Danny nodded, “Nice.” Virg second the reaction and smoothed his hand over the hood. Danny’s eyes were drawn back toward the door they had just come through leading out of the dance hall. A little way down from the door was a bench that sat under a lamp attached to the side of the old wooden building. Danny could barely make her out in the shadow but it seemed as though that same honey-haired woman he had seen only moments before was now sitting there, reading.
Clay grinned with pride as he watched Virg admire his new car and asked his buddies, “You guys wanna take a spin?”
Virg’s eyes lit up and he hoped into the car quick as lightening. Danny hesitated as he turned his attention back to Clay and the car, “You know,” he paused and looked back quickly then faced Clay again, “I think I’ll take a rain check on that.”
Clay looked passed Danny and caught sight of the woman sitting by the back enterance to the dance hall and smiled, “You bet.” He winked at Danny, hoped back into the car and revved his engine on the way out of the parking lot.
Danny quietly made his way over to the girl who had her nose in a book. He smoothed his short red hair back with his side part and cleared his throat very lightly. Her attention had not been broken. As he came closer to her he saw that as she sat on the bench under the lamp that she had been reading a collection of Yeats. His favorite. Danny quietly approached her and whispered softly, “I particularly enjoyed ‘An Irish Airman Foresees His Death’.”
The woman looked up from her book a bit surprised but smiled warmly, “Oh. Me too...” she hesitated momentarily and Danny opened his mouth to introduce himself when she continued, “I really enjoyed the way he captures the contradiction of not hating those we fight against and the way that the narrators own fears are real and complex and that his youth... he’s not ready, you can tell that maybe he even thinks it might be a mistake that he is too late to correct and the circumstances - so unknown and beyond his control!” Her voice held a spark and enthusiasm though she spoke quietly, “And his choice of words, he seems to say so much in so few words, he can sum up emotions that are so ambiguous and hard to define and he can make them so clear and beautiful...” Her face had lit up and her voice carried exuberance but she trailed off suddenly and lowered her gaze from Danny’s eyes to the page, looking as though she felt she had said too much.
“No, please, don’t stop.” Danny begged her as he listened to her captivated. He hung on her every word.
A strand of her light hair fell in front of her eyes as she raised her head back up to look at him. Their eyes met, “You don’t think talking about Yeats is boring?” she asked cautiously.
Danny shook his head and frowned momentarily before smiling, “No, not at all.”
She smiled back to him, “I only ask that because I have yet to find anyone who is interested in discussing Yeats’ work outside of a purely academic environment.”
“I think about his poetry all the time,” Danny encouraged her to continue, “I would love to hear your thoughts on some of his other pieces. Which is your favorite?”
The woman looked thoroughly astonished. Surprised, she continued to converse with him. Over the matter of an hour the two had developed such a connection that they nearly finished eachothers sentences and the hour had passed in what had seemed like only a matter of a few minutes. He felt drawn to her in a way he had never felt before. He suddenly felt like she was air and he couldn't breath without her, as though he had known her across a million lifetimes.
When Clay and Virg had returned Virg had jumped out of the car exclaiming, “Man, that baby sure sails!”
Clay laughed and his teeth shone in a grin, “I let him take her for a spin.”
Daniel hadn’t taken his eyes off of her and she hadn’t broken his gaze either. It was as though they were the only two in the world. Invisible together.
Virg skipped over to them, like a kid on top of the world, “Hey Danny, aren’t you going to introduce us to your friend?”
Danny smiled at her and then back up to Virg and Clay, “Sure.” He turned back to the woman and his eyes looked at hers questioningly.
She held his eyes with her own blue and whispered directly to him, “I’m Hannah.”
According to Daniel she had been the most amazing woman and he couldn’t stop himself from marrying her right then. Rarely did he ever go into further detail about their short courtship aside from the fact she had attended college which was rare for a women then and he had always used that to encourage his children and grandchildren to perservere with their education. That was where August’s own respect and love for education had come from.
Up until now he had forgotten that poetry had been what his grandparents had first connected on. He couldn’t help but notice the reflection of that with Grace in his own life. She was brilliant, incredibly intelligent and full of so much heart, so much honesty that he knew she would be perfect for the written word, to capture a story and put it on paper and yet captivate a reader and pull them in so much that they see themselves in it, living it. She had a way of conveying to people emotions that there were no words for and he had envied that believing that his own poetry had been a artists pale sketch in charcoal compared to her beautiful vibrant oil painting.
August dreamily set the photo book down and rose to the kitchen. He began to put the rest of their Thanksgiving leftovers away and thought of how lonely Thanksgivings had been for his grandfather since his grandmother had passed away, despite the pain he hoped to find something like that himself one day. His parents and his sister and her family had joined the for the holiday and had left the rest of the food for him. August knew that with his grandfather’s fading health there may not be another Thanksgiving like this and he wanted to spend as much time with him as possible. In a sense, he had always been his greatest friend. He just wasn’t sure he was ready for him to go yet.
August cleared the dishes from the washer and placed them back into the cabinet. Turning off the light he pulled his coat from the rack by the door. He took his car keys from his pocket and reached for the door. His hand rested on the knob as he thought of how many snowy winter mornings he had come though and found his grandparents dancing in the kitchen. He thought of the years as the door knob that he used to have to reach up to turn became one he now reached down to open. God in heaven, it must be lonely in this house.
August’s fingers slipped from the door handle and he placed his keys back into his pocket. Hanging his coat back on the rack he pulled a blanket off the back of the sofa and laid down on the couch beside his grandfather’s chair. He watched Daniel sleep for a few moments beside the glowing fire before he settled into the cushions on the sofa. He watched the flames dance in shadow and thought of how lonely it must be for his grandfather not to have his wife. He could only imagine that it must be a million fold more difficult than living without Grace.
Though he surprised himself admitting even to himself that it was hard to live without her it surprised him more to see that he didn’t want to live to his grandfather’s age in regret. He knew he had to take the chance. He had to see Grace. He would be leaving for Australia in a few days and he promised himself as he fell into sleep that he would indeed meet with her. No more regrets.