Sunburned.

Kayak this morning, then gardening. We finished with the four-ish yards that remained. Ben came out and delegated the work and it was finished by one.

Good. In time so you don't burn. He smiles at me, pale and tired. Working in his studio he doesn't see the sun so this is good. Or at least he won't get rickets.

I'm already burning, I point out.

So I hear, he laughs. Rough night?

Who were you gossiping with?

Lochlan.

And?

He doesn't get it but he's trying to roll with it.

He's not trying and he doesn't have to like it. It's only like once a year or whatever now.

It's a cumulative problem, Bee.

Is it?

Maybe.

I don't think it is. I haven't gone anywhere except to Caleb's in a long time.

Lochlan's getting old.

Don't you think we all are?

I think he thought after a couple of years you might settle down.

Then how come he won't say that to my face. He flat-out encourages me, Benjamin-

He's trying so hard, Bumblebee.

To what?

To be everything you want. To bite his tongue. To be hands-off when you need him to be. If it helps he lets it slide. He'd do anything for you. I think it's time for you to return that favor.

I would die for him, Benny.

I don't know if he knows that, Bridge. Maybe he tells himself you would but when he goes to sleep, half the time you're not there.

At least he remembered my favorite flower without having to check his notes first.

Batman bites his top lip as he watches me take a sip. He's become the good-whiskey guy, always with the sparest inch in the bottom of my favorite stoneware cup, ice cube taking up the whole space, because he wouldn't want there to be any question as to whether or not I could think for myself if I stay later than allowed. He always makes sure we have a snack too, moreso because he thinks if he can circle my wrist with his finger and thumb that I must not eat and so he has a plate on the small table nearby with olives, crackers and cheese. He is in his favorite chair and I don't get a chair, because he pulled me into his lap the moment I was close enough and I didn't mind because a good pair of arms for a hug or a hold is better than oxygen to me.

How are the lilacs?

I pressed my face right into them. No smell yet. I frown and finish my glass. He sets it on the table far away and then sets down his too. Twenty bucks says it's still full. For a good-whiskey guy he hardly drinks. I've seen him tipsy twice in my life. He looked so happy, for a moment.

He pulls my face into his. Stay. Have a belated birthday visit. I have a gift for you. His eyes are bright.

I need to be back by sunrise.

I will have you back, he swears.

I let him kiss me and I return it. Do you need Lochlan here? He is gently rubbing at a bruise on my upper arm, suddenly all concern and consent.

It's from kayaking. And Lochlan knows I'm here.

He can join us-

It's fine. I return his kiss twofold just so he'll stop negotiating and figure it out. Dawn isn't all that far off. He's not into frenzied moments, he prefers to savour absolutely everything. That's why I'm still in his lap an hour into my visit.

Come up with me. He leaves the glasses but brings the bottle, taking my hand, leading me down the hall, through the kitchen and then up the main stairs. Down two more halls of a big empty, untouched house to his master suite. I prefer the garden guest bedroom for the big black iron and glass doors that look out onto a beautiful English garden path.

This way we won't see the sun coming.

I say his name and he looks dismayed. Just- Just let me pretend for the next few hours.

That's a hole of one's own.

Who says our demons are all named Jake?

I almost leave right then. I don't need to take on his pain too but I understand I'm the personification of it and I never minded giving him what he wants, as long as it doesn't make things too hard. Sometimes it does and then we have a long time apart, like now.

Let's just have this night, Bridget and in the morning we can go back to who we are.

I don't change for you. I stare at him while he avoids my eyes.

I'm grateful for that. He finally meets them and pulls my hand toward his, leaving a small box in my fingers, putting his hands in his pockets. Open it. A belated birthday present for my favorite person.

I open the box and inside is a fine gold bracelet. A thin chain with a tiny golden four-leaf clover attached on each side to the chain.

Tiffany? I asked.

He shakes his head. No. I had it made for you by a goldsmith.

It's beautiful.

Will you wear it for luck?

I nod as he puts it on me and I leave it on even when everything else is off. For luck, I remind him as he reacquaints himself with everything we've forgotten and will forget again. I arch my back against the dark as he pulls my hair back just hard enough to send a thrill up my backbone and press my teeth against his shoulder bones as he holds me close again. I can't even breathe by the time the night begins to fade and he pours us a drink to share finally, halfway full, no ice. I burn a swallow all the way down, maintaining my thirst and he finishes the whiskey without offering any more and then I get one final kiss as he moves to put his shirt back on.

Pumpkin-time, he says.

