how greatly we try to avoid them. The government put a freeze on all marriage licenses. We had set a date for the following year, but the official statement to hold all paperwork set a bad feeling into my bones. I still bought a ring.”
Shae looks down at her aging hands to a simple diamond ring on her left hand. Her thin lips ease into a small, wistful smile.
“We still made plans, even bought a little two-bedroom house just east of here. It was all forward thinking in a time that was changing too fast for us to keep up. At the first of the year, Congress signed a new law. A law that its people were not consulted about. It stated that going forward all unwed persons under the age of twenty would be assigned life partners. They would form a union, and basically be provided an outline for life. What job to lead, what children to have, what life to live. It was a process put in place to reduce our recklessly growing population and poverty.” His brow creases, and a look of anger passes over the man’s face.
“Shae was nineteen, and I was twenty-one. I would be encouraged to live my life alone, while they assigned her some dirtbag to marry—to unite with.” His fingers air quote his words like it’s a made-up language he won’t acknowledge. “I’d rot in hell before I watched the woman I love spend the rest of her life with Jason Miller.” A cackling laugh escapes Shae’s mouth, and Jim narrows his eyes at her, but a little smile pulls at the corner of his lips.
“Ugh, my mother had a fit when I told her I wouldn’t marry the wealthy boy. Not that wealth has any significant symbolism nowadays.” Shae shrugs her small shoulders at the thought.
“So, we got the hell out. We left our little house behind in the middle of the night. The little house that we saved for over two years for just a down payment.” He raises his eyebrows in outrage at that confession. I don’t really understand down payment, but I don’t interrupt either. “We came here to the outskirts of town to the house I grew up in as a boy. It took a year for me to turn the basement into a functional home.”
“But it’s ours. The Burrow,” Shae says in a dreamy whisper. “We raised a family here. We have beautiful memories here.”
Their story is astounding and inspiring and terrifying all at once. They defied their government and lived a secret life underground, choosing to break the law rather than their own hearts. And they got away with it. And more importantly, they’ve lived happily ever after.
I look across the table, my gaze being pulled toward him. But Asher doesn’t appear to share my hopeful thinking. His silver eyes are cast down to his empty plate, his jaw set hard.
Jim clears his throat and stands. “Why don’t you show me that gift you brought back with you?” he says looking to Asher.
Asher’s face relaxes into a passive look as he nods. The two men walk into the next room. Jim moves to his seat in the tan recliner and Asher disappears into a closet near the entrance. My mother stands as well, but it’s an anxious gesture like she’s waited all night for dinner to be over.
“I’m actually still very tired. I think I’ll just go to bed.” She gives a tight smile to Shae, who nods with worry etching lines around her eyes.
Hesitantly, I trail behind her back to our small guest room. It’s dark in the windowless room, and she doesn’t turn on the light, but she seems to sense me behind her. She pauses, holding the door in her hand. She stands within the room, and I stand waiting in the doorframe. She doesn’t turn to me. Her slight shoulders sag with the weight of her thoughts.
She speaks, startling me with her whispered voice.
“I’ll give my last breaths to see you live a better life than my own, Fallon.” Her head is bent low in thought and my chest tightens from lack of breath. I don’t make a sound as I hang on her every word within the darkness. “What happened is in the past. It’s gone.” She shudders, her shoulders shaking with her uneven breath.
“He’s gone. But your future is here. We can’t change the past no matter how often we revisit it,” she says in a whisper. I reach