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“Grace?”
“Hm?” I looked up from my book toward Simon. His gaze was lowered, his expression distant and strangely somber.
“When I die, will you bury me somewhere with a view and plant a tree over me?”
For a moment I just stared at him, convinced I had heard him wrong.
“Please,” he whispered when I didn’t answer.
“Simon, my love… why are you asking me this now?”
Instead of answering, he finally looked up at me. There was something heavy in his eyes, something that made my stomach twist.
“Yes,” I said softly. “Of course I will. But you have to do the same for me someday, okay?”
A small smile tugged at his lips.
“Ry… I think you should ask Rocky to do that instead.”
I laughed weakly, though suddenly I didn’t like this conversation at all.
“Simon, neither of us is dying anytime soon. We still have years together.”
“Just promise me.”
The seriousness in his voice made my chest tighten.
“…Okay. I promise.”
— Months Later —
“Ry?”
I looked over from the kitchen counter. “Yeah?”
“Do you remember what you promised me a couple of months ago?”
I sighed softly. “A view and a tree. Yes, Simon, I remember.”
He grew quiet after that. Not his usual comfortable silence, but something deeper. Final.
Before I could ask what was wrong, he spoke again.
“And after that… promise me you’ll keep living.”
The words hit me so suddenly my throat closed around them.
“You have to take care of yourself,” he continued gently. “And remember you won’t be alone.”
Tears burned behind my eyes almost instantly.
I had never really let myself think about losing him. Even now, with both of us older and slower, the idea felt impossible. Wrong.
“Why are you talking like this?” My voice cracked. “I’m older than you. If anything, you’ll lose me first.”
Simon only looked at me with those dark, unbearably soft eyes.
“Promise me, Ry.”
I started crying before I could stop myself.
Simon stood from his chair and crossed the room. He pulled me against him, his one arm wrapped securely around my shoulders while his hand rubbed slow circles across my back.
“Shh,” he murmured. “We don’t have to talk about it anymore tonight.”
But the dread stayed with me long after we went to bed.
— Months Later —
Simon was getting weaker.
At first it was small things. Falling asleep in chairs. Leaving half his meals untouched. Taking longer to stand up.
Then it became impossible to ignore.
I had Adrian and Armando both examine him, but neither could find anything wrong beyond age.
Still, I was older than him.
So why did it feel like I was watching him slowly disappear?
“Ry?”
“Yes, my love?”
Simon looked at me quietly for a long moment.
“I think you know now why I’ve been asking you to promise me things.”
I looked away immediately.
No. No, I didn’t want to know.
“I’m only going to ask one last time,” he whispered. “Promise me you’ll take care of yourself when I’m gone.”
The tears came so fast I couldn’t even answer.
Simon gently took my chin in his hand and turned me back toward him.
“You have to promise me.”
“If I don’t,” I choked out, “will you stay?”
Pain flickered across his face.
“You know I don’t get to choose that.” His thumb brushed beneath my eye. “If I could, I’d stay with you until the end of time.”
I broke completely then.
Because I wasn’t stupid. I saw the way he faded a little more every day. I had just spent months pretending I didn’t.
“Okay,” I sobbed. “Okay, I promise.”
“You have to say it, Ry.”
I looked at him through blurred vision. He was looking at me like I was his whole world while mine was breaking apart in front of me.
“I promise,” I whispered shakily. “When you die, I’ll bury you somewhere with a view. I’ll plant a tree over you. And I’ll take care of myself.”
Simon closed his eyes for a second like the words physically relieved him.
“Thank you.”
Then he pulled me into his chest, and we stayed there for a long time, holding each other while I cried against him.
— A Few Days Later —
The next few days passed almost normally.
We drank coffee together every morning. Rocky and Adrian came by to visit. Simon still laughed quietly at my terrible jokes.
And every night, we fell asleep wrapped around each other.
“I love you, Ry,” Simon murmured one evening as we lay together in bed. “Thank you for everything.”
I smiled sleepily against his shoulder.
“You don’t have to thank me.”
“Yes, I do.” His fingers brushed through my hair slowly. “You’ve been the light of my life.”
My chest ached.
“You made me happy just by being here,” I whispered.