Would you like me to keep the bracelet here to wear?

If you do that you'll never get to enjoy it. Take it with you. It is yours. Thank you for staying, Bridget.

I nod. Thanks for having me. I laugh in spite of his sad expression. Under the circumstances it's a weird thing to say.

By the time I get back to the house before the sun blooms fully in the sky there's a transfer waiting for me to accept to my bank account with a note that says Like old times. I type in my password to accept it and then call him.

You can stop doing that. My life is different now.

You never would have given me the time of day without it, Bridget.

You don't know that.

I do know it. The girl I met was so desperate for Cole's focus she had to be coerced to go with dollar signs.

That was between you and Cole. Money or not, I never got a say.

It was between you and I. I asked you, remember? I wouldn't have touched you otherwise. I still won't.

May I send it back?

No, you may not. It isn't an insult either. Or a payment. It's just my way of making sure you always have a way out. I wanted you to feel like if you had to leave him you would have the means but you never went.

I loved him.

I know you did. But you should have left him long before you did and I wish I had stepped in sooner.

(He didn't step in at all.)

Perdition Island.

I made an effort today, forgoing the usual dance leggings and a big t-shirt in favor of a pretty sundress from Anthropologie, perfume, a braid and lip gloss. Diamond studs and my diamond rings. Surprise. I'm a girl, not a small lycra fairy.

And it works. Everyone's doing double-takes and once-overs as I attempt to charm them all into finishing the gardening for me instead of merely watching me do it. This works great on Ben, but then again I haven't seen Ben today and he hasn't seen me. Maybe if the world opens back up on time he'll work less instead of more so there's something to look forward to.

We'll get the onions and avocados in the ground at least. Maybe beans and tomatoes too. Maybe not though but maybe.

Everything else over the course of the next week definitely. We have the better part of four yards of dirt to move from the driveway into the garden and while heavy machinery would have been nice (one of my dreams is to learn to operate a bulldozer) the power of a dozen men is just as good. It just takes way longer. The power of one hundred-pound woman saw three wheelbarrow loads in an afternoon so at that rate I *might* be done by Christmas or at least one year from today.

Premier Horgan surprised me yesterday and said everything's coming back, sooner than I expected. Malls by Victoria Day, theatres by Canada Day. Groups, but small. Dentist appointments and elective surgeries. No one needs nightclubs so those can wait. But the normalcy I suddenly missed is on the horizon at last.

I asked around after most of the boys to see if they were interested in rejoining life before the pandemic, or in re-celebrating my birthday as it had to take place during the pandemic and they did not. They kind of like this, this not leaving. This everyone being here. This changed life, somewhat quieter than before. This different speed, this unusual moment in time. 

I asked Lochlan what he thought and after being quiet for a moment he said he thought he might take a match later, light it and burn away the link to the mainland, that we could maybe push off at high tide and drift our point out to sea and never return again. Henry can work for Schuyler or Batman, we can have groceries and supplies helicoptered in or drop-shipped or get things by boat and it will be the best life ever.

I could point out it already is but maybe he knows.

A laundry list.

Oh, great. Blogger's made changes and I don't have time to fuck with this today as I have to take Henry to work and I want to make a drugstore run. PJ offered to do it but I like to be the one to take the kids to their jobs, though only Henry works outside the home at this point and I hate it. I want to keep him home and safe but he's six-two and handsome and fine with going, fine with danger pay, fine with the pandemic as he said he hardly notices except for not being able to spend time with his friends.

Soon, I tell him.

I know, he replies.

When I get home the dryer will be finished so there will be clothes to fold and while I do that PJ will probably make us strange noodles for lunch and clean the kitchen. I'm plotting a second do-nothing day save for picking Henry up again and then cooking dinner tonight, since my headache won't budge even though I've had coffee and another five-kilometre run (this time in the wind and rain SO MUCH BETTER) and a decent sleep.

Today they're going to make the opening announcement for our province but I'm already scared we're going to get left behind, stuck like this forever. I need my eyes checked, my teeth cleaned. I want to go to the shops without getting dirty looks and I want a doctor's appointment without having to resort to the Russians and I want to go to Golden Ears instead of Cypress. Cypress is a joke played on the rich people. It's not a park, it's a gravel pit on the side of a mountain.

I want OUT.

But I can wait.

And I won't even complain.

PJ nods and says it wouldn't do any good anyway and I know he's right.

Who needs a post title? I have a magician.

