Blessed Are the Forgetful

To Jasper Galloway, a chapter of his life had been constantly August. It spanned for quite some time, too—years to be exact, years in which he never complained. He loved the sun-kissed skin, the white-hotness of the days, and the bright sky that blinded him.

Then August left. And there was the crispness of November, the rebirth of March, the routines of September, and they’d all come back time and time again. But August? She never came back.

And now, it was the month of June, and Jasper no longer expects August to come. He’s fine, really. Especially now that he’d gotten another job at the local Seattle headquarters of Amazon.com.

“See, it’s easy stuff,” Jaime is saying. It was Jasper’s first day at his new job, and Jaime, a burly black guy in his late twenties, had just showed him the process of doing an order. “Let’s do a quick run-through again—pick all the stuff listed in the order, pack ‘em like you mean it, figure out its delivery info, and stack ‘em where all the orders with the same delivery info go. Got it?”

Jasper nods his head.

“Alright, then. I already like you, man. You’re a quick learner.” Jaime breaks into a pearly-white smile and gives Jasper a hard, solid pat on the back to which he flinched at just a little bit.

Once Jaime had left, Jasper glanced down at his list and it contained 31 different books. Holy shit, he thought, who orders 31 books? He takes a deep breath and starts making his rounds, grabbing books here and there—Orson Scott Card, check; John Green, check; Megan McCafferty, check; Chuck Palahniuk, check, and so on, and so on.

Once finished, he makes his way to the packing center with his cart of books. Jaime was there and he already packed three orders.

“Dang, you’re quick,” comments Jasper.

“Oh, you’ll get there, soon.”

Jasper grabs one of the larger boxes and starts packing in the books along with the order slip. He tapes up the box and sticks the delivery sticker on it.

“I’m heading to the sorting center. You coming?” asks Jaime.

“Yeah,” Jasper replies, picking up his heavy package with a grunt.

“How old are you, anyway?” The question came out hoarsely as Jaime carried all four of his heavy packages on his own.

“Are you sure you can carry all those packages?” Jasper asked sympathetically. “You can stack the small one on top of mine if you want.”

“It’s fine. Thanks, though.”

“’Mkay, but I’m 20.”

Jaime’s eyebrows furrow together when he looked at him. “Shouldn’t you be in college?” he asked.

“My family’s on a tight budget,” Jasper answered with a shrug. “My dad died when I was twelve, and being the eldest of five kids, I kinda had to take my dad’s place.”

“Sucks, man.”

“It’s cool. Nothing I can’t handle.” He glances to his side and gives Jaime a smile as an assurance. It is true. He is right. There is nothing he can’t handle. Not even the sight of her up ahead, just a few yards, so painstakingly within his reach—although it did almost make him a liar. Almost.

“Oh, she’s here!” Jaime motions to the girl that Jasper had already seen and is now invested in. “You should meet her. She’s the Operations Manager around here.”

Jasper stops in his tracks—and perhaps, he is a liar after all now that he’s willing his feet to move but they just wouldn’t. Perhaps, there is something he can’t handle now that he watches her talking to some people, while the sight of her chokes him and drives him immobile. She bids her goodbye to the people she was talking to and finally faces his and Jaime’s way.

“Hey there, big boss!” Jaime calls out to her. “You should come meet our new recruit over here.” He motions to his side, only to realize that Jasper has fallen way behind him.

Finally, her eyes fall on Jasper and their gazes meet.

The sun-kissed skin, the white-hotness of the days, the bright sky that blinded him—it all came rushing back to Jasper like a thunder bolt, like a surge of energy that could have killed him instead.

“Boy’s too weak in the knees. The package must be slowing him down—you know how newbies are,” Jaime snorts to her, but she’s too fixated on something else to acknowledge what he was saying.

“Jasper, hurry on up!” Jaime sets his packages down and motions him over. “You need to meet Ms. August!”

August Carmichaels, the girl who had left Jasper, has come back.