And she's gonna learn that this life will hit you, hard, in the face, wait for you to get back up just so it can kick you in the stomach. But getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.
September 2038
Katy ran over to Kurt and me, almost tripping over her graduation gown in excitement. Our youngest kid has officially graduated, making us officially old. She gave us and her brother, who was visiting from college, tight hugs as we made our way back to the car to go home and get ready for the relatives to come over. We didn't expect what we found there.
"Who's here?" Katy asked, noticing an unfamiliar vehicle in the driveway. None of us knew who it was, so we got out of the car and walked to the back porch, to see if the owner was there. And there sat Rachel Berry.
"Katy?" Rachel said, standing up and staring Katy in the eyes. It didn't even take her a second to know who it was. She recognized her eyes inside this unfamiliar woman's head and ran past her, through the back door and up to her room.
I didn't want to deal with Rachel, but Kurt and Harry certainly had a few words for her. I followed Katy up to her room instead.
"Katy? Katy!" I yelled, running up the stairs and opening her door before she could lock me out. She sat on her bed, still in her gown, gasping for air. "Are you alright?"
"I feel like I was just punched in the stomach," she said, hyperventilating. I hurried downstairs, grabbed a brown paper bag, and brought it up to her to breathe in until she finally calmed down enough to breathe normally. By the time she was composed, Rachel was gone, and we pretended like it never happened.