When you reach the part where the heartaches come
The hero would be me
Heroes often fail
And you won't read that book again
Because the ending's just too hard to take

I walk away like a movie star
Who gets burned in a three way script
Enter number two, a movie queen
To play the scene of bringing all the good things out in me
But for now love lets be real

Two years in a row, two birthdays running, I point out to him gently in the early morning light as he struggles to wake up. Lochlan is out like a light, zonked on my other side but Caleb is half-alert, tense as he fights his dreams on the way back to the surface.

Happy Birthday, Neamhchiontach. Thank you for letting me be here for the first early hours of it. 

I nod, as if we get along, as the only time he's the absolute best is under strict supervision. As if it wasn't a little bit overwhelming last night though they didn't need to fight over me at all. As if he has ownership now. I need to make sure he's aware that he doesn't, even as I gleefully followed every instruction he gave me not to doubt him as he pinned me to the dark last night and kept me there for hours while Lochlan burned us alive and then when Caleb finally handed me back he blew out all of the flames on us until the dark roared back with a vengeance and I. need. sleep.

It may not be every year-

I'd prefer not to think about that right now and just enjoy this. He puts his arm out, pulling me back down. I can still smell a hint of his Tom Ford cologne and soap even and I close my eyes for another minute.When I wake up again he's gone and Lochan is awake.

Come here, my birthday girl. His toothy grin, wild hair and sleepy eyes make me burst out laughing.

You look crazy. 

I am. For you. He lights his fingers and puts them out against my lips, meeting my eyes steadily. Getting telepathic confirmation that even though the Devil was here and gone in the night he left my heart, left my soul intact and Lochlan doesn't have to fear a kidnapping or a defection. And confirmation that even though my ghosts shroud me in protection, in the past, the earliest memory of love still shines in the sunlight.

What would you like for your birthday? He says suddenly, a question I don't think he's ever asked me before but somehow I have the answer ready. Easily.

You. 

He doesn't break his gaze, even as his eyes fill up and spill over. 

But I won't let this build up inside of me

Caleb used his good graces last night to pick the lock on my bedroom door, squeezing himself through the opening left by Ben when he went back down to his studio to work, busier than ever thanks to everyone's need to create their magnum opus while in quarantine and then be able to burst out of the gates with a tour the minute they can. He may as well be with them, as with few exceptions Ben rarely shows his face, even as every single time he does come to bed with me or appear suddenly for a meal or a gardening afternoon he promises to spend more time and then promptly forgets. He makes it too easy for me to be angry at him but I can't be. Working keeps him busy and busy Ben is sober Ben and that's more important than anything, ever.

Caleb wedged himself inside the door and then inside the light, blooming just a hint of darkness within reach for me until I could step in and pull it right up over my head. I have demons of my own but instead of being bottled they are skinned in forms I recognize, comforting ones from my childhood, shapes that fit into a wagon you can pull along behind you, click-clack-click down the quiet hallway into the night.

Estamos emocionados!

Caleb made eggs benedict late this morning, with Ben's help and then set the table for four. I wasn't paying attention, as I was banned from the kitchen for the duration, forced to go to the library where I needed lights as it's rainy, damp and dark. I was called to the table a little after ten-thirty, starving, a condition announced loudly as my stomach growled when I sat down, surprised to find Ben and Lochlan at attendance, Caleb not even attempting to do a morning at-home date. He likes the late night ones anyway and I sneak hashbrown chunks, golden-crisp all through his remarks about fresh-starts marked by important days, and how working together will keep us together. Lochlan deflects every last word back onto the devil and surprise, this morning the devil is magnetic, the magician enigmatic, and the princess quiet, just watching them figure out this new endless present in the shadow of a hopeful future. The rock star is also starving and matches my bites, one for one. Trying to make me laugh. Winning the fight.

Maybe this future will be different, as they have been fighting over me since I was nine.

My god, it's been forty years. That's four decades of history now living in this house at last and we are still trying to rewrite the book. We can't change anything but we can control how we go forward from here.

Caleb says my name as I manage to finish the hashbrowns while he's talking.

Would you like some more, since you couldn't wait?

While you're talking the food is getting cold. I kick the leg of my chair, and Lochlan tips his plate towards mine, spooning a third of his hasbrowns onto my plate.

Make them last, he says.

There are five bags of them in the freeze- I start to point out and Caleb laughs.

We're just trying to have a leisurely Sunday brunch, he says. This is nice. 

It is, actually. Especially with a third-more hash browns. The boys eat a lot more than I do so they usually put mountains of starch on their own plates and a traditionally-appropriate amount on mine. Though Lochlan always shared growing up, and looks like that isn't going to change. Hell, if there are more hash browns going forward then yes, I'm all in.

