Chapter 9 - The Beautiful Thing
A year later, Lily asked a question over breakfast.
“Mom?”
“Yes?”
“Why did you save Dominic?”
I looked at him.
He was drinking coffee.
He pretended not to listen.
“I don't know,” I said.
Lily frowned.
“You didn't know him.”
“No.”
“Then why?”
I thought about the burning car.
The smoke.
The glass.
The stranger inside.
“I saw somebody who needed help.”
Lily nodded.
Then she looked at Dominic.
“Why did you save Mom?”
He smiled.
“I didn't.”
She looked confused.
“I protected her.”
“That isn't saving?”
“No.”
He looked at me.
“She saved herself.”
I smiled.
He continued.
“She chose to trust me.”
“And that's beautiful?”
Lily asked.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because trust is something people give freely.”
Lily considered that.
Then she nodded.
“I trust both of you.”
Dominic laughed.
“That may be the most dangerous thing you've said all week.”
She grinned.
That afternoon, I found him alone behind the diner.
He was looking at the old photograph from the fire.
“Why keep it?”
“Because it reminds me.”
“Of what?”
“How close I came to never meeting you.”
I sat beside him.
“You would have survived.”
“Maybe.”
He took my hand.
“But I don't think I would have lived.”
I leaned against his shoulder.
“What changed?”
He looked at me.
“You.”
“No.”
He smiled.
“We both did.”
We stayed there until sunset.
A normal day.
May you like
A beautiful day.
The kind we had once thought impossible.
