Abstraction ➳ Owen Grady

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ALLY DROPPED HER tote and keys on the kitchen table, letting out a long sigh of relief. After a week of midterms, it was finally the weekend, even if the stack of papers in need of grading were overflowing. She sat down and pulled out the jumbled up tests and lab reports, along with her favorite red ink pen. Grading her students' work was possibly her least favorite part about being a professor.

"Babe." Owen Grady slid into the chair across from her. "I have an idea," he began, drumming his fingers on the table.

"Last time you had an idea-" Ally pointed her pen in his direction "-we spent over a hundred dollars in an arcade trying to beat all the high scores," she mused, eyeing him with notable suspicion. It had been an impulsive decision more than anything and had taken almost five hours to accomplish the feat. During Owen's attempt to break the high score in Galaga, he had managed to draw a small crowd.

"Yeah," he said, thinking back to that afternoon with a lazy grin, "we should do that again sometime."

Alysanne shook her head, trying to hide her smile. "Spill it, Grady." His smile disappeared, replaced by a more serious expression. It became evident, that whatever idea he had, he had put in a fair amount of thought.

"What if we moved?" The question didn't fully register at first. But once it did, everything else he was saying grew muffled and distant. "Into the mountains with a cabin and a view?"

"Owen, we can't-" she stopped herself mid-sentence and let out a deep sigh "-I can't just move." She had a responsibility to the university, to her students, to her research and colleagues.

Maybe Kansas life was humdrum, but there were worse places to be. Owen wasn't content, though. Ally knew from the start that he wasn't content. He wasn't the type to enjoy living in the suburbs. There was something wild and rugged about him that didn't belong in a house with a white picket fence.

Owen hadn't expected her to be gung-ho about the sudden question, but he had to plant a seed somehow. After seeing her work and live on Isla Nublar for almost three years he knew, deep down, that she was bored of this routine. He reached across the kitchen table to take her hands. "Just think about it, Ally."

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He was messing with her damp hair, unable to lie still. Since she hadn't outright opposed his idea of moving, he decided to pry, to see where she would go given the opportunity. "West Coast?" Owen asked. He couldn't picture her as an East Coast girl unless she was somewhere with mountains.

Ally's face scrunched up at the notion. She had no desire to live in a region with an active fault zone and subduction boundary. Two feet of snow in the winter and thunderstorms were two things she'd take any day over earthquakes and volcanoes. "More inland," she countered. Owen twisted a strand of her hair around his finger. He almost felt bad for keeping her up so late on a work night.

"Wyoming? Colorado? Idaho?" At this point, he was just rambling off western states that didn't border the Pacific Ocean. She pursed her lips, thinking about another state that had popped into her mind. One that she had fallen in love with during her field camp experience. "Montana?" Ally added in the same inquisitive tone.

"Not going to lie," Owen began, his weight hovering over her, braced on his forearms, "I forget that place exists sometimes." A thoughtful look worked its way onto his countenance, barely visible in the dark bedroom. Ally could see the gears grinding in his mind. "But I like it," he mused. She smiled when he stooped forward, kissing the tip of her nose. 

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She had caught up on her grading, was even ahead of schedule for her newest proposal, and had sent off another paper to be reviewed for publication. Yet, when Owen came home with a bag of takeout and a bottle of Riesling she was sitting at the bar, laptop open and papers strewn about.

As soon as he noticed they were seismographs, he knew. Then he noticed the television was playing in the next room, on a news channel that was discussing Mt. Sibo, now an active volcano. Owen Grady frowned.

He sat their supper on the countertop and slipped behind where she sat. His hands fell on her shoulders, thumbs beginning to knead her tight muscles with small circles. "You're stressing over it again." Ally could feel the stubble of his jaw as he leaned forward.

"Yes," Alysanne responded, not even trying to deny it. Every time she managed to push it to the back of her mind, something happened to bring it back up. This time it had been a news story about the dinosaurs that caused her to start reviewing the data. Ally pressed her face into her hands. "If it erupts then the dinosaurs will die."

Some part of her knew that it was probably time to let the engineered creatures go. She had worked hard for two years to push the memories and events of Jurassic World far away from her thoughts. Yet the other part of her knew that something had to be done. They were living creatures, just like her, and it didn't feel right to just push them aside to be doomed. "Maybe," Owen started, glancing down at the graphs and reports, "maybe that's for the best."

Alysanne spun around on the barstool, shoulders dropping. "I put in my papers," she said. At first, Owen thought she had meant for publication, but then he realized she wasn't talking about those papers. "After the summer semester," she added and he broke out into a wide grin.

Owen Grady leaned down for a quick kiss. Ally could feel him still smiling against her lips. "Good," he said, "because I already bought a plot of land." She cut her eyes at him. "You did what?" Disbelief tinged her tone, but couldn't dampen the excitement they both shared.

"Yeah," he said, shrugging, "near Butte." Montana. Ally bit down on her bottom lip and decided that he was perfect. "I can go start building," he noted. There were only so many things a handyman could do to keep himself entertained around the house when nothing was in need of repair.

"Slow down there, Grady," Ally told him, a hand pressed to the center of his chest. "How about you wait until after winter break?" That was just over a month away and would give them time to at least have a serious discussion about moving and other important topics that came with building a house and selling another. "Then you can go."

He easily agreed to that and popped the cork off the bottle of wine. This news called for an impromptu celebration.