Present Day

After washing the few dishes from their lunch, Yuri went in search of Aunt Lou.  She hadn’t actually explained why she was leaving early.  And really, it wasn’t that she was rushing off to find Jessica.  She wasn’t.  She would give Jessica some time, give herself some time.  But she didn’t want to stay in Calloway another day.  She wanted to get back home, back to the coast.  Smell the salt air, watch the pelicans dive into the surf, listen to the gulls.  She wanted – needed – that peace she’d been able to find there.  Something she never admitted to before, but the peace she felt was somehow associated with Jessica, at the place where they’d discovered their love.  She could stand on the beach, watch the waves, and lose herself in long buried memories.  Although they wouldn’t be so buried anymore.  They would be fresh and new and right on the surface…and cut so much deeper than those etched in her teenage mind.

“What are you doing?” she asked when she found Aunt Lou standing at a window, staring out into the backyard.

“Oh, I just filled the bird feeder and now those damn black birds are scaring my cardinals away.”

“Tiffany says not to mix the seeds.  Grackles aren’t crazy about sunflower but they love the mixed seed.  Cardinals prefer sunflower.”

“Oh, my.  Since when did you learn something about birds?  Or is this Tiffany a special friend?”

Yuri laughed.  “Tiffany and her partner, TaeYeon, are good friends of mine.  Tiffany’s a wildlife biologist.  She’s taught me a thing or two.”  Yuri sat down on the sofa, waiting for Aunt Lou to join her.  “Speaking of special friends, I wanted to share something with you.”

“Okay.  Is this about a current special friend?  I was under the impression you didn’t have those.”

“I don’t date very often, if that’s what you mean.”  Yuri leaned back on the sofa, wondering why she felt the need to confess to Aunt Lou about high school, about yesterday, about why she was leaving early.  She turned to her.  “There’s an underlying reason for that but I won’t go into all the emotional issues I may have,” she said, trying to make light of it.  There was no reason for Aunt Lou to know of the horrid reputation she’d had in college – her dog days, as SooYoung referred to them.

“Since you’re having a hard time spitting it out, I’ll assume it has to do with Jessica Jung.”

“You know?”

“About high school or about yesterday?”

Yuri feigned shock.  “Why Aunt Lou, do you have spies out and about?”

“Of course not.  But you and Jessica were inseparable in high school.  And when you made it known you were gay and then you and Jessica became estranged…well, it was obvious to me.”

“Maybe we became estranged because she couldn’t handle my being gay,” Yuri suggested.

“Which would be all well and good had not Jessica come back from college that first term, heartbroken and distraught…and a lesbian.”

Yuri grinned.  “Damn these small towns.  Is nothing secret?”  Aunt Lou looked away and Yuri saw the opening she’d been waiting for all her adult life.  “Of course, you had secrets too, didn’t you?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Oh, come on.  I’m not just a curious kid anymore.  I’m a full grown woman.  And you’re not just an old maid who never dated, never married.”

“Just because I never married – “