“It’s nice to see you again chase do you remember me” He said with a pink duffel bag in his right hand and his left hand scratching the back of his head. “I’m not Chase but me, you, and your daughter need to have a chat out on the front porch.” Nikeya’s father wasn’t a man who took orders from anybody but his wife. But he owed it to his daughter to at least her what the boy had to say. “Okay” he said. Nikeya and Alex both came outside and then Alex closed the door behind them both. “I can see your daughter and my friend are having some technical difficulties. I’m not mistaking the situation. Chase forgot a promise that he made to your daughter nine years ago but I’m curious as to what the promise was? Not that I probably don’t already know what it is.” Alex said getting straight to the point. “He promised me that when we got older that he would marry me.” Nikeya answered in a shy voice. Alex’s jaw instantly dropped he felt like he was getting in way over his head in this situation. “Are you sure we’re talking about the same Chase. The Chase I know doesn’t even notice girls exist anymore. The Chase you described doesn’t even sound like Chase. Not that I’m saying it wasn’t him or anything.” “I Guarantee it was him I remember his parents cause I was his mom’s best man. She really didn’t have many female friends. She told me to call her if I ever needed anything or if something bad happened. I called her that day, back when we lived in Kansas. An earthquake had just stuck our house in half. I called her and she brought Mark so he could draw up some new blueprints. They brought along a little boy with them and told me that he didn’t have many friends since they had just adopted him a year ago. I told them he could go meet my daughter in the park. It wasn’t too far just across the road. It made it easy for me to keep my eye on Nikeya when she was little. He walked across the road to the park while me and his parents were talking about what was gonna happen and how much it was gonna cost.” He said starting to explain the beginning of the past. “When he made it to the park we greeted each other we played at the park for an hour then my dad told us to come back over to come eat. We came back to the house and then ate he and his parents left after twenty minutes. They came back a lot for three weeks. On the fourth week the house was rebuilt so father had a BBQ party for his parents and the workers that helped rebuild the house. I was over at the park all alone because there was no one my age to talk to at the BBQ. That’s when Chase came to the park and asked me, “If I was okay?” I told him that there was no one to play with. He grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the swings. He told me to, “Sit on one.” I got on one and then he went behind me to push me. I think he pushed me on that swing all day and he didn’t get tired at all. It became night time and my dad called me and Chase to the house just like he did so many times before. But this time was different a car came by fast as I was crossing the street. I didn’t see it until it came really close. Daddy could come fast enough and things started to slow down for me. Daddy was on one side of the road screaming stop and on the other side was Chase. He didn’t seem affected by time. He rushed quickly and dove for me. He grabbed me within nanoseconds of the car coming to hit me. When he reached me and got both of us out of the way he told me, “You should be careful when crossing the road and to always look both ways.” Daddy was so happy he was gonna cry. He rushed over to hug me and thank Chase for saving me. He also told us to go inside the house while he talked to the guy who was driving.” Nikeya finished off her part of the story. “When Nikeya and Chase went inside I felt like I was ready to destroy the guy who almost ended my baby girl’s life. But I didn’t instead I yelled at the guy and then I sued him and that’s how I paid for the house. That night Chase’s parents didn’t come to pick him up they said, “Something had come up and that they would come in the morning to pick him up.” They asked me if he could stay the night. I said yes since I was in debt to his parent for fixing my house ASAP and the fact that he saved my little girl. I didn’t tell them about the saving thing until the morning they came to pick Chase up.” He told the end of his story and Nikeya was runner up to finish it. “Later that night when we were both sleeping in my bed he always slept on the edge of the bed because he wanted to protect me. Just in case anything came later that night, I was still shaken up about me almost getting hit by a car. That’s when he did something I’ll never forget. He held me super close to him and told me that, “Everything was gonna be alright”. He told me, “He would never let anything or anybody hurt me or scare me ever again.” I felt comfortable in his arms, that’s when I asked him a question. I asked him, “Will you marry me when I grow up, so I won’t have anything to fear and so no one could ever hurt me?” He then held out his pinky and I reached for it with my pinky. He said, “I pinky promise, I cross my heart and hope to die.” I remember that night because that was the first time a boy had ever made me blush. I was so happy when he told me he would that I could hardly wait to grow up. I kissed him on the cheek and went to sleep instantly knowing I would be safe as long as I was with him. Then when I woke up in the morning and he was gone I asked daddy, “Where he went?” he told me, “Back home, but don’t worry you’ll see him again.” So that’s when I started to wait. I waited for him to come back. I waited at the park where we first met every day. Daddy had to bring me home at night and bring food to me during the evening. I waited every day for an entire year I saw a lot of kids come to the park and I saw a lot of adults. But I never saw Chase and his parents come back.