Jerry and Jenny Ch. 01: Pinky Promise

"Oh yeah?" I asked. I saw her eyes twinkle as she smiled.

"Yeah. And I hear you can go to hell for breaking a pinky promise to your sister."

"No pressure there, right?" I joked.

"This isn't funny," she said. "I'm serious. You know I'm a one-man woman. We can't get married, so this is the next best thing."

"You're serious, aren't you?" I asked.

"Yes," she said. "From now on, it's just the two of us. No one else. For all time. I promise to love, honor, cherish and respect you, no matter what happens, from this point on. Promise me?" I saw the look on her face and knew she meant it. The thing is, I felt the same way about her. I wrapped my little finger around hers.

"I promise," I said.

"Promise what?" she asked.

"I promise to love, honor, respect, and cherish you no matter what, from this point on. And only you," I said. She smiled, then gave me a soft kiss and wrapped her arms around me.

...

I woke with a start and looked around. It was dark outside, and the only light in the house came from the television and the night lights we had plugged into the wall. I realized I must have dozed off. My pipe was sitting in the ashtray, the tobacco having been smoked to exhaustion.

I looked at the album in my lap and saw the picture -- it was the photo I had taken of Jenny that first night at the lake. Then I remembered something. There were DVDs, and memory cards tucked away in the back of the album full of photos and video. There had to be a half-century's worth of happy memories there, I thought. That's when I realized that I was never truly alone, even though I was by myself.

I pulled out one of the small memory cards and headed upstairs to the master bedroom. I put the memory card in the large television mounted on the wall when I got there. I undressed and got into the bed, grabbing Jenny's pillow. I breathed in her scent and heard a familiar giggle in the back of my mind.

"Just you and me, Jenny," I whispered to the room. "No one else. For all time."

"You got that right, bub," I heard in my mind. I smiled and hit play on the remote control.

...

More to come...