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It hadn't been particularly surprising when retirement came easily to Nora. She'd always had more hobbies than time, and now she was finally getting a chance to explore them. Still, if you'd asked her ten years ago to picture her life now, she'd never have guessed that she would be a grandmother in Kent. She would have expected it to still be just her and Jubilee in her little London flat, spending weekends with Jade and Mila whenever they were free, and making elaborate meals for one. Meeting Sarah had changed the trajectory of her future in ways she could never have anticipated.
While they'd travelled some, Nora loved pottering around the garden, baking and reading and knitting. She and Sarah took leisurely walks to the café with Kevin the dachshund, poked in the little art galleries, and went to book club together.
Nora frowned at her cup of decaf coffee.
“Do you wish you were doing something more exciting with your retirement? I know you missed out on travel and things by being a single mum for so long.”
Sarah shook her head. “I like knowing I can find a proper cuppa and a biscuit, and not having to try and make the translation app on my phone work. I think I thought I was supposed to want to travel more, but I still did plenty of that. Now, I want to keep my adventures a bit closer to home. Why? Do you want to go somewhere?”
Nora shook her head. “Not really, but part of me almost feels guilty for not taking advantage of having that option, you know? Not that I didn't travel before I met you, but it's different with someone.”
“Mmm, yes,” said Sarah, blushing slightly. “Certainly spend more time in the hotel room.”
“We did find out how useful benches are in Iceland,” grinned Nora.
“And there was that mirror when we went to Venice. But the mattresses are never quite right.”
“The mattresses have nothing on the pillows,” grumbled Nora. “God, we're old, aren't we?”
“We are grandmothers,” shrugged Sarah, sipping her tea. “It comes with the territory. But there are plenty of adventures we can go on closer to home.”
“Explore bookshops across England?”
“Go see a filming of QI or Taskmaster or Countdown.”
“Go to really niche museums.”
“Exactly. None of the pressure to fit everything in, or do specific things, just enjoying things together,” said Sarah.
Nora's mental radio station flipped to an older Indigo Girls song. Get out the map, get out the map, and lay your finger anywhere down. We'll leave the figuring to those we pass on the way out of town.
Sarah raised an eyebrow. “Song stuck in your head?”
“What gave it away?”
“The humming,” laughed Sarah. “It's very cute when you don't realise you're doing it.”
“Well… you're cute!” retorted Nora.
“Thank you,” said Sarah, smiling back at her.
Nora spent the afternoon thinking about places they could go together. With the exception of their annual pilgrimage to Pride, they hadn't put much stock in celebrating specific dates. It felt wonderfully serendipitous when she discovered the Indigo Girls were coming to Westgate Hall in Canterbury on the anniversary of their first real date at Borough Market. She was even able to get them VIP Meet and Greet passes for after the show.
Nora printed off their tickets, folded them up, and sealed them with wax. Of course, she could just hand them to Sarah, but where was the adventure in that?
She spent the next day crafting a scavenger hunt, finding places around the house with significant items from their relationship, building backwards from her vinyl copy of Closer to Fine. She hid a clue in the infamous fish vase that Sarah still held on to, despite the fact she never used it. The blue pottery poisson had a place on the shelf. There was also the cookbook from one of their first dates. Another envelope went under Jubilee’s bed, and the first on the bench at the end of the bed that they'd bought after their honeymoon in Iceland.
“Honey?” called Nora as she placed the last envelope. “Can you come here?”
Sarah came into the bedroom. “Yes, love? Do I finally get to see what you've been up to all day?”
“Yes, you do.”
Sarah clapped excitedly. “A task!”
She opened the seal and unfolded the paper.
“Find the next task. Your clue is slumber party. Fastest wins. Your time starts… now!” Sarah spun around in a circle, looking around the room.
“This is where we sleep, but party?” She opened a bedside drawer. “Nothing in here. Hmmm, what other things around combine sleep and celebrations?” She lifted the pillows.
“But that seems too easy. What is another word for party? Bash? Soirée? Shindig? Celebration? Wait! Jubilee!” Sarah went to the living space and over to the cat's bed, where another envelope lay in waiting. Nora tried not to giggle as Sarah opened it.
“Find the next task. Your clue is foliage, fermentation, and foundation.” Sarah looked up at Nora. “A little overboard on the alliteration, yes?”
“All the information is on the task,” said Nora with a grin.
“You…” Sarah shook her head and looked back at the paper. “Fastest wins, your time starts now. Foliage… fermentation… foundation… it's like trying to do a crossword but I don't even know how long the word is.”
“I mean, we don't have to do the whole puzzle if you want to skip it.”
“No, I want to do it, but foliage? Fermentation? I'm not digging through the compost heap in the rain.”
“All the locations are inside,” said Nora.
“Ah! Hmm?” Sarah turned a slow circle, tapping a finger against her lips. She stopped to ponder the collection of plants in the window before shaking her head. Walking to the kitchen, she opened the fridge, looking in the drawer at the grapes. “Wait, foliage…” she muttered, going to the pantry.
