Lucky

Growing up, everyone told Jimmy Foster that he exerted sunshine any time he smiled. He was such a happy little boy that it seemed as if the sun was shinning bright anywhere he went, day or night. When he met his best friend Luke Yates, that only increase. Everywhere they went together, the sun was out in full force. Jimmy's sunshine seemed to rub off onto Luke as well. Anytime Luke smiles, the sun smiled too.

The boys met the first day of their first grade year. Luke was new to the school and Mrs. Peters paired him up with Jimmy as his tour guide. Jimmy happily showed Luke around the school all day long and Luke was just as happy to have made such a great friend so early on. After that day, the boys were nearly inseparable. As luck would have it, each consecutive year, the boys were always in the same class.

Their third grade year was when things started to change. Luke got interested in baseball and Jimmy got interested in dance. They were still as close as ever, but their interests and hobbies began splitting. Jimmy tried teaching Luke how to dance and Luke tried teaching Jimmy how to play ball, but neither were good at the others niche and they stopped trying. No matter what, however, Luke made his parents take him to all of Jimmy's recitals and Jimmy made his take him to Luke's games. They were still inseparable even then.

Third grade was also when the insults started. A lot of the boys didn't like Jimmy anymore. He was too girly. He danced. He hated getting dirty. He didn't even like dodge-ball! What kind of nine year old boy was he? The other boys didn't like playing with Jimmy because of that.

But Luke didn't think any of those things were bad. He liked all of those things about Jimmy. It all made him unique. Luke didn't understand why the other boys in their grade didn't like Jimmy anymore.

When Luke started sticking up for Jimmy, the boys poke fun at him just as well. When they told him to stop hanging out and playing with Jimmy, he told them 'no way'. When he kept playing and hanging out with him, those boys started to not like him.

Because they were friends, they didn't have many friends. They had each other obviously, but not many other kids would even associate with them. They were weird. They didn't like normal things. They didn't even try to like normal things. Why would anyone else want to hang out with them?

So Luke and Jimmy became even closer than before. A few weeks after winter break, Jimmy's dad got really sick. His mom told him that his dad had been sick for a long time but he'd just recently gotten a lot worse. Right before Valentine's Day, Mr. Foster passed away.

Jimmy didn't go to school that day and Luke was worried for his best friend. He never missed school, even if he was really sick. Luke knew something was wrong. When his mother picked him up outside of the school at the end of the day, he begged her to take him to Jimmy's house. When he got there, Mrs. Foster pointed him to the backyard where Jimmy was.

“He'll be glad you're here, honey,” she said, smiling softly at the young boy.

“Jimmy!” he yelled as he walked into their backyard. “What happened? Why weren't you at school today?”

The more effeminate boy was sitting cross legged on the ground, flipping solemnly through a photo album. Luke noticed that he had tears dried in his eyes, but that he wasn't crying at that moment. He stared up at his friend with a look that belonged in eyes much older than his.

Luke knew his best friend needed his comfort now more than anything, but he honestly didn't know what to do or say. He sat down next to him on the grass and put his arms around his shoulders, hugging him sort of sideways. “You can tell me anything, Sunshine. You know that, right?” Sunshine was his nickname for Jimmy because of what people told him while growing up. That didn't make school any better for the two, having the nickname of Sunshine, but they didn't really care anymore.

“I know, Kitty,” Jimmy sighed, leaning his head against Luke's. He called him Kitty because Luke liked to pretend he was a cat. “I want to tell you, but this is hard to talk about I guess.”

“What happened?” he asked, nuzzling into Jimmy's neck. It was something they did a lot with each other even though some kids told them they were weird for doing it.

“My daddy's gone,”

“Where did he go?”

“To Heaven,”

“You mean...?”

“Daddy died last night. You know how hearts are all responsible and crud for love?” Luke nodded, though he had no idea where his friend was going with that. “Well his heart stopped loving his body. That’s what Mommy told me this morning. But I heard her telling someone on the phone that he was having problems with his heart and it attacked him last night. I guess maybe they were fighting because his heart didn’t love him anymore, so then his heart just attacked him and killed him. I don’t know…it all sounds a little screwy to me. But that’s what Mommy said about it, so I guess I have to believe it.”

“I'm so sorry, Sunshine,”

“We can’t do anything,”

“But I can still be sorry,”

“Yeah, I guess,” Jimmy shrugged.

“So what were you looking at?” Luke asked softly, nudging towards the photo album still in his hands.

“Mommy’s been putting it all together since Daddy and she got married. There’s lots of pictures of him and she thought maybe I would feel better if I looked at it.”

“Do you feel better?”

“I guess, yeah, kind of,” Jimmy shrugged, flipping a couple of pages over like he was looking for a specific picture. “I made a promise to myself. Kind of like a dream of mine, I guess too.”

“What is it?” Luke prompted his best friend on, again not knowing where he was going.

“See this picture?” Jimmy was pointing at a faded Polaroid under the protective plastic. It was of the large oversized armchair in the Foster’s living room. But in the picture, Mr. and Mrs. Foster were both sitting in the chair, cradling between them the baby that was obviously Jimmy ten years ago. “Mommy said that that chair was made extra big so that two people that love each other can sit in it together like her and Daddy. My dream is to sit in that chair when I grow up with the person I love, holding our baby just like this picture.”

“I think that’s a great dream,” Luke sighed, trying to imagine anything even half that romantic.

“Yeah, but it’ll never happen,” Jimmy sighed, closing the book and looking at the ground. He had reasons why he thought it wouldn’t happen, but he didn’t want to talk about them and Luke never asked.

“Look at me Sunshine,” Luke said, putting his hand on the side of Jimmy’s face to force him to look towards him. “Never give up on your dreams, okay? That’s the worst thing you could do is give up on them. Don’t you ever do that.”

“You’re such a good friend to me,” Jimmy smiled. “You’re right. I won’t give up on it. How did I ever get so lucky to have you as my friend, Kitty?”

“I'm the lucky one,” Luke said, hugging Jimmy again.

“Let’s go inside now, okay?”

Jimmy stood up and reached down to help Luke stand up. He did something a little unexpected once they were both standing, though. He grabbed the straps of the book-bag Luke was still wearing and pulled him to himself. Jimmy pressed his lips to Luke’s and kissed him softly.

“What was that for?” Luke asked, not as shocked as most boys his age would be that his best friend kissed him.

“Well kisses are for people you love, and I love you,” Jimmy said nonchalantly in such an innocent tone.

“I love you too Sunshine,” Luke smiled widely, kissing Jimmy again.

The boys went inside the house and ended up in the oversized armchair, looking at the photo album together. That day, they sat in the chair as merely friends. But little did either of them know, years later they would sit in that same chair together as lovers, cradling their newly adopted baby girl.