Dedicated to Tanner

The leaves had exploded with red and yellow in the rural Montana town that Tom and Edie lived in. The setting sun had made the fiery colors burn brighter. Despite the warmth of the scene, a breeze was blowing, so Tom had just come back outside to the porch with two blankets, one for him and one for Edie.

They both had their individual yet identical rocking chairs, placed together with tables on the ends, so they could hold hands and have somewhere to put their tea. The armrests made hand holding easy as long as they rocked at the same tempo. With all of their family moved out of state and long into their retirement, these two chairs are where they spent most of their time. But they didn’t mind. There was always comfort and joy found with each other.

However, on this particular day, Tom had turned on the radio inside, hoping a little Hank Williams would come on the country radio station. They sat, enjoying the music and Tom giving a mirthful “oh” when “Lost Highway” and “Lovesick Blues” came on.

“We should have played music together, ya know that?” Tom said to Edie, giving a little turn of his neck, but not too much to agitate his arthritis.

“Music? What kind of music? You can’t play a damn thing!” Edie replied.

“Well, back in the day, I feel like I could hold a tune pretty decently. I could have sung, and you could have played your guitar. Plus, I owned a couple harmonicas growing up. If I would have learned to play one of them, well, we would have had ourselves a show.”

“That would have been fun. Like June and Johnny Cash!” She paused for a moment. “Does that make you my Man in Black?”

“Well, this cardigan is blue, but I can go change for you if you want.”

They both gave a laugh that was both warm and softened as it sank into the landscape around them.

Tom spoke up, a little more energy in his voice. “Well, if we are, oh what’s the word. Honey, what’s the word? It’s not reborn, it’s something like it.”

“Reincarnated?” Edie brought up the word easily, she was always the most literate out of the two of them.

“Ah! That’s it. That’s the word. If we are reincarnated, maybe we find each other. We can start up that band. How does that sound?”

Edie gave a small smile. “You big lug, we are going to heaven! Have you not been listening for the past 80 years of church?”

Answering while chuckling, Tom said, “I know, I know. Just as a contingency plan. Something fun to think about. When we are reincarnated, or if, let’s find each other and sing songs together.”

He turned his head, a little too far so it triggered a deep ache, and he kept his gaze on Edie.?“Okay? That’s the plan. We find each other. And we sing.”

Edie gave a big smile at Tom. It was a smile one that still contained the warmth that Tom had fallen in love with all those years before. After all these years, she still had the capacity to heat the love in his soul.

“Ya, that sounds real nice. You best be quick though, I don’t want to wait as long to meet you as I did.”

Tom gave a small kiss on Edie’s hand and turned back to look at the landscape. They fell silent again.

23 years later, a bright-eyed young man named Thomas walked into an open mic night at his favorite bar, the Honky-Tonk. He walked over to the sign-up papers, and instead of writing his full name, wrote “Tom” and his last name. He walked over to the bar, sat down on one of the benches, and tapped his coat pocket to make sure he still had his harmonica before ordering a beer. He took a couple of sips before turning to listen to the current act.

She was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. She had long brown hair, with a face so full of freckles that he could see them from his seat. He was struck by her beauty, but it was the song that she was singing. It was an arrangement of Johnny Cash’s “I Still Miss Someone” that she must have written because he had never heard a cover anything like it. It was hauntingly beautiful. A true go-getter, Thomas decided to go introduce himself when she got done with her set.

Luckily for him, he didn’t have to wait for long. That was the last song she had. She walked off the stage, and he got up from the bar to pursue. He asked the bartender to watch his drink and quickly ran off to catch up to her.

She was putting her guitar into its case when caught her, just by the stage but out of the way. He approached her (too eagerly to be socially acceptable he thought to himself) and immediately gave a loud “hello.” She was a bit startled, but not all taken aback.

“Hi.” She responded. She gave a smile, and Thomas knew he was falling in love.

“Um… that song. That was beautiful.” He said it with such finality and sincerity. Somehow, he couldn’t find anything to say.

The girl found it endearing, and something about this man seemed familiar. She stood up, reached out her hand, and introduced herself.

“I’m Edie.”

He gave a small chuckle, not really knowing why, and smiled back at her.

“Tom.”