly than usual.

They also knew that they needed to claim the lone computer which was squirreled on a table under a set of high cupboards along the nearest wall to the living room before everyone else woke up.

Miles sat in the driver’s seat with Sophie leaning against him, looking on. After checking his email as a stall tactic Miles googled ‘green card marriage’ and got well over a million hits. Miles scrolled down and clicked on one that had a Q&A description. The site’s main page took about an hour to read but what the hopeful lovers found was surprising.

“So, you don’t even have to be a citizen to marry me, technically. And in thirty days we could get a fiancé visa that would let you stay here because Vermont’s so up-to date on their processing. That’s good for us. It looks like Philly and Texas are almost a year behind. We should get this in as quickly as we can.”

“Miles! I love you and I want to do this too, but you need to slow down and breathe or I’m going to become a widow before I become a wife.”

“Point taken.” Miles could not resist kissing her lavishly in his excitement. There were others milling around the lounge by that point but they seemed to have an idea of what Miles and Sophie were hoping to accomplish and had not approached to ask for a turn on the net. Miles continued searching for an I-129-F form, thrilled at how easy the process seemed.

Miles kept Sophie searching the computer as he called an automated number for the Vermont Service Center. The system eventually gave him a website to purchase the four page form which he did immediately after hanging up. Unfortunately it was not downloadable but would be mailed to Ontonogan within twenty-four hours. That meant two days in their case since it was a Saturday morning. For a fee of twenty dollars Sophie was on her way to becoming a U.S. citizen.

The happy couple relinquished their monopoly of the computer to Paul after writing down the names of the other forms that they would have to eventually procure and complete.

“We pretty much have to get married first, to be able to show that document to who ever has to see it,” Miles reflected, as they walked back to his cabin.

‘I’m worried, though. It also said you have to have three years of income tax returns that prove you can provide for me. Not that that’s necessary as far as I’m concerned, but legally…”

“I know, I know. It also said that you could have a co-sponsor sign for you. It’s like a car loan. I have to call my parents anyways for my income tax papers anyways since they keep those filed away for me along with theirs, so I’ll broach the subject with them. If I explain that the government just needs to see that someone will be there to meet your needs if you can’t, they should be fine with it. They didn’t disapprove of the engagement or anything.”

“That sounds good. But it still worries me. I’m worried too, that the marriage license will take too long and they’ll kick me out. I’m not leaving you, especially if you’re my husband.”

“Thanks, Sophie. It seems that if we file for the marriage license after getting the fiancé one they would approve that visa for as long as it took to get the marriage license taken care of since both would be on file somewhere and would have our marriage certificate.”

“We need to make sure about all this stuff. I want to have it laid out, step by step.”

“Maybe we can find an actual person to talk to. Or maybe we could go to the Vermont office; it can’t be that far away. Meet with someone in person when we have a couple of days off. It might be easier that way. Their office must have all the forms in case we’re missing one.”

“That sounds like a good idea. I don’t even want to think about planning for a wedding on top of all this right now. If I wasn’t marrying you I don’t think this would be bloody worth it.” Sophie wrinkled her nose at him just before they kissed on Miles’ porch.

“Wait a minute. We didn’t even eat breakfast back there. And now that I’ve realized it, I’m starving. Let’s go into town to eat. A change of scenery will get our minds off of things maybe. And when we get back I’ll call my parents and tell them what we found out. My mom is probably expecting daily updates anyways.”

“That sounds like a good thing to do. I hope hey like me.”

“They love you!”

“How do you know?”

“Are you kidding? You were a hit at Aunt Lorraine and Uncle Pete’s 25th wedding anniversary. And that trip we took to Martha’s Vineyard? They were so impressed by your knowledge of handbags and cheese.”

“Shut up,” she laughed in spite of herself.

“I’d go to England.”

“What?”

“Sophie, if they kick you out. I would go to England with you as long as I could or until it worked out.”

“But you have school!”

“My enrollment can be deferred. I’m already accepted. I could just wait.”

“That’s crazy.”

“Sophie, I don’t want to leave you either.”

“I thought we weren’t going to talk about this until after breakfast.” She clenched his hand with hers resolutely and continued walking to the Jeep in silence.

“Sophie, listen,” Miles gently held Sophie’s wrists so she would stay put in front of the vehicle. “I mean what I say when I say it. It’s not ‘caught up in the moment’ type of stuff. We’re talking about spending the rest of our lives together. That started the moment we met, even if we didn’t know it then. Taking a semester or a year off from grad school is nothing in the scheme of that. Asking you to marry me means that my life becomes yours and the same way around.”

“Miles, I can’t ask you to do something like that!”

“You’re not asking me. I would do it because that’s the only way.”

“But I don’t know if I could ask someone to do that for me and I feel terrible that you might have to do it for me.” Sophie was close to tears.

“What are you talking about? You’re the one making the sacrifice. If anything I should feel guilty about you uprooting your entire life to move halfway around the world just for me. But I never thought that way because I thought that when we decided on this we became the most important thing in one another’s lives. Isn’t that how it’s supposed to go?”

“Yes, and of course I feel that way, that’s why I’m staying here, for you. But Miles, I don’t have anything happening in my life. I can do anything here or in England. I have no plans at all. What if you come to London with me and never end up going to school again? I would feel terrible about that. You’d grow to resent me-“

“Stop! Sophie, stop! Sophie-Have I ever lied to you?” Sophie shook her head and before Miles went on he brushed away her tears with his index finger. It took more time than one might think. “Have I ever broken a promise to you?” Again Sophie shook her head. “Then you’ve no reason to doubt me when I promise you that I will go back to school and I will marry you and we will be together from now on. As long as that’s what you want, too.” Sophie nodded.

“I want that.”

“Then it’s settled.”

“I want that very much. Oh God, Miles, I want that to happen.” Sophie clung to him and Miles could see she was emotionally spent.

“I love you, Sophie Martin.”

“I love you too, Miles Drake.”

“Do you still want to go into town?”

“Yeah.”

Miles dropped his hands from Sophie’s wrists and opened the door for her.