The computer program

19. Epilogue

Five years later.

The smell of resin was always stronger in the summer.

I couldn't help but close my eyes, honestly not out of enjoyment but because I was tired, having woken up at five am in order to get to work.

It was worth it, though. It was worth the early mornings just to be able to live here, deep in the forest. The pine trees shot up high in the sky, their dark, blue-tinted greens contrasted by their red stems. My footsteps were muffled by the pine needles, gently softening my way home.

I opened my eyes and felt that pang of joy I always felt when I saw our home. It was a timber cottage, the timbers left their natural, dark brown colour, the roof jade green. A thin chain of smoke was blooming out of the chimney, meaning Tobirama had lit the fireplace.

I felt my pace quicken as it always did when I was close to home. I had been hesitant at first, moving up north to a cottage, an hour car drive from the parking lot to town, and a twenty minute walk from home to the parking lot. But I had been adamant to make it work because I knew it was what Tobirama needed. He had been unhappy in the city as he wanted to hide, so he had felt couldn't go out. The suggestion to move had been his, and his face had been so ashamed asking it of me that my heart had burned to ashes.

We had found the cottage and fell in love. Both of us. Small from the outside, it was renovated and modernised on the inside with large, light and open spaces with a big and modern kitchen, a big bedroom with an en suite, a guest room and an extra bathroom. We hadn't had to do anything with it; just move in. I had done my best and gained myself a good job in the closest city, working as an IT consultant. Tobirama had gained a job in the forest after having spoken to the owner of it; he was highly intellectual, of course, but was craving a job where he could use his body. We were far enough from our hometown that he would dare go out with me on the weekends in the city where I worked, and also to the gym a couple of times a week. The first year here was lined with worry about having pulled me into a life I did not desire, but as he saw how much good the forest did me, he started to relax, and let this new life he had craved embalm his own soul as well.

I opened the door, always unlocked, and stepped in. The hallway was open to the kitchen and living room that weren't two separate rooms but an open space, and something that smelled delicious and a little Christmassy stood and bubbled in a pot on the stove; even if Tobirama didn't have to eat himself, he always cooked something for me and had supper with me. Every Goddamn evening.

There was no sound of him, so I tiptoed to the stove, released my hair from the high ponytail I'd put it up in for work making it tumble down do my waist. I lifted the lid, took a spoonful of the stew, blew on it, tasted. It had a heavenly taste of bay leaf and cracked black pepper.

"Got you!!" someone roared behind me, putting their hands over my eyes, making me jump to the skies with a scream.

It was Tobirama.

He laughed heartily.

"What did you do that for!" I screamed. "Fuck you!"

He just kept laughing; put his arms around me and kissed my forehead.

"You'll never learn", he said. "Humans are so easily scared. Did you enjoy the stew?"

"No. It was disgusting. Motherfucker."

I hugged him back; the smell of him on his flannel shirt was mixed up with the spices of the stew. I was in heaven.

As he took two plates from a cabinet, I couldn't help but stare at his engagement ring and wedding band on his finger; both of them flat, matte platinum, the engagement band slightly broader. I had matching ones on my fingers but in matte gold.