Friday Posting_A Time From Now_20

[gaeln9796]

STORY TITLE: A Time From Now
    CHAPTER TITLE: We Did it Ourselves So it Must be Perfect_Twenty of One Hundred
AUTHOR: Gaeln
RATING: this chapter: PG
WORD COUNT: this chapter: 880
WARNINGS: this chapter: none, Lindsay POV
DISCLAIMER: Nothing I can say that hasn’t been said already? Not mine
   Originally  Beta’ed by herefordroad, all subsequent mistakes are mine
    Story throughout contains excerpts from The Brian Kinney Operating Manual including commentary from the Editors
SUMMARY FROM THE EDITORS: ‘For me what really made this place seem like home though, or nearly like home, was when we hung Justin’s artwork on the walls.’
    Lindsay reflects on Brian’s impending visit & the meaning of home
AUTHOR‘S NOTES: This story projects 59 years into the future and reflects all that that entails, many of the loose ends are tied-up. I dance with POV, I dance with time, in essence, I just dance to the song Brian & Justin sang to me.
    Contains: Brian_others, Justin_others. They grow old, they are always together for just as long as time allows, but, ultimately, they will die.
    As someone wise once said, ‘In the end, it’s all about Brian and Justin’ and I can only agree


A Time From Now

We Did it Ourselves So it Must be Perfect
***************
One Week Later - Toronto

We were, at long last, starting to restore some order to our lives and soon I’d be able to instead spend some real time looking for work. Two months, I’d given myself two months and it’d been over three. I hoped it wouldn’t be over four. What I wouldn’t do was start panicking…quite yet, we had some money in the bank and there was always next week. I was absolutely sure I’d find the most perfect job…right at the beginning of next week.

And it wasn’t like we hadn’t been busy. So far we’d made it through two visits from the Novotny-Bruckners and alright, maybe made-it-through wasn’t exactly the right attitude but still, the first visit had included the whole clan, Carl, Debbie, Ben, Michael, and Hunter, a house full to be sure and while the second had been only Ben and Michael that honestly had been enough. And now Brian. He was coming to visit with us and I was far more nervous about his visit than the other two combined and why was that exactly? I’d known this man since college, it was just so stupid but I couldn’t help myself. I wanted everything to be perfect. He’ll be here in two days and I would have everything just the way I wanted.

Which…naturally was causing Melanie no end of problems. She claimed I was making her crazy. Well…so be it. Her feelings toward Brian had shifted, maybe even mellowed somewhat now that they were never around each other. With distance came understanding? No, I doubt she would ever understand why he was so important to me, to others. Realizing I couldn’t really explain because I didn’t actually understand it myself. It was just that there had always been this something about him that hooked people to him. I’d watched it happen over and over. Love him or hate him that was the cliché and it was fitting. He rarely walked neutral ground. So she moaned and grumbled, but loving partner that she was, Melanie met me halfway. She rarely gave me the whole enchilada, but she would agree to meet me somewhere in the middle and things were at least on their way to becoming perfect.

The house was nearly settled and while that had taken most of the past three months to accomplish, my constant justification for not having a job yet, we’d pulled it off. We’d done most of the work ourselves, putting on new paint after stripping off the old. Some “remodeler’ had painted all the woodwork, so we’d spent hours removing their ‘improvements’ from doors, door jambs, window frames, built-ins and banisters. I couldn’t even imagine what went through some people’s minds, I really couldn‘t. But now, everything was back to the original, everything was back to the way it should have always been. It was almost like I could feel the house vibrating with pleasure. New carpet and new wallpaper in the kids’ rooms, paint in the kitchen, new furniture throughout. I’d forgotten, I really had forgotten what we were getting ourselves into whenever we took on a project like this, but it was ninety percent done and I knew we were both so very pleased with the results. My parents would have just hired someone to do this kind of work for them but not us. We’d done almost all of it ourselves.

For me what really had made this place seem like home though, or nearly like home, was when we’d hung Justin’s artwork on the walls. A drawing he’d done of Gus with Brian had gone into his room, a drawing of JR with Michael, Ben, and Hunter had gone into hers, and a beautiful painting, a dark streetscape that was more Abstract Expressionism than anything had gone into the living room, the room where we spent most of our time. The painting had come with us but he’d sent the drawings after we‘d arrived. The most amazing house warming gifts I could’ve imagine and they really were what made this place feel like home. I looked forward to when he’d be able to visit and see for himself, but in the meantime, in only two more days, Brian would be with us, and there were only a few small things left to do.

Lindsay stood at the window, brush in hand with the house painting, at least for the moment, forgotten as she watched Melanie playing with Gus and Jenny Rebecca in the falling leaves of their Linden trees that grew in their still wild side yard. She imagined, could almost see, lavender and zinnias and roses blooming, some civility mixed in with the untamed, but all of that would have to wait until spring. She was nearly done with the second coat on the window wall of their dining room where she was using the most beautiful caramel paint color to off-set the cherry woodwork of the doors and jams and the built-in breakfront. The fall sun warmed the room through the large multi-paned window that looked out onto the side street which ran by their house.  Deciding she’d done enough indoors for one day, she lidded the paint can, wrapped the paint brushes in plastic so they’d be ready for more painting later and when finally satisfied everything was taken care of, Lindsay went out to play with her family in the wild world of their side yard

Next Chapter: Melanie decides that maybe Brian isn’t the enemy after all

for original post & additional chapters, please see here