It was a gray, bleak spring day when the car pulled into the cemetery, and a miserable, drizzling rain was falling.
The growl of the engine died as the key turned in the ignition, and the only sound that remained was the light patter of rain on the roof and the tick of cooling metal.
Ron Stoppable climbed out of the driver's side, his companion out of the passenger's side. Two doors slammed, and two figures started walking.
Ron led his companion by the hand through the rows of graves, up hills and past mausoleums. Their shoes quickly soaked through in the wet grass and leaves, but neither cared.
Soon they reached their goal.
The gravestone was the best that the family could afford – which was to say, it was magnificent: all gleaming marble, with an angel on a high pedestal. But unlike most angels in the graveyard, this angel wasn't kneeling in prayer. She stood straight, her wings spread and her arms and face raised to the skies. Perhaps this angel had a different way of praying.
Ron let go of his companion's hand and stood staring at the gravestone for a long moment.
"Hey, Kim" he said at last. "Sorry it's been so long since I came to see you. I've just…been busy. After college…can you believe that I, Ron Stoppable, graduated with a degree in Business? All that trouble I used to have with math and money, and now my whole life is about them. Well…kinda. I opened up a restaurant with my latest naco royalties. Yeah, they're still comin' in. After that first time, I learned not to carry it all in my pants anymore. Anyway, I knew you'd want me to shoot for the stars, so I decided to open it up in New York City. Like the song says, if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. For a while, I wondered if that had been a mistake. After all, everyone in Middleton knew my reputation. If I'd opened a restaurant there, there would have been people lined up around the corner. But who am I in the Big Apple? There were actually a few nights where I – I – didn't sleep, because the Naco money was all gone, and I just couldn't stop wondering where the next rent payment was coming from. Then one night, a few cast members and techies from some off-Broadway showwere looking for someplace different to grab a bite before they headed home. Next thing I know, everyone in the New York theatre scene who doesn't take a limo to work is eating at my place. Then a few who do take limos showed up, and now I have to open up another location of Rufus and Ron's just to keep up with demand."
His companion cleared her throat politely.
"Uh…yeah! But that's not why I'm here! See, there was this one techie from that first night who became a total regular. Well, a lot of them did, but this one could have qualified for a bulk discount. She found out what her favorites were by trying the entire menu…twice. Then, one night, it was crazy. One of my counter people called in sick and couldn't get a replacement, and one of the kitchen guys was out for the funeral of his fifth or sixth grandmother, and we were an hour behind and Matthew Broderick was about to take his business elsewhere when that techie came in, saw the sitch, and just marched back behind the counter like she worked there. It was midnight by the time I noticed anything was wrong. I offered to pay her for the hours she'd worked, but she said no: that would make her my employee, and that would make what she really wanted illegal." He paused, and his companion chuckled softly. He gave her a rueful grin, then turned his attention back to the gravestone. "Anybody else would have known what she meant instantly, but I didn't speak Girl any better than I ever did. Fortunately, she was more persistent than Tara and Yori were back in the day. Anyway…Kim, I wanted you to meet Michelle."
He took his companion's hand and pulled her forward. Physically, she was as different from Kim as it was humanly possible to be: she was short (okay, one trait they shared), plump, and voluptuous – soft and curved in contrast to the hard angularity that Kim had worn until the day she died. She was dark – her hair and eyes a rich brown that bordered on black – where Kim's skin had been porcelain, her eyes a clear glass-green, her hair flame. They were almost literal night and day.
"Hey, Kim," Michelle said softly, waving at the headstone. Then, unmindful of the wet grass and muddy ground, she folded her legs beneath her and sat down on the grave. "We need to talk," she said seriously.
"Michelle!" Ron said, shocked.
She ignored him. "Ron and I have been together for about two years now," she began. "And he's told me all about you." She smiled fondly. "I wonder how many women he's scared away with those stories," she said.
"I never told – " He tried to interrupt, but she held up a hand and turned her smile on him for a second. He fell silent again.
"Because all you have to do is listen to him, and you realize just how much he still loves you. You're the center of his heart, Kim." Her smile stayed in place, but her eyes started to glisten as she turned back to the headstone. "You made him who he is today. Which I need to thank you for, because even if I got to him too late, I love him like I never loved anyone else." Her smile turned into a lewd grin for a moment. "And I've loved a lot."
Ron had to interrupt again at that point. "No need to worry, KP, she's 100 percent trustworthy. But you can't hold pasts against or be even a little jealous if you're with a theatre person."
"Hey," Michelle said. "When you met the guy in the last show – "
"Yeah, yeah, I can't help it if I got a little bit of a crush, too. He really was pretty."
"And since he was gay, maybe I'm the one who should be worried," she sniped. Then she turned back to Kim.
"Kim," She continued. "If even a tenth of what Ron has told me is true, then you two were truly Meant To Be Together. If you'd lived, you two would have had something legendary. You were cheated of that this time, but I believe…I really believe that when you two meet again in the next life, whether that's Heaven or just…another life, you'll have your chance then. Whether it's going to be "again and again" or "forever", you'll be together. If it comes down to it, I'll let him go then, because I know destiny when I hear about it." For a moment, the lewd smile returned, though there were tears mixing with the rain on her face by now. "Although I can't imagine a Heaven without threesomes."
"See what I mean, KP!" Ron yelled, cheerful tease in his voice, although there were tears standing in his eyes as well.
The smile faded at last. "But I'm the one who's here now, Kim. And this man, this wonderful man that you made and then left for me to find, has too much love in his heart to spend his whole life waiting to use it. I want some of it, but I don't think I'm going to be enough. Maybe you would have been. But if it's just me, then he's going to need a whole horde of little Stoppables to love, too."
"Bite your tongue, woman!"
She leaned forward. "I'm still trying to talk him into that one," She said confidentially to the headstone. Then she sat up again.
"But none of that can happen yet, because he still feels like he's betraying your memory by loving someone else. So I decided that we had to come here and talk this out." She took a deep breath. "That's what I came here for. I want to ask your permission to marry Ron." She leaned forward again, and, for the first time, touched the headstone. "I promise to take good care of our boy," she whispered.
At that moment, the rain stopped, and the sun broke through the clouds. Ron and Michelle both held still for a moment longer. That would be a heck of a coincidence, but it could still be –
Then a warm breeze blew a storm of apple blossoms off a nearby tree – petals that had been so heavy with moisture a moment before that they were about to fall to the ground like the fruit that would soon grow in their place – and swirled them around the couple before allowing them to settle on the ground.
Michelle smiled. "Thanks Kim," she said, then climbed to her feet.
Ron looked around in awe and confusion. "All this time…all the times I've talked to her…she never said anything to me!"
"Of course she did, my love," Michelle said gently, taking his hand and leading him away. "She's been saying it all along. All she's doing now is shouting. I guess she's getting frustrated."
"Shouting? But what has she been saying?"
Michelle shook her head. She understood why what she'd said to Kim had been the right thing. The boy needed so much taking care of.
"Get a life, of course."