The Haunted Traveler Vol 1 Issue 2

36
I found it intriguing as casually hanging out
became dating, that she was so knowledgeable about
certain things, and yet so ignorant of others. She
seemed to be around my age, and yet, if you brought
up anything pop-cultural; especially about the 80’s
and early 90’s, she usually had no idea what you were
talking about. Whenever I asked about her childhood,
she seemed to be, in a phrase: carefully evasive. Like
she was trying not to offend me by not answering
while making it perfectly clear that this was something
she really didn’t want to talk about. But I was 23, in
love, and the luckiest man alive to have an incredible
woman like her choosing to spend time with me.
I took her to her first concert, and in so doing
introduced her to Prince. She took me to my first renaissance
fair and introduced me to mutton. I took her
to her first baseball game with my grandfather. She
took me to her favorite comic book store on the way
home. I took her to her first midnight movie premiere,
she took me to my first play. I filled the living room
with flowers for Valentine’s Day. She gathered all of
my family and our friends together for my first surprise
birthday party. I showed her all that was good
about family on Thanksgiving. She showed me all
that was good about being by ourselves on Christmas
eve. We’d both watched fireworks, but neither of us
had ever actually set any off. So we bought some fireworks
and set them off while drinking non-alcoholic
cider on New Year’s eve. We were hopelessly in love.
We were married in the spring of the very next year.
I’d like to think that I was a good boyfriend, a
better husband, and that I was well on my way toward