Every year on Katherine’s birthday, Tim held his hands firmly over her eyes while she chose a location on the world map hanging over his desk in the basement.
Some years her finger landed on a body of water. Tim would dutifully stick a pin in the map and write the coordinates in a notebook along with the date.
Other years her finger was luckier, and Tim added Paris, Dublin, Kyoto, or Sydney to the notebook.
“One day, we’ll visit all these places,” he promised. “I guess we’ll have to learn to sail if you keep landing in the water.”
Katherine used to laugh and pretend to agree. It was a nice diversion from their paycheck-to-paycheck existence.
The savings account they established to save for their adventure relied on the occasional winnings from Tim’s weekly poker game or the money they made at the flea market selling his hand-tied flies for fly-fishing and her repurposed salvage items. “Trash to Treasure,” Katherine had one of those creative minds that could re-envision almost anything. It was a welcome change from restocking shelves and keeping track of inventory at the grocery store.
Her birthday was coming up. Katherine stopped working on the old nightstands her neighbor had put out with the trash at the curb. She stared across the basement at the map on the wall. She walked over, squeezed her eyes shut, and picked a spot. She kept choosing until she landed on a spot not far from their home.
“Wheeling, West Virginia,” she murmured. She stood in the same spot practicing until she could pick Wheeling every time. She memorized her exact position. Every afternoon as soon as she got home from work, she practiced before Tim got home.
This would be the tenth year with the map. According to her calculations, if they were careful, they could afford a weekend trip to Wheeling without putting much of a dent in their adventure account. Would Tim be okay with her idea?
She decided he would have to be. Her cousin Harley was only two years older than Tim and last month he died of cardiac arrest in his sleep. She couldn’t bear the thought of something happening to her or Tim before they visited at least one of these places.
They had a small wedding and reception in her parent’s backyard with only a few friends and family in attendance. They were married on Saturday and went to work on Monday morning. Instead of a proper honeymoon, they stayed the night at Tim’s uncle Bernie’s old cabin near Seven Springs. It was Bernie’s gift to the happy couple before he sold it a few months later.
These concessions left them with just enough money to put a down payment on the house she was standing in. The house they still hoped to bring a baby home to one day.
“All we do is wait,” she thought. “What if the things we want don’t come?”
Sometimes Katherine felt like a hamster on a wheel running in circles going nowhere.
“If I can point to Wheeling tomorrow night on my birthday, it’s a sign. It’s at least something,” she reasoned.
Tim, along with her family and Tim’s family, had surprised her with a birthday dinner and a few presents. It was a lovely evening just like every other birthday celebration. This year, Tim and Katherine shared another piece of the birthday cake her mom made before going downstairs to perform her birthday ritual. Instead of using his hands to cover her eyes, Tim insisted she wear a blindfold.
“Trust me,” was all he said.
Katherine carefully stepped into her spot and located Wheeling before allowing Tim to blindfold her.
“Please let this work,” she thought.
Just as her finger was about to land, she felt a gentle push. Breathlessly, she waited for Tim to remove the blindfold.
“Wheeling, West Virginia,” he said. “We could actually afford to go there.”
“Hey, you cheated,” she said. “I felt you nudge my finger. Why would you do that?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he answered. “Maybe Harley nudged your finger, and maybe it’s time we stopped waiting for our grand adventure to start. Our list isn’t going anywhere, but that doesn’t mean we can’t chip away at it one adventure at a time.”
In that moment, Katherine realized life with Tim would be her grand adventure, and it was more than just something… it was everything.