I tilted my head up and kissed him softly.
“Goodnight, Si.”
“Goodnight, Ry.”
I woke up knowing.
Before I even opened my eyes, I knew.
There was no warmth beside me. No slow breathing. No soft snore.
Just silence.
I didn’t want to look.
Because looking would make it real.
But I had promised him.
So eventually I forced my eyes open.
Simon lay beside me exactly as he had the night before, dark curls spread across the pillow like a halo. He looked peaceful. Beautiful.
I sat there for a long time just staring at him.
Then, mechanically, I reached for the commsystem.
“Rocky,” I said numbly when he answered. “Simon died.”
The words barely sounded real.
“Need help, question?” Rocky asked immediately.
“We need to dig a grave,” I whispered. “And find a sapling.”
I don’t remember ending the call.
I only remember sitting beside Simon again, staring out the bedroom window while sunlight spilled across the floor.
It was cool outside. Gentle.
Exactly the kind of weather Simon loved.
I don’t know how long it took for Rocky and Adrian to arrive.
They asked where I wanted the grave.
I led them behind the house to the small hill overlooking the beach, the greenhouse, and the house.
“It’s here,” I said quietly. “This is where he’d like it.”
While they dug, I sat in the grass and watched silently.
When the grave was finished, Rocky nudged my shoulder gently.
“Ready for Simon. Statement.”
The words hit me like a physical blow.
I went back inside the house and found one of our blankets along with my favorite shirt. I folded the shirt carefully into the grave beneath the blanket to make him a pillow.
Then I returned to the bedroom.
For a moment, I simply stood there looking at him.
Finally, I slipped one arm beneath his knees and the other around his back, lifting him carefully against my chest. His head rested against my shoulder exactly the way it always had.
I kissed his forehead.
Then I carried him outside.
Rocky and Adrian offered to help, but I shook my head.
“No. I’ve got him.”
By the time I reached the hill my legs were trembling.
“Look, Si,” I whispered brokenly. “It’s perfect. And the weather’s just right for you.”
Lowering him into the grave was the hardest thing I had ever done.
Before I let go completely, I pressed one final kiss against his curls.
“I love you so much.”
The second my hands left him, my knees gave out beneath me.
I collapsed beside the grave sobbing so hard I could barely breathe. Rocky and Adrian stayed beside me silently, each resting a hand against my shoulders while I cried.
Eventually I forced myself forward again.
I wrapped the blanket carefully around Simon one last time.
Then the grave was filled.
I planted the sapling myself.
An oak tree.
The same kind Simon had kept preserved inside the pendant he arrived with all those years ago.
Thanks to Adrian’s genetic modifications, it would grow quickly.
The days afterward blurred together.
Rocky and Adrian barely left my side because I was hardly functional.
But I kept my promise.
I ate. I slept. I drank water.
And I cried.
God, I cried.
Sometimes I still made two cups of coffee before my brain caught up with reality.
One for me.
One for Simon.
Every time it happened, it felt like losing him all over again.
Most days I sat beneath his tree, leaning against the trunk while it grew taller and taller above me.
I talked to him constantly.
Told him I was trying.
Told him I missed him.
Told him I was still taking care of myself, just like I promised.
— Months Later —
One morning I made two cups of coffee again.
But this time, instead of breaking down in the kitchen, I carried both cups and a blanket up the hill.
I settled beneath Simon’s oak tree and placed the second cup beside me.
The branches overhead rustled softly in the breeze.
“You know, Si,” I murmured, curling deeper into the blanket, “I don’t think this place was ever meant to exist without you in it.”
My eyes drifted closed.
“I can’t wait to see you again someday. Wherever we end up.”
I smiled faintly through tears.
“I’m going to kiss you so much when I find you again. You better do the same for me.”
The breeze moved gently through the leaves above me.
“I love you.”
I rested my untouched coffee beside Simon’s cup.
And just like the first time, I knew.
This time, when I closed my eyes, I wouldn’t open them again.
— … —
Now two oak trees stand side by side in a biodome on a hill, overlooking the beach, the house, and the greenhouse.
Their branches intertwine high above the ground, holding each other long after the men beneath them no longer can.