Just east of them, the black gates of Perish Park jutted high above the surrounding trees. The rain changed shape, from a thousand pinpricks to thick tar-like drops that made hollow thuds against the windshield. A light from an apartment above kept things visible, but it was very dark.

Richard turned in his seat to face his friend.

“So…what’s up, Charles?”

“Do you remember when we sneaked into The Milky Way?” Charles asked. “Remember how, when you pushed on the door…it just opened?”

“Yes.”

“That happens in this story, too.”

Charles met Andi at a wedding. This much Richard already knew. Everything else that followed was new to him.

10

It was a little surprising for Charles when he opened a fancy letter and saw that Gordon Dixie, an old family friend, was marrying a girl named Jane and that they would be filled with joy if he would attend.

“He didn’t have to do that, Richard. I was very excited about this.”

But he was late for the wedding. He was late because his pants wouldn’t dry and they were still damp when he left the house. He showed up fifteen minutes into the ceremony and waited outside.

Through the many windows of the chapel he was able to watch the proceedings within. The sun was strong above him and he had to shield his eyes against the glass to get a better look. He could make out Gordon at the altar. The families on either side of the aisle. And just inside of that window, enough in view for him to make out her entire profile, sat Andi.

“A living drawing,” Charles said. “As if she’d been painted into the scene. And as if that had been done for me to see. And me alone.”

11

The reception was at the Woodruff, the very hotel where Richard had annually dined with the Ridnours. Richard could see the top of its neon red letters from here, at the corner of Lily and Neptune.

Andi was on the back porch having a cigarette. Charles followed her outside.

“I’m Charles,” he said, extending a hand. “And I’ve been watching you all night.”

“Ah,” Andi said. “I felt…something.”

“You’re the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. I’m not a liar.”

Now, in the car, Richard asked, “You said all that, Charles?”

“Yes. Why? Do you think I came on too strong?”

“No, no. It’s great.”

Charles and Andi talked outside for a long time. She was from St. Paul and was returning to Minnesota the next afternoon. Charles wasn’t upset by this. He’d never had a girlfriend before and the idea of “space” didn’t frighten him.

Andi, it turned out, felt the same way.

She did return to St. Paul the next day, and Charles continued living the life he’d been living. He lived in an apartment off Farraline. He worked at the Transistor Planet downtown. Two weeks after the night of the wedding, Andi made it clear where she stood by signing your girlfriend at the bottom of a letter. Charles couldn’t stop reading the two words.