I think the rest of the day will involve teasing Sam about this week's podcast, as he got a little dramatic, and possibly birthday cake. Maybe Mexican food for dinner as I failed to choose a birthday meal but am also craving burritos.

You're still hungry? Lochlan listens to my stomach growl again as I excitedly discuss toppings and size requirements. A burrito must be as heavy as a newborn. Green salsa, not red. No sour cream but cheese, please. Yes, chips on the side, please. Gracias. Te agradecemos mucho.

The story of your life with mine.

No matter where you are tonight a part of you is here with me
Here with me, I don't know where you are, all I know is I need you to be
Here with me, I know it's not to late, to turn around and get it straight
It's not fate to have you here with me

The king of eighties power ballads demolished my broken heart again this morning, beating me to the piano where I had huge plans to bang out a rather difficult Sorabji (Opus Clavicembalisticum, bitches, but not the whole thing because I have things to do but one of my original goals was to be one of the few artists to be permitted to perform it. Oh, the pipe dreams of youth.) and played a very old REO Speedwagon tune that he used to sing to me when I would come and visit with him when Cole was being a monster and Caleb was unreachable.

He would sing it into my hair, a breakup song about missing someone so much but they've left you and it broke my heart then but now as he sings it the meaning has shifted into one of a Lochlan brokenhearted because he's aware that the one he loves is not emotionally present and he knows he can't fix anything but if she just stays it will be the Greatest Love Of All Time.

He tells me this story every day now, though. I'm beginning to suspect it might be true.

Here with me.

Kind of better, still rotten.

Thank you for the very kind early birthday wishes. It isn't until Tuesday proper but since life is weird we sometimes try to celebrate on a weekend instead. Not sure if we're doing it this year. I let go of my early annoyance with life after dinner last evening as I caught up on chores and then on vodka. Then I didn't care anymore. Then I wasn't so annoyed. It's going to be a rainy cozy weekend and I'm looking forward it it. I have a plan and it's grand. Some wine, movies and catching up on Outlander. Catching up on sleep after a week of not much. Preparing to get kind of excited but not excited because things are opening up and I'm really wanting normal life again though every single person I have encountered as I try to get things done that need to be done has been patient and cheerful and encouraging.

I really hope that is the legacy of this Life Event we're all sharing. That people find patience. Though from my ivory tower I can see some people are falling apart and some are lashing out and it's tense, too. I'm not a pollyanna (I swear). I know it's rough. We've looked after many people (entire crews) who otherwise would have lost everything, and we'll continue to do so, as it's going to be a long road back.

We'll get there as one big giant family.

(Except for Mark. He refused the Ha, oops, did I tip you back in the late winter for that tattoo? I forget attempts to fill his bank account and is too fucking proud to pretends it's anything less than what is is so we have instead filled his days with commission work so at least he can say he earned it. We also can still tip fairly huge on those without him getting too annoyed at least.)

And I want the hairdresser to open. Henry has refused all attempts to have Daniel or Ben or anyone cut his hair. He's been going to this lovely Korean lady since he was eight years old and he won't let anyone else cut his hair. They have a bond, it's kind of awesome. I wonder if she misses him too. I'm saving a huge tip for her because it's going to take her two hours to cut his crazy mop at this rate.

But really I just want to go to Trolls for breakfast. I complain about the crowds and the tourists but damn I want their hashbrowns and coffee like you wouldn't believe.

Cake.

Sliding into a muted birthday weekend here, muted, dulled by the shadow of a pandemic blocking out the light, making it hard to make plans, making it hard to be me, unless defined by Lochlan's explanation in which I dance in a circle made by their hands, from a young age til now, in an ever-widening space in which the grass is soft and green and tangled with flowers. I can spin and spin and spin in the rain and I can't get hurt, even if I fall. They won't catch me, as they don't break the perimeter, they won't break the bond, they won't let go but I can get up and keep going, forever, as they watch me, watch over me.

That's beautiful, I tell him as I smack my black rye toast, fucking hideously annoyed and spoiled rotten and anxious to do everything from have breakfast at Trolls to ride the rides inside my brain to not have to spend the day shovelling soil, delivered from a place out of town but in huge quantities for my gardens.

Peanut. That's all he has to say sometimes and I understand I'm being unreasonable. I just want a birthday like the others have been. Magical. Without equal. We can defer-

No! It has to be the right day! I continue to smack my toast, wallowing in my annoyance. It's the only thing I have left to do.