Nora couldn't keep from giggling. She hadn't thought of grape leaves, though they did fit the clue, and they'd learned to make dolmas on their second trip to Greece. Sarah rummaged through the canned goods, digging. Nora leaned against the doorway separating the kitchen and the living room where the bookshelves were.
“Gah!” Sarah localized her frustration. “Can I get another clue?”
“It will cost you a kiss,” said Nora.
Sarah turned and pulled Nora close, kissing her softly. It was still amazing how perfectly they fit together, an unexpectedly balanced pair.
“Book,” said Nora, and Sarah groaned in exasperation.
“How many books are there in this house? I hope you didn't have anything else to do today.” Still, she went to the shelves and began scanning titles, muttering the clue words to herself. She lingered on the Terry Pratchett shelf before eventually making her way down to the cookbooks.
“Warmer,” said Nora. “Which is also a clue.”
Sarah frowned in confusion before spotting the bread making book she'd bought Nora on one of their first dates. “Oh!” Flipping open the cover, she found another envelope.
Pausing, she looked at Nora. “Just how many of these are there?”
“This is the second to last one.”
“Ok.” She popped open the seal. “Find the next task. Your clue is blooming wet on the inside. Fastest wins. Your time starts now.” Sarah looked up at her wife, astonished. “Nora! You are filthy!”
“What? Wait. Oooh. I didn't think of it like that. Um. Wet like water, not lubricants.” Nora could feel the blush climbing her face. She'd been trying to be sweet and romantic, not randy. “I thought I was the dirty minded one.”
Sarah scoffed. “You've seen what I read.”
Nora shrugged. There were a lot of men in need of a jumper on Sarah's book covers.
“I assume wet on the inside is something less obvious than the toilet or sink. Blooming implies flowers. The watering can? No, that's out in the shed.” Sarah looked up and across into the kitchen, where the fish vase perched, a flash of white visibly sticking out. Sarah looked at Nora. “You got it up there, you get it down.”
Nora retrieved the step stool she had stashed in the front cupboard, fishing out the envelope and handing it down to Sarah with a flourish. “Your final clue.”
“Find the last task. Your clue is near to adequate. Fastest wins, your time starts now.” Sarah turned and walked quickly to the records, pulling out the sleeve for Closer to Fine. Pulling open the seal, Sarah saw the tickets and looked at Nora. “Really? This is amazing!”
“An adventure close to home,” said Nora, pulling Sarah close to her.
—---
Of course, concert tickets went on sale well in advance of the actual event, so that particular adventure would have to wait. For the next few months, they found things to do all across the region. They explored beaches in Devon, and museums in Brighton. They took a pottery class together after watching too much Great Pottery Showdown, and visited various places featured in Landscape Artist of the Year, seeing more of Britain than they'd ever had a chance to explore before.
When the concert finally rolled around, Nora was waffling about getting a room close to the venue.
“It's only 40 minutes away,” said Nora. “I feel a bit silly booking a room.”
“When's the last time we stayed up past 10 on purpose?” asked Sarah.
“You mean instead of staying up accidentally reading, or hormonal insomnia? I can't remember,” said Nora.
“So let's make getting to bed easy,” said Sarah.
Nora kissed her temple. “You've always been so sensible.”
“I survived raising two boys alone. I learned which battles I needed to fight.” Nora nodded, booking the room.
She had made a playlist of her favourite deep cuts tracks for the drive, though it was nowhere near long enough to cover them all. They talked about which songs they most hoped to see, besides the obvious ones.
Thankfully for their bedtimes, the meet and greet was before the concert instead of after. There were other older women, but a few surprisingly younger folks. Amy and Emily were incredibly sweet, listening to everyone's stories about how important their music had been to them. Nora shared her own story of how she had first discovered their music in her uni days as she struggled with her family’s lack of acceptance. Sarah squeezed her hand. It wasn't something they talked about often, but the openness of Sarah's parents to their relationship had been unexpectedly hard for Nora in the beginning. Why hadn't her parents been able to do the same thing? Of course, there had been other sources of friction long before she came out. The group was full of different stories, yet with a common thread of finding themselves and their community through music that made it feel like this wasn't just a bunch of strangers at a concert.
The opening act was a Scottish singer/songwriter called Soph, who did her best with the relative maturity of the audience. They may not have been the most energetic, but people were clearly listening and engaging in the moment. Nora couldn't help noticing the variety of couples in the crowd.
The concert itself went by in a blur, both of them hoarse by the end from singing along. As they settled into their hotel bed after, Sarah snuggled up to Nora.
“Thank you, for everything.”
“Well, that's the power of two,” said Nora, grinning at her own joke in the dark.
Sarah just groaned and kissed her shoulder. “I love you.”
“Love you too.” Nora hummed to herself until she succumbed to the exhaustion of a long and eventful day.