Today, instead of lunch, Lewis asked Sarah if she would meet him after dinner. She was puzzled, but of course she agreed. There was a certain air of mystery and excitement in him, which intrigued her.
It was no surprise to me that Lewis was excited. He has been planning this for several days, and it has been so good to see him look forward to something so eagerly. It has put a brightness in his soul that was a balm to my own.
He picked her up at six, and she gasped to see him behind the wheel of a car the color—and the consistency—of rust. “Where did you get this?” she asked, running her hands over it lovingly.
“Friend of mine at work has been trying to sell it for weeks,” he said, grinning as he climbed out of it. “He called it the UAS—‘ugly as sin’. Which is true, but the thing runs great, and that’s all I need.”
Sarah returned his grin. “And you love it,” she guessed.
His heart jumped as he looked at her. “I do.” And after he had cleared his throat, he said, “But the car is only the beginning of the surprise. Hop in. I promise it’s safe.”
“Oh, I’m a brave woman,” Sarah said, laughing, and she dropped into the front seat without further ado. “So where are we going?”
He got in, too, and gave her a narrow-eyed glance, his mouth twitching against the urge to smile. “Did you not just hear the word ‘surprise’? You’re too smart not to know what that means.”
Sarah was as delighted by his good mood as I was. She hugged his arm, then let go so he could start up the UAS. “Fine, I’ll be patient. Or I’ll pretend to be.”
The drive to their destination wasn’t long, and Lewis made Sarah cover her eyes when they got there. Another couple held the door for them, grinning as Lewis went by with Sarah on his back, her hands clapped over her face. Sometimes joy is so abundant that it can spark happiness in strangers.
“Okay,” Lewis said when they had arrived. “You can look now.”
Sarah uncovered her eyes and gasped aloud. They were standing in a gymnasium, and one wall was speckled with different-colored “rocks”, with two staff members winding ropes before it.
“Oh, you remembered!” Sarah said, throwing her arms around Lewis’s neck. “I haven’t been rock climbing since college! I’m going to fall off so many times.”
“That’s okay, I’ll catch you,” he said. “And we have it all to ourselves for the next half hour.”
Pressing a quick kiss to Lewis’s cheek, Sarah jumped down and ran across to get buckled into her harness.
Sarah did fall, a few times, but the harness and rope system has been so cleverly designed that she was not hurt at all, simply lowered to the ground to start again. Every time that happened, Lewis dropped down to climb back up with her, and they laughed and joked with one another the whole time. Finally, close to the end of their scheduled time, Sarah reached the top, and she slapped the bell there with a crow of triumph.
Lewis didn’t bother with his bell; he was too busy smiling at her. She turned to beam at him, and it was then that he spoke. “I love you,” he said.
Sarah went very still. She stared at him, and for a moment he lost his nerve, but I put my wings around him, and he took a breath and said the rest of the words he has been rehearsing since last week.
“I wanted to be sure I was saying it for the right reasons,” he explained. “I talked to Dr. Christensen about it, and I put a lot of thought into it. I don’t want to be leaning on you, Sarah, at least not all the time. I want you to be able to lean on me sometimes, and I want to be able to lift you up when you’re down. But I think I can do that now, and so you deserve to know how I feel.”
Sarah’s eyes were shining with tears. She swallowed and spoke levelly. “Lew, I’m mad at you.”
He blinked—this was the last thing he’d expected. “What? Why?”
“Because you did this so perfectly and thoughtfully, except I can’t kiss you right now.”
He laughed and clambered across the wall easily. “Who says?” he asked, and angled his head so that their helmets wouldn’t knock together as he kissed her.
There was some whistling and hooting from the two gym staff who were belaying for them, so the kiss didn’t last long, but it meant a great deal to both of them. When Lewis leaned back, Sarah’s eyes were sparkling, and she let go of the wall to float down to the ground. The two of them were still floating as they walked back out to the UAS together.
Lewis wanted to find the perfect way to tell Sarah his truth, and I think he really did find it. It was something that Sarah once loved, proof that he pays attention to the small things that she tells him about herself. And though they were climbing together, they each had their own support system and safety.
I think that this is a good metaphor for their relationship, and for relationships in general. And I am very proud of Lewis for coming so far. There will still be difficulties for them in the future, but they will face them together, and that in itself is a kind of safety that he needs—that both of them need.