A Place on My Pillow

As the sun was setting, the couple still sat a top the hill. They had a perfect view over the small city and the surrounding rural communities. They were holding hands and talking about their childhoods. Alex explained how his mom had been the sweetest woman alive for all of his life until she got sick. He retold stories of Cady and his mom baking cookies on Saturday morning while he was at the library, working on homework. He told her of times when Cady was sick, and his mother would let them both stay home because she had to go to work. In return, Polly told him stories about her and her live-in nanny who used to take little Polly to the store and buy her three things each time. But all three things had to start with the same letter, depending on what letter the nanny had chosen for the week. She told him stories of her big backyard where, once upon a time, she got herself lost in her dad’s precious garden, which he’d never worked in as long as she knew him.

“You know, I always thought I’d get out of here. It’s a rinky dink town and everyone hates everyone else. I can’t,” Alex started, staring out over the town he’d grown up in. He stopped himself and shook his head. “God, I wish I had a smoke right about now.”

“You smoke?”

“Nah, I quit last year but I still get that itch, the urge to light one and let the nicotine kill me,” he said with a shrug.

“The nicotine doesn’t kill you,” Polly said.

“What?”

“It’s not the nicotine. The nicotine gets you addicted. It’s all the chemicals, the carcinogens they stuff into the cigarette.”

“You seem to know everything,” Alex stated.

“Not everything. Just most things. It happens. I had a fancy education with fancy teachers that worked in a large stone, fancy building built as a manor or something. They teach you fancy things there.”

“Stop saying fancy and I’ll buy you pizza for dinner.”

“Dinner! Oh my god! I never called Darren to tell him I didn’t want to go. I’m a horrible person!” Polly said suddenly, the decision she’d spent all night worrying about snapping back into her head as if someone had released a stretched rubber band.

“What?” Alex asked, confused.

“Darren. Guy I work with. He asked me out to dinner tonight and I was gonna call him when I got up today to tell him I wasn’t going and I didn’t and I’m stupid.”

“You’re not stupid,” Alex assured her, patting her knee. “You’re just forgetful.”

“But,” she groaned, stamping her foot.

“Why are you so worked up over a date you didn’t even want to go to?”

“It’s not that I didn’t want to go,” Polly said softly.

“Then what?”

“I wanted to spend time with you more.”