Impossible Dreams

Among the few books he had in the room as opposed to his study was a photo album that was mostly empty and there was an open area in the cover. It had a photo in it. It was one of the first if not THE first photo ever taken of us. My sophomore year I think, he was starting his first full year and had only been at the school six months (not including summer break). It had to have been the first or second game of the year and the first home game for boys basketball.

I insisted to take a photo after the game. I of course was still in my cheer uniform and he in a suit and bow tie with an Indiana Jones-like hat having just finished doing the public address and home book for the team. Ooh was he sooo cute that night! That was when my crush on him began. I hadn't seen much of him when he started. So when I found out postgame that he was behind the mic and dressed so professionally I just needed something to fantasize about.

I was tearing up because he found that picture wherever. It's funny 'cause I never actually shared it with him. It doesn't matter where he got it from. It made my weekend. I decided to sit down to see what else was inside. There weren't that many photos of us in it, but it also had a few professional looking photos from... Monday night?! I swear the amount of sneakiness that man has done to make me feel loved. He got some pretty candid pictures of us. That included one of my new favorites with the violinist serenading me with Nick looking at me lovingly and me blushing.

...

~~~

"Holy Moses," I said as I awoke from my slumber. But I woke up to an empty bed. I frantically scoured the whole house hoping that Dottie hadn't just up and left, only for me to find her fallen asleep on the couch in the conservatory. I see she happened to find my new photo album of us. I hadn't planted it for her to find, but I was okay that she did find it. I glanced at the clock to discover that it was not quite ten to seven. Poor thing must not have been able to go back to bed.

I took the opportunity to use the restroom, grab the Saturday morning newspaper, and then make both of us a bowl of oatmeal and put it on a tray with all the fixings if she needed. I got back to the conservatory just before dawn. I removed the photo album, pulled a blanket over her, and wen to sit down in the nearby recliner and continued to quietly read the business section to check up on my assets on Wall Street. By the time I was finishing the sports section, Dottie finally woke up (some 15 minutes later) with a soft hint of morning music in the background. "Good morning Dottiekins." I was starting to grow fond of that, and I think she was too, mostly tired that I didn't have a name back originally. "How's my sunshine? You must have had quite a night!"

"Oh Nickie," was the response I got followed by a kiss. "That's my favorite picture of us!"

"I saw you found the album."

"I bet you put that there on purpose."

"Well I didn't try to hide it from you, but I wasn't just going to leave it lying around when it was mostly empty."

"Really now?"

"Honest! Truth be told, once I accepted your friend request on Facebook, that was the first thing I looked for."

"Aww!"

"I actually forgot we took that photo until everyone was asking about photos during graduation and then someone mentioned that they took the picture for you in passing. We were talking about my first week of doing games. I saved it to a flash drive and kept a physical copy in my wallet the whole time you were at school. Then when I got back from Hanrahan's, I had it made into a physical photo for the album now that we were together."

"Niiick! Stop, you're making me cry."

"I can't help it that you won me over, Dottie. Just imagine if you decided to bring me to a high school reunion. That's only seven years away now for your ten year. Nobody's going to show up for your five year."

Even for my own ten year, only a sixth of our class showed up. It was the smallest graduating class over a fifteen year period with the largest in the same span just two years behind. But our group was very clique-y. Hers less so but still somewhat at a school of roughly the same size. "I wouldn't be surprised if some of your friends would even be jealous to be honest."

"Oh I know for a fact. I mean, look at you. You haven't aged at all."

"It's that secret Mediterranean diet everyone keeps talking about," I joked. Although, Balkan cuisine is one of the most wholesome in the world. So is Polish cuisine for that matter. Slavic culture in general is very unique. And it's still my heritage.

~~~

I was enjoying the thought of being the envy of every woman on planet earth. I don't think even if there were real competition that Nick would want to choose any of them over me. I kinda used to be like some of them but not enough that it wasn't something I'd eventually grow out of. Nick was going places and I wasn't far behind him. We were starting to make names for ourselves. Well, technically Nick has, but he kept getting overlooked. Still, unlike with him, the world will always need nurses and damnit if there was anything I was looking forward to - I was going to be a damn great surgeon!

