Just to Hold You Close and Tight

Ray helped me with my homework again. For an unknown reason, he didn’t leave when my mom called me down to dinner. He said he didn’t feel like he was imposing because my dad wasn’t home. I suspected that he really just didn’t want to leave, but he was too stubborn to admit it.

I was wrong, though. He had a reason for staying.

When my mom was done asking me about school and telling me about work, we ate our pork chops in a comfortable silence. Ray took this opportunity.

“Tell her you’re going to the park tonight,” he told me.

“What?” I blurted out, forgetting about my mom.

She looked at me questioningly.

After only a second’s pause, I corrected myself. “Um… What a beautiful day! I think I’ll go to the park.”

Ray sighed. “I’m taking you to the park tonight. It’s just around the corner.”

“It’ll get dark in a few hours,” my mom said.

“I know,” I said quickly, “but it’s not that far from here.”

My mom shrugged. “That’s fine with me, as long as you’ve finished your homework and you’re home by nine. It’s a school night.”

“Okay,” I replied, shooting a short glare at Ray for not telling me sooner.

He just looked at me innocently. He actually didn’t expect it to annoy me so much. This made it really hard to stay mad at him. Then I remembered that he hadn’t socialized with anyone but me in a long time. That made me give up being mad at all, and I gave him a weak smile.

He smiled back, saying, “Go get a sweatshirt. It might get cold tonight.”

I stuffed the last piece of meat in my mouth, and cleaned my plate while chewing. I ran up the stairs, grabbed my favorite hoodie, and met Ray outside on the porch.

“I’m ready,” I said. “Will you please explain?”

“Sorry,” he said, obviously remembering my glare from before. “I kind of want it to be a surprise.”

I rolled my eyes. “Taking me to the park is a surprise?”

“Nope.”

I waited for him to continue, but he didn’t. I said, “Are we even going to the park?”

“Kind of.” Ray was expressionless.

“Would you stop giving me vague answers?” I demanded, annoyed once again.

“Come on, let’s go. Follow me,” he replied.

He turned off of my driveway and onto the sidewalk. I stood still for a few seconds, and then jogged a few steps to catch up. “Follow you where?” I asked.

He didn’t answer. “Hello? I asked where you were taking me.”

He still didn’t answer. “Ray!” I exclaimed. “Are you ignoring me?”

“No,” he replied, a smile playing at the corner of his lips. “I’m just ignoring that question.”

“Fine,” I said. I followed him around a corner, muttering, “You annoy me.”

Unfortunately, he heard me. Instead of frowning like I thought he would, he laughed. “I know. Sorry. You’ll like this, I think.”

Putting two and two together, a light bulb lit up on my head. “This is why you’re in such a good mood, isn’t it? Because of this surprise?”

He nodded, and turned onto a dirt path. To the left of the path, I saw the park. A few kids were playing on the playground. However, Ray led me past them, following the path into the woods.

I followed silently, giving up any hope that he would tell me where he was taking me.

After walking for about fifteen minutes, he stopped. “Okay,” he said. “We have to walk off the path now.”

“Won’t we get lost?” I asked skeptically.

“Don’t you trust me?” He wasn’t accusing, he was serious.

“I guess I have to,” I replied.

“Okay then” he said. Without another word, he stepped into the thick shrub. Well, literally, he stepped through them. I had to step over ferns and weave around fallen trees and thorn bushes. It was really irritating, even though Ray had the decency to hold branches out of my way.

He stopped suddenly, and put his finger to his lips. With the other hand, he pointed ahead of us.

After a few seconds, a huge buck emerged from behind a tree. A few moments later, two does, one looking young, followed. I gasped and they looked at me, but they didn’t run away. They started walking closer to me.

Then I realized they were headed for Ray. Leaning up against a tree nonchalantly, he was looking at me out of the corner of his eye. His expression was satisfied.

This was probably because I was looking at the deer with wide eyes. They weren’t scared at all. In fact, the younger doe was approaching Ray quickly. It was amazing.

Ray continued to look at me out of the corner of his eye, until the younger doe nudged his leg with its head. He smiled, stuck his hand in his pocket, and pulled out a few cubes of sugar. He offered one to the younger doe, who took it quickly.

He offered me two. With a gleam in his eyes, he asked, “Would you like to try?”