PRESENT TENSE
Chapter Forty-Nine
Tuesday, September 9, 2003
Rose rummaged through the kitchen cabinet, looking
for the bag of spaghetti she had placed there a couple of days earlier. She
smiled as the screen door opened and Jack walked in, home from work. He set his
things down on the table and came up to her, wrapping his arms around her
shoulders and kissing her in greeting.
“Hey,” he said as Rose gave up her search for
the spaghetti and turned around to kiss him back.
“Hmm,” Rose murmured, pulling him close. “How
was your day?”
“Great,” Jack told her, letting go of her and
going over to the table. He opened his bag and pulled out his work portfolio. “The
Messner Agency got a new account for one of the companies that’s moved into
Masline since the earthquake, and I’ve been put in charge of the artistic
design for their advertising.”
“I hope you’re not overtaxing yourself.”
He shrugged. “I’m not. They want most of the
work done on the computer, using photographs of the employees and merchandise,
and that isn’t too difficult once you figure out what to do. Besides, I’m
allowed to delegate work if there’s a lot of it.”
“Management,” Rose teased him, looking at the
papers he showed her.
Jack made a face. “Who wants to be
management? You have to do too much work and everyone hates you.”
“You don’t hate Messner.”
“No, but he does our kind of work, too, so
he’s more like one of us than a boss. He doesn’t act like he’s better than us.”
“Unlike a few bosses I can think of.”
“Like the Fat Bastard at Sunpeak.”
“What was his real name?”
“Mitchell. Everyone hated him. We always
hoped he would fall through the floor. From what I hear, that’s exactly what
happened when the earthquake struck. I guess there is occasionally justice in
the world.”
“I can think of another boss who got exactly
what he deserved.”
“You mean Cal?”
“Uh-huh.”
“I can think of few things that would be
better than seeing him in jail. Like cracking him over the head.”
“Jack...” Rose shook her head. “Let’s forget
about him. We’ve got more important things to think about than him.”
“You’re right.” He pulled a completed
advertising page out of his portfolio. “Two weeks ago, the agency started
working on the advertising for one of the new stores that’s coming into the
rebuilt shopping plaza downtown, Speare Jewelers. Their grand opening was
today, and they stay open until ten PM. What do you say we go down there tonight
and pick out wedding rings?”
Rose smiled. “I wondered when we were going
to get around to that. I was going to ask you about it, but you beat me to it.
Sure. Let’s go after dinner.” She turned back to the cabinet, still searching
for the spaghetti.
“What are you looking for?”
“The spaghetti I bought on Sunday.”
Jack reached to a shelf above her head and
gave it to her. “Here it is.”
“It’s nice to have a tall person around.”
“Like you’re so short. Do you want help
making dinner?”
“If you could. The sooner we’re done, the
sooner we can go look for rings.”
As they settled to work, Rose asked him, “Are
you sure we can afford wedding rings? Neither of us has much money.”
“I think we can, as long as we don’t go for
the really expensive ones.”
“You mean like the enormous diamonds?”
“Yeah. Like those.”
“I don’t want one of those. I found my old
engagement ring where Cal had dropped it a few days after the earthquake. I’m
saving it in case we ever really need money. I think that plain gold would be
best.” She batted her eyelashes at him. “Gold looks so good with my red hair.”
Jack laughed. “We’ll see what they have. I
think anything would look nice on you.”
“Flattery will get you nowhere.”
“Oh, yeah?” Jack put down his work and came
over to kiss her.
“Well...maybe it’ll get you somewhere.” Rose
kissed him back. “We’d better get dinner made. Tommy will be home soon, and I’m
getting hungry.” She stirred the pot of spaghetti to keep it from burning. “Besides,
we want to get dinner finished before the store closes.”
*****
As soon as the dinner dishes were washed,
Jack and Rose headed downtown. A number of buildings had been repaired or
replaced since the earthquake, including the building that had nearly trapped
them when they had fled from Cal’s bullets. The jewelry store was in the same
shopping center. They looked toward the restored building as they walked,
remembering that night. All traces of the earthquake had been cleared away from
the spot, but they would never forget the terrifying feeling of being trapped
in the collapsed building.
The jewelry store was in the next building,
one of two that had been rebuilt in this shopping center. In the distance,
still cordoned off, the collapsed buildings of the old movie theater, several
fast food restaurants, and a number of stores still lay in rubble. Half of the
parking lot had been fixed, but the other half was still cracked and buckled,
with pieces of concrete and blacktop lying in heaps.
After looking at the debris for a moment,
Jack squeezed Rose’s hand and pulled her away from the sight. It was the first
time he had been to this section of town since they had barely escaped with
their lives. The amount of destruction was still distressing.
There were only a few people inside the store
when they went inside. Most of the business was conducted during the day,
though there were a few customers shopping in the evening.
A sales clerk came up to them. “Can I help
you?” he asked, looking at them assessingly.
“We’re looking for wedding rings,” Jack told
him. “We’re getting married in about three weeks.”
“Congratulations,” the clerk said, leading
them toward a display of gemstone rings.
The engaged couple looked at the rings for a
few minutes, then decided against them.
“We were thinking more along the lines of
plain gold,” Rose told the clerk.
A bit disappointed that he wouldn’t get a big
commission, the clerk brought out a tray of gold wedding bands. Jack and Rose
looked at them, talking over which one to get.
The least expensive set of rings were plain,
pale gold bands, 10 karat gold, but Rose’s eye was caught by a gold ring in a
braided design. It cost about fifty dollars more, but when she saw it, she knew
that it was the one she wanted.
She pointed it out to Jack. “I like that one.
Do you think we can afford it?”
Jack looked at the price of the ring, and
then at the price of a similar, though less elaborate, ring for himself.
“I think I can afford it,” he told her.
“I’ll help with the cost,” she began, but
Jack hushed her.
“Let me pay for this, Rose,” he told her.
When she started to protest, he said, “Let’s do one thing traditionally. The
groom usually buys the wedding rings, and I have enough saved that I can afford
it.”
Rose sighed, finally giving in. “All right. You
can pay for them. We’ve shared the cost of most things, anyway.”
Jack arranged to have the rings sized to fit
them, then reached into his shirt pocket, pulling out a piece of paper. He
showed it to Rose.
“I was thinking of having something engraved
on the inside of the rings,” he told her, handing her the piece of paper.
Rose looked at it. On the paper were written
the words Never Let Go and the entwined initials J and R. Her eyes lit
up.
“It’s perfect, Jack. It’s...us.”
He took the piece of paper and handed it to
the clerk, explaining what he wanted done. The clerk nodded, taking the paper
and putting it into the box with the rings.
“When will they be ready?” Jack asked him.
“In about a week. We’ll call when they’re
ready to be picked up.”
Jack nodded, writing out a check for the cost
of the rings, and then left the store, Rose walking beside him.
“That’s quite a bit of money,” Rose remarked
as they got into the car.
“I know, but I haven’t been able to give you
much, and I wanted to give you a nice ring. I’d give you more if I could.”
“I don’t need more.” Rose put her hand over
his before he turned on the ignition. “I have you, and that makes me richer
than I ever thought possible. I love you, Jack. Thank you...for everything.”