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| This picture was taken on the day Cameron and Crystal met. From the memory of Leisa (Crystals older, slightly cooler sister) of a phone conversation her and Cris had shortly after her meeting Cameron. |
Ring Ring
Leisa: Hello
Cris: Hey Lulu,
So you'll never believe what happened today. I totally met this guy who is so hot but he is going to BYU soon like all cool eligible guys around here do. Anyway I was talking to him and looked at his hand and just cracked up laughing because he had a compression glove on his hand. He looked at me like I was crazy then I held up my hand and showed him my compression glove. (both kiddo tragically burned their hands in horrible grease fires and had to wear compression gloves)
Leisa: Dang to bad he's leaving. Keep me up to date about all the other guys. Loves
Crystals version
Stolen from her blog
I said yes!! Actually, I said “of course”, and “said” isn’t a proper adjective—“shouted” would be a better description. It echoed through the canyon and landed in the valley below us, followed by hundreds more “yes, of course, yes, Yes, YES!” How did I get here? I had a (rather big, beautiful, sparkly) ring on my finger and a (rather handsome, tall, compassionate) boy kissing me on the cheek. Who would’ve thought one year ago I would be here….
It was a quiet autumn night as I was cooking crepes in the kitchen. Oil, flames, water, BANG…well, you get the picture. I burnt my hand off. Well, not off, per say, more like made the skin melt off my hand and seared all the stuff that’s under my skin. It was pretty nasty. After months of recovery I was down to wearing a therapeutic glove. Thank goodness I had a glove! I’m not a fan of big red and purple scars covering my entire hand.
Christmas time was approaching and I was warming up on my viola to play the Messiah with my church. I glanced around the lobby, not feeling an intense desire to be social. Fellow musicians started conversing with me, “what’s your name”, “where’d you come from”, “how long have you been playing”…typical. I so did not want to talk to anyone. Then I noticed something. A glove. Identical to my glove, but this glove was not on my hand. My eye followed the path of the glove all the way up to the wearer’s face. A boy, a man really, slightly taller than me, muscular, curly dirty blonde hair (or was it brown?), and then I saw his eyes. Oh! His eyes! The color of Vegas’ blue neon lights, the sky on a hot summers day, the ocean as the sun rises. His eyes! I forced myself out of my daze and quietly asked, “what did you do to your hand?” He smirked, his blue eyes twinkling, “I burned it in a grease fire while cooking.” It was fate.
A year passed, sped, leaped, jolted by like a Lamborghini. Cameron and I were walking hand in hand, our burn scars blended together, up a mountain trail. He had planned a sunset hike before I “flew off into the sunset.” I was flying home for Christmas two days later. He was carrying the picnic, I was carrying a blanket, together we towered over some boulders to the top of a small hill with a big rock. We hoisted ourselves, our lunch, and the blanket on top of that rock. I ate the toothpick-ed croissant sandwiches, the oven roasted chips with no qualms, but when he pulled out chocolate covered strawberries, I knew something was up.
We laughed and teased as we fed the strawberries to each other. “Would you pass me the water,” I asked bending down to stretch my legs. “Well, actually” he replied. He leaned towards the picnic basket and pulled out two crystal goblets and sparkling cider. Something was definitely up! I sipped the “bubbly” as he held me in his arms. Across the valley the sun dipped below the horizon turning the entire western sky metallic orange, a sunset only created in the Albuquerque skies. I peered down into the bottom of my glass and noticed something was in the bottom of my cup. Gross! I swished the liquid around until I got a clearer look. Whatever was in the bottom of my cup was small was round, with something attached to one side. Something sparkly. My stomach was tying into knots, my breath was slowly dissipating, my vision went foggy. I flipped around to look at him. “Are you serious! Is this for real!?” I panted. Cameron’s face crumpled together, his eyes showed confusing. I tiled the glass so he could see the surprise at the bottom of the goblet. His eyes got wide “I didn’t put that there.” he said slowly, with horror in his voice. “I am so sorry. My sister must have dropped that in as a joke. That’s not mine. I am so sorry.” His eyes were full of remorse. I took a deep breath not quite sure how to respond. “CURSE CASSI!” I screamed “and ALL of her CHIDLREN, and all of her CHILDRENS CHILDREN!!, How DARE she be so cruel! What a mean hearted, cruel minded, selfish little BRAT!!” Looking back, I think I could have responded more elegantly….
I was still trying to calm down when he wrapped his arms around me, kissed me on the cheek and said in a tender, quiet voice “Well, actually.” His voice made any anger I once felt disappear. Even though I couldn’t see him, I knew there was the same smirk and twinkle in those blue, blue eyes that I saw over a year ago the night we first met. He took out a little black box from him pocket and slowly opened it in front of my eyes. Inside was what I hoped all night I would see – a ring. This time, a real ring. “Crystal,” he whispered in my ear “will you marry me?” “Of course” I cried, I turned around to kiss him. “Wait, wait!” he said, “I have to do this right.” He jumped up only to return to the ground, this time with only one knee touching the ground. “Crystal,” he repeated, “will you marry me?” His voice a little more steady this time. “Of course!” I shouted, embracing him in a hug. “Of course, of course, of course! and a million times YES!” I continued to yell, my voice was bouncing off the canyon walls.
We walked hand in hand back towards the car. In front of us was the golden sky, behind us the stars started to glitter. “I love you” I would whisper, “I love you too” he would respond. And thus we walked, our scars blurred together, our steps in rhythms, and we started living happily ever after.
