Kuunari

continued from here…

During that diatribe, Anisette had slowly crept along the the bench and now found herself under one of Dean’s arm. Almost against her will, she leaned into him, and they sat there for a moment. He could feel her breath rise and fall in her chest, each exhale bringing them closer. As he looked down into her eyes, he realized that he was falling in love again. He knew so little about her, and yet the thought of saying goodbye even for the night seemed unreasonable. A car sped by, it’s lights briefly illuminating the pair, and she jerked back, and stood up.

“Thank you for the evening” she stumbled to get out, “but I should get going.” They paused and looked at each other for a moment.

“Well, thanks for taking me out tonight. It was nice to get out of the house, I hate to impose any more than I already am on my Aunt and Uncle.”

Well, then maybe tomorrow night you’d like to have dinner with my family?” She shocked herself with her forthrightness. She knew she was falling for him, and she thought she could see something similar in him.

“Sure. Mind picking me up?”

“No,” she quickly replied and started walking to her car before turning one more time. “Would you like a lift home?”

“No, don’t worry about it, I’ll enjoy the walk.” And she breathed a sigh of relief.

Anisette and her fiance Roger arrived 5 minutes late at Dean’s relatives. He was sitting on the front porch, enjoying the early evening chill. His car had a tarp over it, and the tools had been cleaned up, but otherwise it was as Anisette remembered it. As she and Roger walked over to where Dean was picking up a pie tin wrapped in tin foil, she tried to think of some way to introduce the two.

Dean had expected Roger to come along today. He imagined Anisette had told Roger too much about himself. Roger was a large man, built of hard labor and dark beer. He wore a white Indians jersey and a Caveliers baseball cap. He came towards Dean with his hand projected in front of him.

“Hey,” Dean said to them, and took Roger’s hand in a quick shake.

“How you doing?” Came the reply from Roger.

“Hi, Dean,” Anisette responded with a forced charm. “Let me introduce you to the man of my dreams, Roger. Roger this is Dean.” Roger looked at her with a possessive smile and then at Dean, sizing him up.

“So, you’re the one that Anisette is doing all those good deeds for?”

“I guess, she’s been great.” Each sentence, became more strained for the participants, Anisette careful not to laugh at anything Dean said, and Roger cautiously eyeing Dean. As they walked to the car, Dean glanced at Roger, who had stopped looking at him and instead began on his long meandering story. Dean squeezed into the rear seat, while Roger told him about his lawncare business and the complications that arose from it.

By the time they arrived at the Anisette’s father’s house, Roger had decided that Dean was a great man, and told him so repeated, Dean’s non-committal grunts and occasional comments about the Indians chances this year to win the Pennant having won Roger over. Her father’s house stood two blocks west of the intersection of West Main St and S. 3rd street in West Farmington, a leaning two story house, the paint and wood peeling, part of the front porch had begun the slow process of collapsing.

The steps up to the front door groaned as they proceeded up them single file, Roger leading the way, halfed-turned to tell Dean again why the Tribe should have won the 97 World Series, which meant that he didn’t notice the last step had begun to bow, the wood rotten, and he tripped and sprawled across the dirty white porch. Dean made a valiant effort to avoid the prone Roger, but the pie held in his two hands made that all but impossible, and Dean landed on top of Roger, the pie breaking his fall.

As Anisette surveyed the wreckage, she could barely stiffled a laugh. Dean lay on top of Roger shocked while Roger began to mutter. “God damn it. What the hell,” Roger swore, looking at his shirt, and pushing off of Dean to stand, stormed into the house, repeating his curse.

“It was his favorite shirt,” Anisette explained as she held her hand out to pull Dean up. Dean’s shirt was covered in strawberries, rubarb and pie crust. He held her hand a second longer than necessary after he was standing, and then looked down with bewilderment at the pie mass slowly sliding down his shirt.

“Wait here.” She said, and went inside for a quick moment to get a kitchen towel. When she came back, she handed the towel to Dean. He quickly took care of the bigger pieces of pie, and set the towel on the railing. The sun had finally set, casting deep shadows across the front lawn.

“An—,” he began, and stopped.

“Shhh…” she said, and then leaned in and gave him a peck on his lips.

“Ani,” he begain again, “we can’t do this. Roger’s a great guy. And while I feel myself falling in love with you, I’ll probably end up leaving you and going on with my life. I can’t be there like Roger is for you.”

She looked at him for a moment then began to speak with annoyance. “Who says I want you to be like Roger? Did you think that maybe I was looking for someone just like you? I don’t want a relationship. I’ve been in one with Roger since I was 15. I want romance.”

He would have grabbed her and kissed her then, knowing his role now, knowing that he could be her romance. He had in fact begun to pull her towards him, when her dad spoke up from the darken front door.

“What are you doing, Ani,” A quiet, gruff voice called from within the house. “What about Roger?” They turned to look at her dad, opening the front porch.

“Dad…” Anisette said, surprised, staring at her dad. Her dad stood beside them, slightly stooped from age, whiskey lightly on his breath. Dean looked from her dad to Anisette and then back again.

“I love Roger, sure, but I need to get out of here. I haven’t been out of this town since Mom died and we moved here. I need to leave.” Dean look at her in confusion and she caught his gaze.

“Dean, let’s get out of here. Let’s leave.” She took his hand, and repeated her request. Dean stared at her for a while, then at her hand. “I’ll go with you to Minneapolis, or where ever else you want to go. Just take me someplace else.” She began to pull him down the front walk towards her car.

Finally, he leaned in to Anisette and whispered, “ok.” She took one final look at her dad, yelled, “I love you!” and took off at a dead sprint toward her car, Dean trailing behind her, the dusk enveloping them.