You know,” said Lea. “Ever since you broke up with Mark, I’ve had to do these graveyard visits with you. I didn’t realize how handy he was until he left.”
“See this stone. This is the oldest grave, I think.”
“You can’t read the date.”
“I know,” I said. “That’s why I think it’s the oldest one.” I walked over to another one. “Would you hurry? Why did you wear those shoes?” I pointed at another gravestone. “Look at how long these two were married.”
“Yeah, uh-huh, nice,” said Lea. “What is your grandmother doing?”
I looked toward the creek. “Fishing with her sisters.”
“I wouldn’t eat anything out of that water.” She shrugged. “Of course your grandma and her sisters are old.”
“What?” I asked.
“It wouldn’t hurt them much. Thank you, by the way,” she said, showing me her pink-gloved hands, “for making me these.”
“I can’t believe you wore that to our cemetery outing,” I said, gesturing at her clothes.
“It was one of my mother’s dresses in high school.”
I looked at the polka-dotted, full-skirted dress. “I cannot see her in that.”
“My mom has many parts to her, and one of those wears pretty dresses.”
“One of the first women engineers at NASA too.”
“She’s a physicist,” said Lea, “not an engineer.”
“What’s the difference?” I asked, shrugging.
“Physicists are smarter.”
“You could be an engineer,” I said. “I know we’re not supposed to talk about your math grades and all, but it is true.”
“Maybe after I finish playing, I’ll be an astronaut and go to Mars.”
“They won’t let you wear that skirt,” I said, “in space.”
“Wouldn’t it be fun to see it floating in zero g?”
“So you’ve given up on marrying the Astronaut?” I asked.
“I’m graduating. He’s going into outer space. It’ll never work.”
“That’s a relief,” I said. “I do have to tell you something, Lea.”
“What?” she asked.
I paused. “I’m not applying to UT.”
She made a face.
“I’m sorry. But you were the only reason I was even considering it.”
“I’m not a good-enough reason?” she asked.
“You’re a really good reason. But UT’s not for me.”
She sighed. “Yeah, I figured. I’ll miss you, you secret-keeping heartbreaker.” She looked over at the creek. “Your grandma’s lucky to have sisters.”
I nudged her shoulder with mine. “You have a sister. Me.”
“It’ll be hard to stay close so far apart,” she said, her eyes sad.
“See them,” I said, nodding at the creek. “That’s us in sixty years.”
She gave me a little smirk. “Can I wear this dress while we fish?”
“If you can fit in it in sixty years, you can wear it.”
She laughed, then looped her arm through mine. We were quiet and still, watching my grandma in the distance, fishing in the creek she’d fished in as a child. She’d never wanted to leave.
It was hard for me too, but it was time.