Our boy, he’s smart.  He’s so smart…  He just kind of...nodded, and I knew that...something had happened...something deep inside of him.  I knew that, regardless of what happened today, I wouldn’t be coming back to my baby anymore.  

But what could I do?

“We’ll pray, Momma, don’t you worry,” he said, kinda...straightening his shoulders, and puffing out his bony chest a little.  “You go on and check on Daddy.”

“Alright…  Alright.”  I was a coward.  Your wife was a coward, Park Chanyeol.  I probably could have left the baby with them--both Johnny and Tommy were old enough to take care of her for a spell, and your momma was due any minute, but I just...couldn’t…  I needed that comfort.  I needed that warm, trusting, needy weight of our baby in my arms.  Your baby.  

“Come on, Yeollie--enough fooling around with that old rattletrap, supper’s ready!”

“Aw, sweetheart, don’t say it so loud, you’re gonna hurt her feelings!”  Still wiping his hands on the rag, he bends over and gives a kiss.  

“Sometimes I think that you spend more time with that old rustbag than you do with me.”

“Shhh, Laverne will hear you!”

“Laverne, eh?  Well you tell little miss Laverne that supper’s on the table...the children are at halmoni’s, and your wife needs a little attention…”

“Spunky little thing, aren’t you?”

“If you think this is spunky, Yeollie-boy, believe me, you ain’t seen nothing yet!”

Throwing back his head, he begins to laugh--that high-pitched, staccato, breathless laugh that wrinkles up his face and makes him shine brighter than the sun--but it doesn’t work, it goes wrong, and soon he’s huddled down, his face not glowing--but red--so red it’s almost purple, coughs shaking his tall, slender body like tree limbs shaking in a storm.  

“Yeollie!  Now I’m telling you, this is too much!  This has got to stop!  You are going to see Doc Godsey, you hear me?  I am putting my foot down, and that is final!”

“Sweetheart, I’m telling you, it’s nothing--”

“That doesn’t sound like a whole lot of nothing, Park Chanyeol!”

“It’s just a little cold, or something, it’ll go away.”

“Well, that’s for Doc Godsey to decide.”

“Sweetheart...Tommy’s growing out of everything you make for him, and Johnny’s shooting up, too.  Not to mention we just finished paying off the new icebox..”

“That’s what money is for, darling!  I don’t care if I have to sell lemonade by the side of the road, you’re going to the doctor, do you understand me?  Now, listen, we still have a little left in the pot, so Iet’s just use that, hm?  For me?  Hm?”

“Alright, woman.”  A kiss on the temple.  “If it’ll make you feel better, I’ll go see the doctor.”

A slow kiss on the cheek.  

An even slower kiss on the mouth.

That was the night that made Charlene

The sun was bright as I ran down the street toward Doc Godsey’s.  So bright.  Too bright.  Everything was too clear, too close.  Most all able bodied men had gone, leaving only the children, the elderly, and women.  Corabeth Gormley leaned off her porch, wringing her hands as she talked to Mamie Perkins.  “Hey!  Y’all see Chanyeol go down this way, this morning?”

“No-o, can’t says I have.  Mamie?” 

“Truth be told, until Ben Moseley came shouting down the street, I had been inside with Mr. Gormley all morning; I’m sorry.”

“Alright, thank you kindly.”  There were several houses between me and Doc Godsey, with plenty of people hanging about, but...it felt like each house that brought me closer to Godsey’s took me further away from you.  

Aimee Willard hadn’t seen you.

Rosemary Dunbar hadn’t seen you.

Maude Tucker hadn’t seen you.

Verdie Brimmer hadn’t seen you.

Finally, I was at Doc Godsey’s and I just...I just couldn’t breathe. My heart was fit to burst, I had been running the whole way, and Charlene isn’t a baby-baby anymore, not really, but it was more than that.  If you weren’t in there.  If you weren’t in there, Park Chanyeol…

I guess my knocking must have sounded real frantic, ‘cause when Flossie Godsey opened the door, her face was all crinkled-like.  

“What on earth--”

“Have you seen my husband?”  I must have looked clear a sight because she tried to pull me in--you need to calm down, you know you can’t be running--but I just stepped back, willing my heart to slow down.  Shook my head.  “Don’t worry about me, Mrs. Godsey--have you seen Chanyeol?”

“Oh, we-ell…  Not today, I’m afraid.”

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Because you look pretty.”

“Pretty?”  

“Pretty.  ...Hey…”

“Hm?”

“How long have we known each other, sweetheart?”

“I don’t know.  A long time, I guess.”

“Think about it.”

“Well...it’s been about...near on twenty years, I reckon.  Near our whole lives.”

“Near our whole lives…  It’s been nice.”

“Yes, it has.”

“I have something for you.”

“What is it?”

“Happy Birthday.”

“What is this?!”

“A hundred paper cranes.  I folded them all myself.”

“Oh, darling...they’re lovely!”

“Open one.”

“What?”

“I wrote a little note for you on each one.  A thought...or a wish…  I know it’s not much, but--”

“No, I love it!  I want to read them all!  Let’s see...  ‘I remember the first day of class.  I was so scared, and you were too young to go, but you tucked your doll into my lunchpail to keep me company.’  … ‘I remember when you let me take you on a ride when I got my license.  We drove with the windows down and your hair went everywhere, but you weren’t mad.  You just kept laughing.  That’s when I first thought it.  How pretty you looked, with your hair all over your head, and your face all red from laughing.  You were about the prettiest thing I had ever seen.’  …  ‘I remember when I got punished for sneaking out and using my sled on a Sunday.  I was sent to bed without supper, and you climbed the tree outside my window, and fed me half of yours.’  ...Oh?  But this was only 99 cranes?”

“Well, see, I have the last one here...I’ve been a little nervous about how to give it to you, but...watching you in the moonlight...hearing you read our old memories together…”  He gives up the last crane.  

“Well, I don’t know how this last one could top all the others, but let’s give it a look.  ’I don’t have much.  I can’t give you a fancy house, or buy you lots of jewelry, or pretty clothes.  But what I have is yours.  For the rest of my life, I will love you better than I love myself.  I will give you everything I can, because you deserve the world.  I can’t give you worldly goods, but I can take care of you.  I can keep you safe.  I can keep you warm, and fed, and loved...if you’ll have me.  If you’ll take me.  If you’ll let me be yours…’  Park Chanyeol!”

“I love you, sweetheart.  More than I have ever loved anything on this earth.  Will you marry me?”

“Yeollie… my darling…  Was there ever any doubt?”

***

“So…  I see my son has finally asked you to marry him.”

“Finally?”

“He has been making those paper cranes for weeks.”

“Omonim!”