The late August sun was starting to set, stretching fingers of auburn, gold and purple across the sky. The comforting scent of newly mown grass hung heavy in the air, sickly sweet. Everywhere flowers in the colors of the rainbow poked up through the tangled field of long grass. The weather was the hot humid type, where sweat doesn't evaporate, and a fine dust clings to every inch of exposed skin.

Kate's hair was stuck to her face and neck, wet from a combination of swimming and sweating. She was wearing shorts and a ribbed tank top, the only clothes the weather would allow. Tramping through the grass with Tom, barefoot and holding his hand, she felt almost happy. The feeling that was always there, like she had just squeezed into a pair of pants that didn't quite fit, seemed to be gone. Her urge to move and be free felt almost satiated by his presence.

It had been almost an entire summer since The Day in the oak tree. Kate thought of The Day as a proper noun, as if it was a holiday. It had marked the start of a blissful summer. Together they had spent it barefoot in creeks, hiking through the foothills and sneaking kisses when they were alone. Today, they were returning to the tree.

They stopped beneath its branches, within the boundaries of its shade. Dropping the box he was carrying, Tom caught her second hand in his and leaned in towards her for a quick kiss. She was thrilled as her lips met his, as if she had never kissed him before. And then, just as quickly he pulled back, dropped her hands and grinned.

"Think we could still get up to that branch?" he asked.

She shot him a look, daring him to tell her she couldn't climb it. Moments later they had scrambled to the branch, finding it much easier now they had both grown a few inches. They sat on the branch in silence, catching their breath.

"Are you ready for this, Katie?"

"For what?"

"Burying this thing?" Tom motioned at the box he had left on the ground at the base of the tree.

Kate stared down at the time capsule below. They had spent hours choosing what would go in it. The time capsule had been Tom's idea, and she had teased him mercilessly about it.

"Believe me, Katie. Someday, you'll be glad I made you do this," Tom had said. Katie could not, for the life of her, envision a future where she would be glad they had made a time capsule, but she went along with Tom anyway.

The box contained a variety of things. A baseball cap, a tiny metal airplane that Tom treasured, tickets from a community dance they had attended together and other electric items, significant to their relationship. The last thing they had included was a tape deck. They recorded their voices, talking as they put their final choices into the box.

"This is Tom Brennan and Katie Austin," Tom had said into the microphone. Kate remembered how excited she'd been when Tom had told the tape deck he intended to marry her. She smiled a little as she thought of it.

"Katie, are you going to answer me?" Kate jumped a little, jerked back into reality.

She grinned at Tom, "Let's do it!"

It didn't take long to bury the capsule. It was buried twelve paces from the base of the tree, walking west.

When the capsule was in the ground, they sat at the base of the tree talking. Tom's arms were around her as she leaned back into his chest.

"Tom, do you really think we'll ever come back for this?" she asked.

"Yeah, I do. We'll come back and we'll come at night, because it will be so much more important feeling that way. And we'll drive out here, and we'll be nervous because we'll wonder if it is still there, but it will be. And we'll get here, and maybe we'll be drinking beer while we dig. And you'll help dig even though you'll be this amazing woman then. And we'll pull it up out of the ground…"

Kate closed her eyes, and as Tom described the scene she could see it clearly. His voice was soothing, and as he talked he unconsciously stroked the cotton ribs on her tank top, his finger trailing along the perfect hollow of her breast. Her body tingled where he touched her.

"And Katie…"

"Hmmm?"

"Like I said earlier, I will be married to you then."

The tingling sensation immediately spread to the rest of her body.