Friday Excerpt: Reece Asks Too Much

An unusual proposal in today’s NaNoWriMo excerpt! Full plot summery available here.

Word count: 485

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“I need to go with them,” Faith said. “When the time comes. But when you get this plan of yours figured out, come for me. I don’t care what I’m doing or how old I am, I’ll go with you in a heartbeat.”
“It’s not enough.”
“It’s all I’ve got, Reece.”
He sighed. “I know. It’s not your fault.” The words sounded like they were choking out of him. She tried to distract him, snuggling against his neck and kissing his cheek, but he seemed to be somewhere else. She could picture the gears in his mind turning as it desperately tried to think of a solution to their dilema. “You’ll think of something,” she whispered.
“Sure,” Reece said, but he didn’t stop with the faraway look.
Faith got up and wandered around his room. She pulled open the drawer where he hid his drawings and turned through them slowly. He could draw so much beauty in only black and white. The pictures always made her feel that there was something right in the world, that all would be as it should.
She looked back over at him and he remained in the same position. Finally he looked up at her across the small room. “Faith,” he said, “Will you marry me?”
She was too stunned to say anything at first. “Reece, what are you talking about? It’s illegal.”
“I know, but say yes anyway.”
“Okay, so I say yes, what difference does it make? It doesn’t change anything in our lives.”
“I want you to wear a ring. To remind you of me and that we belong together.”
“You have lost your mind, Reece Evers.” Faith put her hands on her hips and hoped her serious look would bring him back to his senses.
“If I could get on bended knee, I would,” he said.
“I’m not wearing a symbol that could get me killed. If you love me, you won’t ask me to do that.”
“There has to be something. There has to be a way that you can take a part of me with you.”
Faith touched her belly. “I am,” she said.
“Something visible,” Reece insisted.
Faith rolled her eyes. The pleading in his was so intense that she started trying to think of something that would satisfy both their requirements. That’s when she noticed his shoes.
He was often wearing mismatched shoes because his wooden leg came with a shoe already attached to it. When he bought shoes, he only ever used the right one, never the left. Faith walked closer to him. “Where’s the left shoe that matches that one?”
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“It’s in the closet.”
Faith went to his closet and opened it to find a few right shoes lined up and a jumble of left shoes in the back. She dug out one of the left ones. “Here’s your symbol,” she said. “I’ll wear this shoe in honor of you.”