A college philosophy professor once made the remark, that he defied anyone, man or woman, to interpret a tapestry by a single strand.
It was strange, at the beginning, it had all seemed much like a wild adventure, something with a happy ending, where everyone pulled together to achieve a goal, or accomplish a task, and everyone came back, more or less in one piece. A single strand, is just that, one small piece of a larger whole, and she had once overheard If she had been thinking clearly, Kim, should have known that it would not be that straightforward, not even by the wildest stretch of the imagination.
Paul was gone, Jennifer had remained behind in the world that after all this time felt more real to her than did her own native mundane world. And in the back of her mind, Kim, wondered, is that so wrong.
Kim stared into the mirror on her vanity table as she runs a comb through it, her hair is white where once it had been very blonde. Dave, well Dave, thought the white hair was a genuine improvement in her appearance and given who and what he was, and is, while sometimes slow to come to a decision stood by it once he did.
Heavens help anyone who should stand in the big man's way. She chuckled at the image and then shoved the idle thought aside.
Dave is out in the back yard chopping wood for the fireplace as it is now mid-winter and it's bound to be quite nippy for the next few weeks, if she is any judge of the weather, which she is.
Aside from the white hair, one of the other things that has changed, is her inner vision, which made the modern day methods of predicting the weather, such as barometers, and weather forecasts dreadfully imprecise. She allowed herself a small smile to twitch at the corners of her mouth, maybe I should write it all down and send it over to the folks who publish the Farmer's Almanac, I'm certain they would have a use for it."
She finished brushing her hair and stood up from the chair to go over to the bathroom sink. Kim turned on the cold water and cupping her hands together, she scooped up some and splashed it on her face.
Dave came in the front door with an armful of firedogs and knelt down in front of the hearth and began stacking them in a triangle, whistling a tuneless but quite pleasant thrum of noise while he worked. The sound oddly enough was just enough to snap Kim out of her blue funk and this time she smiled, an example that was not as brittle and forced as the previous attempt.
Kim was certain that he would not mind an interruption in his work and if he had gone to all that trouble to chop wood and lay on a fire, than she certainly go manage to make supper tonight. Somehow, it struck her, just then, that despite all of the extraordinary things that had happened to both of them, and their friends, both here and in Finovar, that Sometimes the humdrum every day task, really do take your mind off things that one cannot change, and therefore, should simply deal with?
As Kim crossed the hall from her bedroom to the kitchen, it struck her, that she really was home. She laughed and Dave came in from the living room, swept her up into a giant bear hug. Kim had always been on the small side, Dave, by contrast was tall, muscular, and big. At that moment, Kim, really did not care; she just welcomed and needed the human contact.
Dave released after several moments of the embrace, then stepped back to look at her appraisingly, ⌠I love you, you know that?■
"I know, but sometimes you need to remind me every once and while. I'm planning on making supper, at least I was on way there with every intention of getting something on the table. What would you like?"
"Cooking?" Not just take-out. Actual honest-to-goodness cooking?" Dave asked, mock-raising one ash-blond eyelash a fraction of inch.
"Yes, what of it?" Kim asked.
"Well, how about steaks and mashed potatoes," Dave suggested. ⌠You know I could always go for that, and maybe some green peppers on the side."
"Done," Kim replied and strode off toward the kitchen, with Dave following shortly after.
When she got to the kitchen she opened the freeze and took out a package of steaks, and began defrosting them. Dave went over to the pantry and grabbed a bag of potatoes and began washing and peeling them at the small kitchen sink.
"Who would've thunk, huh?" he asked as he made the small blade of the vegetable peeler fly at a dizzying speed, as the brown stuff came off in curls and chunks. "Us, here, like this, I mean?"
Kim slowly nodded. "I had a feeling, you know. I was just thinking about that myself. Do you feel weird about it, us, I mean?"
"No, not really," Dave replied and with that he went back to work on the ingredients of their meal. After a moment of silent work, Dave turned back to Kim and with a rather sheepish grin on his face. "Geez Kim, I am really am a dork. I didn'tt mean to brush you off like that, and I"m sorry. Dave blushed. "You know me, I've never really been the emotive type, and well, you just caught off guard. We okay?"
"I understand," Kim replied with a smile. "You are a very adorable jerk, and I hereby forgive you."
She had by this time thrown the steaks on the grill and was in the process of turning them over so the would cook evenly on both sides. She thought over her next move and his possible reaction to it, and then thought, 'What the hell' Moving quickly moving she crossed the small space that separated them in the kitchen and standing on her tiptoes until her maximum extension she reached up, grabbed a fistful of his shirt and kissed him on the lips.
Dave was a bit taken aback, but after a momen'ts hesitation her returned the kiss in full measure; they stood locked together like that for a long time, until the smell of their dinner burning brought them back to matters at hand.