Page 21 of Nineteen Seventy-Six

“I was two. Remember?”

Augustus didn’t say anything, instead pondering this phenomenon she’d lived with her entire life, in the shadow of a system of memories she wasn’t a part of.

She’d lost track of Connor somewhere along the way. She scanned the crowd for him when Colleen hugged her from behind. “Sweet Lizzy. You did it!”

“I did it,” Elizabeth repeated. Where was Connor?

“Charles has been looking for you. Did he find you?”

“Yeah. Twice,” she said distantly, growing more anxious by the second. “Hey, you seen Connor?”

Colleen frowned. “Last I saw, he was at the punch bowl with Patrick and Jerome. Hey, you okay?”

“Peachy.”

“Lizzy.” Colleen stepped in front of her. “It’s done. You can do whatever you want now.”

“Unless it’s something you and Mama disapprove of, you mean.”

Colleen’s budding smile faded. “I already know you don’t want to go to college and that’s fine. It’s your choice, and you’re smart enough to make the big choices as much as the small ones.”

Elizabeth was so surprised by this she forgot about Connor for a second. “You mean that?”

Colleen kissed her forehead. “Yes, I mean it. I’m proud of you for pushing past everything that held you back and making it to today. I’ll be happy if you’re happy.” She pulled back, and her eyes caught something. “Hey, there’s Connor. He’s coming… with Mama in tow.”

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. “Great. Another lecture about college incoming.”

“I… don’t think so,” Colleen said, without elaborating. “Turn around.”

Elizabeth pushed out a heavy sigh and turned. She started to draw in a new one, but the gathered crowd gave her pause.

Her entire family, and half of his, had come to a quiet stop just behind Connor. He’d shed his graduation gown for a suit, and, come to think of it, he was probably wearing the suit underneath all along. She’d been so preoccupied with her own discomfort she’d paid him almost no attention at all.

When he went to his knees, Elizabeth rushed to help him up, thinking he’d gotten a cramp like he sometimes did after physical exercise, but this was no cramp, and the kneeling was no accident.

Elizabeth’s pulse surged to the moon. All the blood in her body rushed right into her cheeks.

“Elizabeth Jeanne.” Connor’s face was as red as hers, and twice as sweaty. What was he doing? Here? Now?

“That’s my name,” she said, trying not to look at the anxiously shifting crowd, who seemed to know a lot more about what was happening than she did.

Connor’s hands were slick, and he tried three times to retrieve something from his pocket, before cursing, rubbing them on his pants, and trying again. She wanted to tell him not to do it, that they could talk about this later, but it was happening, and if he was determined it should happen here, then she couldn’t change that.

How had she never seen a vision of this day?

Because it’s your own future, silly.

“We don’t have to do it today, or tomorrow, or any day, until we want to, which could be tomorrow, I guess, but…” Connor shook his head. “I’m really fumbling this.”

“You’re fine,” she said, but the catch in her voice pushed out the words as a whisper.

“I can’t live without you. I love you that much. I guess I’ve always loved you, before you even knew who I was,” Connor went on, his own voice cracking. “And then I loved you more when I knew who you were. Who you were really.”

“We know how this ends,” Elizabeth said, so low she hoped no one else around them could pick up the words. “I saw it.”

“You saw us create something beautiful. Everything has an end, but it’s what happens in between that makes a life a life.” Connor tugged at her right hand, cursed again, then grabbed the correct one. He tried to balance the ring box on his knee, but when it slipped, Patrick knelt down to hold it out for his cousin. Connor closed his eyes, prayed silently, and then grasped the ring between two fingers, hand shaking. “Elizabeth, will you marry me?”

“We have to help Augustus,” was all she could think to say.

---