Cute Date Idea Gothic
I take a whole roll of photos of you smiling in your favorite outfits. None of the stores near us develop film anymore. No one even knows what film looks like anymore. I carry the roll around in my pocket until I forget what you look like too.
I take you to the county fair. None of the carousel animals are creatures I recognize. The Ferris wheel moves in the opposite direction. The Tunnel of Terror carts get stuck on the tracks. I sit in the dark for 20 minutes, holding tight to something that feels like your hand.
It is autumn and we go jumping in leaf piles. I get stuck inside one of the leaf piles and know that I am lost, maybe forever. When I climb out it is dark and I am two cities over. I am in your front yard. I walk inside your house.
I meet you at the library after breakfast. You want us to read picture books to children. All the books are written in different languages, languages I've never seen before. All the pictures are missing. The children start to read to us. Someone in the library screams. I realize it's me.
We decide to go on a road trip to the beach, even though there are no beaches in this state. It starts to snow. It has never snowed here before. I go to the trunk for the snow chains but the links are industrial-sized and rusted. I fall asleep behind the wheel and wake up alone on the beach.
You ask me to go to a stand-up comedy show. I hate stand-up comedy shows, but I love you. At the show, the comedians aren't very funny. They start to make jokes about me, saying strange things about my life. Secret things. True things. Things they can't possibly know.
For our anniversary, you ask me to take you to the zoo. The hyenas watch us with eyes like the Mona Lisa. The big cats try to crawl out of their cages. The snakes press themselves close to the glass as you walk by.
We wear each other's sweaters to remember what each other smells like. Your sweater fits me perfectly, too perfectly. All my friends start asking if I left something burning on the stove.
We play our favorite childhood games. Jump rope, hopscotch, hide-and-go-seek. You pick a really good hiding spot. I can never find you. I am still looking.