Chapter 35

A few weeks later there wasn’t much for us to do anymore.  We slept in late almost every morning, except for when Rylan had to work the morning shift or had surgery. The sleep was actually quite nice. The afternoon light was pouring in as I woke up. Rylan sat up in the bed staring at the wall. “Rylan you can’t really feel this bad it was his time.” I said as I tried to wake my body up. His hand stroked my hair without looking at me.

                I took his hand and kissed his palm. He smiled a little and finally looked at me. “I know. I’ve finally realized that.”

                My arm wrapped around his torso and I pulled myself into him to rest my head on his thigh. “It feels so good to wake up next to you again.”

                “Do you know what today is?” He asked quietly but seriously.

                I nuzzled my head further into his lap, “Friday,” I answered truthfully and shut my eyes. I was breathing in his scent and feeling his warmth.

                “It’s our four year anniversary.”

                I sat up. We had completely forgotten.  How could two people so incredibly in love forget about their anniversary?“Wow.”

                He shifted his body and turned to me. He took my hand and looked at me. His piercing eyes shot through me like always. I was glad we had this time alone. Rylan looked at me the way he did before “I have something for you.”

                “Alright,” I said and he stood up and headed over to his dresser. I didn’t actually know what he had to give me. We didn’t usually give gifts on our anniversary. I guess that’s because the past few ones haven’t been much to celebrate. He shifted through things in the drawer for a minute and when he turned he hid something behind his back.

His body sat softly on the bed and turned towards me. He crossed his legs in front of him and I did the same. My mind went back to the time where I first used my powers. This is how we sat there. A brief smile spread on my face but went back to being serious. “I was going to give this to you before your father came. Somehow it just didn’t seem right yet. Then we became a little busy.” He smiled sheepishly and looked up into my face. “I want to give it to you now with more of a meaning this time.”  From behind his back he pulled out a white ring case. I looked down at the velvet box and my mind shot a million questions off in my brain. His tan hands popped open the small contraption to sport a white ring. “It’s made from a stone native to my island. It’s found in the caves in the mountains. There are only a few rocks large enough for things. But those rocks are only found and produced every hundreds of thousands of years. This ring belonged to my great great grandfather, and eventually went on the finger of my father. Now, I’m giving it to you.”

                My mouth gaped open, “Hold on.” I was amazed at the situation that had unfolded in front of me. It’s something I had been feeling a long time. Rylan seemed confused as to what I was doing. I wasn’t about to explain it to him and give away the whole surprise. I ran down the stairs and went to where I used to be roomed. I walked into the large closet and found a shoebox that had been shoved into the back of closet that was now full of my dad’s things. Before he died he had me get this shoebox and open it. As I did there was a black round case inside. I opened it to find a bright silver band.

“It’s the band your mother gave to me,” he said still in his frail voice. “I want you to have it, and I want you to give it to Rylan.” This was about two years ago, before we started the different brain surgeries. He still had at least some of his sanity after Chemo.

                “Thanks dad,” I said as I looked at the ring.

                “Do you remember when I lost it?”

                I looked up at him. “That’s why I’m confused. That’s why mom stopped talking to you and you both started drinking.”

                He nodded as well as his body would let him. “I took it off to do the dishes and it fell down the drain. What your mother didn’t tell me is she got it out. She was mad that I took it off which led to a whole different fight. Well, when she passed I was going through her things that were sent to me and in this old shoe box was my band. She’d kept it all those years and never once gave it back. I don’t really know why, but all I know is that it’s the last piece of her that I hold. It was the one thing that still bound me to her in her death, and which still binds us today. Jerry doesn’t have that.”

I picked the silver ring up out of the case. “The engraving is from our favorite song, I’m sure you know it.” I looked into the center of the ring and read the cursive lining the silver, ‘For the way you look at me.’ I knew the song exactly. I often related it to me. The moment I read those words it reminded me of Rylan. The way his eyes were always on me, protecting me, and showing me that through everything he still loved me. “It’s yours my son, but I want you to give it to Rylan.” My father was very persistent on me giving it to Rylan. I didn’t need to fight about it. I know that I would sometime. Right then wasn’t right, but now was, I felt it just like Rylan felt it. We were ready for this.

                I ran back up the stairs with the small circular box and plopped onto the bed next to Rylan who was staring at me strangely. My fingers popped the small box open and the shiny silver glittered in the sunlight, “it was my fathers.” I said quietly.

                “We can’t technically get married.”

                “It’s only a piece of paper,” I responded quickly, “We will be, whether it’s legal or not.”

                A smile crossed his face and he pulled out the ring. “Collin Shiloh Hanks,” a smile crossed my face as he continued. “I promise to love you until the end of time, no matter what happens to either of us. We’ve already seen and been through the worst without rings. I think we’ll be just fine.”

                I took my silver ring out and played with it in my fingers. “Ryszard Rylan Khtulu, you are the only man for me and I will love you forever and beyond. With you I’ve overcome fear, depression, and the worst pain possible.  Everything has been because of you and I promise that I will always be here for you through everything. Until the end, of well, forever.”

                Rylan looked up at me and a smile crossed his face, “You remembered my real name.”

                I laughed really hard and he did the same, “It’s ridiculous.”

Rylan nodded in agreement and then became serious once again. “I do love you.” He said and looked down at my hand. His soft fingers fiddled with mine on my left hand. He pulled them toward him and slowly slid the ring onto my ring finger, “You’re mine now.” His eyes popped back up to me and were filled with great happiness.            

                I looked down at the white stone that now surrounded my finger. It was carved into a vine type shape and circled around. Its texture is like obsidian but it was as white as snow. You couldn’t tell much difference between my skin and the stone. If Rylan were to put it on it would contrast his skin to where it would constantly be pulling at people’s attention.                

                My attention moved to the silver ring in my hand I grabbed at Rylan’s hand and slid the tiny piece of silver over his dark skinned appendage. The ring fit his thin finger perfectly and this time he moved his hand around to see if it was really there. I watched his grey eyes flick over the piece of metal over and over again.              

                His head tilted up and his body leaned over to me. Our lips touched carefully and his hand grabbed at my wrist. “I can’t believe it.” He said, breaking our kiss but not pulling our faces away. With no strength at all he pushed me back onto the bed and positioned himself on top of me. I began to think and I realized that Phoenix was no longer in my mind and hadn’t been for a really, really long time.