Only a Dandelion

"Let's go for a picnic." Hannah said as she cuddled up against Luke's side.

"Where do you want to go?" he asked putting his arm around her and giving her a little squeeze.

"I don't care, let's just have one in the backyard." she said squeezing him back.

Hannah and Luke had been dating for six months. They felt like a married couple.  They didn't go out all the time anymore. They mostly spent their time together watching tv or movies and occasionally they would play a board game. A couple nights a week they would go out some place and eat dinner, but other than that they mostly spent time together at either Hannah or Matt's house.

"We've never had a picnic before and I'm kinda bored watching reruns of Roseanne." Hannah told him.

"Well, let's go fix some sandwiches." he said "I'm getting hungry anyways."

"Your always hungry." she told him getting up to go to the kitchen.

"I'm a growing boy. What do you expect?"

She laughed, "Growing boy my butt, your twenty-four."

"Oh well, a guy still has to eat." he said following behind her.

A little while later they had a small cooler full of food and a blanket all set to go.

"Let's sit over there." Hannah pointed to a big maple. "It's nice and shady under the tree."

"Ok." he said.

Hannah spread out the blanket and sat down on it. Luke joined her and they started pulling the food out. They had made turkey and cheese sandwiches, deviled eggs and they had gotten a bag of chips out of the  cabinet. Remembering the soda's they had forgotten on the counter, Luke got up and went to get them.

Just beside her growing in the grass was a dandelion. It's flower long gone now, leaving a ball of seeds behind. Hannah leaned over and plucked it. She could still remember her and her younger sister running around the yard picking the weeds to play a child's game.

They would try to find ones that hadn't lost alot of seeds and then they would blow the seeds off, watching them set sail in the wind. The number of seeds left would determine how many kids you would have when you were married.

Her sister Kelsey looked down at hers and scrunched up her face. "I don't want to have 9 kids." she said.

"Me either." Hannah would agree and they would run off to find more.

She missed Kelsey who had gotten married two years ago and moved to the Illinois. They only lived a couple hours away, but they still never saw one another. Hannah was happy for her sister who had married her highschool sweetheart, but deep inside she was a little jealous. Kelsey was married and miles away and Hannah was still stuck living with their parents. Kelsey's latest news of her being pregnant was the same way. Although Hannah was thrilled, she still felt like it should've been her first.

Luke found Hannah sitting in the same spot staring at a dandelion that had went to seed. "Honey, what are you doing?"

Hannah jumped a little, having not heard him come out of the house. "I saw this dandelion and it made me think of a game me and Kelsey used to play." she said.

"What game?" he asked putting the soda's in the cooler and stretching out on the blanket.

"Oh, it's silly. You blow off all the seeds that you can in one big breath and then you count the remaining seeds." Hannah explained. "The number of seeds that's left is how many kids your going to have."

"Let me see it." he said reaching for the dandelion still in her hand. She let him have it and got into the cooler and pulled out a soda for each of them.

Luke held the dandelion close to his mouth and blew hard. Seeds flew through the air, some landing on the blanket, some clinging to Hannah's hair. She laughed and brushed off the blanket.

Luke stared at the dandelion, almost all the seeds gone and counted the remaining.

"How many's left?" Hannah asked trying to count them.

"Six," Luke said. "We are definatly not having six kids."

Hannah laughed again taking the dandelion stem away from him. "It's only a dandelion." she said tossing it aside.

He leaned over and gave her a kiss. "Yeah, but when we do have kids, they're going to be beautiful."

Hannah smiled at the compliment.

"Just like you." he added. He leaned over and picked up the stem that she had tossed. Taking off the white head, he tied it into a small circle and cut off the remaining peices of stem with his fingernail.

"Give me your hand." he said. Not knowing what he was talking about she gave him a confused look.

He grabbed her left hand and slid the dandelion stem onto her ring finger.

Hannah looked up at him with shock. "Don't play with me." she told him.

"I'm not." he said. "Will you marry me?"

Hannah's eyes filled with tears. "Yes!" she exclaimed hugging him.

"Just untill I can afford a real one." he told her.

"Well, make it soon!" Hannah told him. "I don't think this dandelion will last very long."

"No," Luke agreed. "But, we will."

Hannah agreed and hugged him again. Thinking about how a dandelion had just changed her life.