"I'll be back for Thanksgiving," he promised. "And I'll call and write you. Don't fall in love with someone new as soon as you start school," he warned.
"What about you and all those college girls you're going to meet?"
"I won't have time."
"Right," I said.
We both stood on the dock and looked out at the lake. A blackbird lifted from a thick tree branch and glided over the water before soaring up and away.
"Quickly. Harley, make a wish," I cried.
He laughed.
I closed my eyes and did so.
"Did you wish?"
"I can't tell you or it won't come true," he said. "I don't need you to tell me. I heard you." I said.
He smiled and kissed me. Then Uncle Roy came out of our house.
Mommy and Daddy came out after him. Daddy stood next to her on the portico. Harley ran up to kiss Mommy Goodbye and shake Daddy's hand. Then he got into the car. I stood there, watching and thinking. Aunt Glenda's watching too. She's standing right beside me. I can feel her.
They started away and then stopped and Harley got out. "Hey," he called to me.
"What?"
"I heard your wish, too. After the blackbird. We'll make it happen," he said and got back into the car.
It slipped slowly out of sight below the hill and was gone. I looked up at Mommy and Daddy. They were holding hands and looking after the car. Then they turned toward me, concern in their eyes.
I took a deep breath and smiled to myself. I'm all right. I thought. Don't worry. There are no goodbyes.
Not really.
Not for people like us.
Epilogue
.
I suppose all my life I've been afraid of
promises. A promise is a way of exposing your heart, whether you're the one giving it or the one accepting it. "Let's not make any promises and we'll never be disappointed in each other." That's what I told the boys I dated.
Harley and I kept up our correspondence and our relationship while I attended and finished high school. My grandfather in England wanted me to attend college in London. Mommy. Daddy and I talked about it at length. and Mommy told me about all her wonderful experiences there when she had studied at the school of drama.
It did sound exciting and my grandfather Larry was so anxious for me to come and live with him.
"Even if it's only for a year or two." Mommy told me. "it's a worthwhile experience for you. Summer."
I knew how hard it would be for her to be so far away from me. so I knew she meant every word. She wanted the good things for me. She wanted me to taste what I had never tasted, see what I had never seen, hear what I had never heard. Experience, wide and wonderful, was so very important.
Maybe it was because her opportunities had been cut off so early in her life. Maybe she wanted to live them through me.
Whatever her reasons, she was very convincing and in the end. I decided to do it.
Harley was a junior in college, already deep in his major. We corresponded while I was away, of course, but suddenly, his letters stopped coming. I thought he had found someone else. I wrote him a few times and then I stopped. too.