Even when we had started talking about a potential future, I was getting pretty protective of him before that conversation during the medical event at the high school. I don't know why. It isn't like I had anything significant invested. Maybe it's because I was afraid I wouldn't meet anyone like him. Or that there is no such thing as the perfect guy you want that isn't taken and you have to settle for a piece of crap like Harley. But one thing was for sure, I wasn't going to settle for just anyone and certainly not 'the buff guy' just for the sake of it. "Seriously though, you make me forget that you're that much older."

"But you also know that the heart is more correct than the brain when it comes to desires. The heart and the brain are like Congress and the Supreme Court. Both Congress and your heart support the wants of the people. The Supreme Court and the brain justify whether or not you should follow through."

"Wow, that's actually a really good way of putting it. Totally a you thing to say, though."

"You can take it to the bank." He always manages to relate things to sports or politics and the way that he does so consistently with the high frequency is astonishing. But he acknowledges his inaccuracies and short comings accordingly also.

"Ugh, I wish I had the foresight to have brought my laptop to study."

"I don't suppose my desktop would be completely helpful."

"Yeah, I had a flash drive with a backup copy of my one paper but I didn't bring that either."

"When's it due and how much is left?"

"Monday at class and I've only got five pages left."

"I'll tell you what. Let's spend part of the late morning/early afternoon together and that will give you a couple hours to get out two or three pages today if you have any plans for tonight." He definitely thought like a master planner. He didn't plan things with too much specificity when it involved other people. But when he went on his own, he was known for planning out the whole trip within two hours with minimal overlap. The wildest part is he always enjoyed himself that way.

"What did you have in mind," I asked him.

"I dunno. I just thought of it now." That was another thing, he may have been a master planner, but he could also be very spontaneous. The thing was that he wasn't streaky and there was often a lot of transition between the two. He certainly could keep you guessing for years on end. No wonder it seemed like he was so busy all the time, now that I think of it.

"How about..."

"No beach." If there was one thing I knew, even if he hadn't told me yet, he didn't look like a beach bum.

"I was going to say the zoo."

~~~

"Actually that's not a bad idea." It had been some time for me, but they had put in a lot of new exhibits. "We have to drive separately since it's actually on the way to campus for you. And I don't want you to leave your car here if you're gonna need it." In fact, it was exactly halfway - on the western outskirts. then you had to go cross-town to get to Le Moyne.

"I'm gonna have to follow you though. I've never actually paid attention to where it is exactly and I know your navigation skills are en fleek."

"Well that's one way of putting it." That was a phrase of the next generation I never did understand in context. Heck, the younger folks in my generation had it seep in to their vocabulary.

"Is there anything at the zoo that you look forward to ever?"

"The tropical birds are always interesting."

"Some of them, anyway."

"For an animal person, I'm surprised you don't want pets at all."

"Depending on what, they're high maintenance at times and I know you wouldn't be able to take care of them with your busy schedule."

"Good points." Even if that weren't the case, I can't stand pets in the house.

"Had enough for breakfast, Dottiekins?"

"Yeah, thank you honey."

"We've got 35 minutes by the time they open for 10am. So by the time we change and get there, they'll be open." I try my best to keep in touch with the hours and admission charge for the local attractions in the event I have company over from out of town. But now that I was seeing Dottie, we were able to make decisions on things to do without having to consult Google on our phones as much unless we knew a place would be busy and had to check wait times.

I found a lot of zoos, museums, and aquariums interesting. The city of Buffalo had the best zoo entrance and origin story, best science museum, best history museum, a few museums like Pierce Arrow and Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum among others were nearby, and the aquarium was in Niagara Falls. My favorite attraction of these kind was the aquarium in Chattanooga where there was a conservatory in it and some other non-aquatic land animals as well. But nothing was like home - not Buffalo, not Chattanooga, nor anywhere else. Syracuse was the place. And the Zoo was where we were headed in this moment.