Innocence and Endurance: Chapter 1

              Dedicated to my love, Paul, who knows everything about me, and loves me just the same.




Chapter One

          The snow covered the ground and tree tops, as Emily walked out the front door and down towards the sidewalk. She had put on her boots and her winter coat, and completed it with a bright red hat. She walked towards the local store, thinking about how boring her life was, and how she needed something to spice it up. She looked at her footprints, and sighed and walked up the driveway towards the corner drugstore, careful not to slip on the icy ground. She opened the door, and the bell rang as she stamped her snow covered boots on the welcome mat.
         “Good morning, Emily,” the older gentleman behind the counter greeted her, he had been running an old-fashioned drug store for over fifty years, ever since World War II, he had run the drug store, with a traditional soda fountain ever since Normandy had happened. He smiled at the seventeen-year-old as she walked up to the counter.
         “Good morning, Mr. Collins, how are you?”
         “I’m doing wonderful, glad to be inside during this weather,” he told her, as she picked up a glass and started making her usual cherry soda. She smiled; the grandfather figure knew her since she was an infant.
         “Yeah, the weather is pretty nasty, class was canceled today, and I just can’t stay in the house all day, so I figured I’d at least walk up here for a little visit. How’s business going today?”
         “Very slow, very slow indeed,” he told her, adding whip cream to her soda, and placing a maraschino cherry on top.
         The door opened and a young man entered, “Hey Pops!”
         “Hi, Alden… this is Emily, one of my regular customers,” the elder gentleman introduced them, “Emily, this is my grandson, Alden, he just joined the Army.”
         “Oh, really? The Army…” she said, sipping her soda, she removed her hat, and sat down on the stool, her brown hair cascaded her shoulders. Alden grinned and sat down beside her.
         “Yeah, kind of a tradition in my family, lifelong dream sort of thing…” he told her, his eyes took in her features, her dark brown hair and eyes, her slim body, her round cheeks and beautiful smile.
         “When do you leave?”
         “Not for a few months yet, boot camp ought to be entertaining,” he smiled, and sipped his coke, and couldn’t take his eyes off of her, he had seen her before, he had gone to school with her, she had always had her nose buried in a book.
         “Entertaining? You think you can do it?”
         “Of course, you’re only as tough as you think you are.”
         She smiled her winning smile, and he looked at her, he had an overwhelming urge to kiss her, she was every beautiful thing in the world, wrapped up in one. “How tough do you think you are?”
         “I can handle everything but a broken heart,” he whispered and sipped his coke again.
         She looked at him, he had piercing green eyes, he couldn’t be more honest, more intriguing, more appealing to her, “I doubt you’d have the feel that pain…” she whispered back, and smiled.
         He turned towards his grandfather, “Pops, dad wanted me to ask you if you had some jumper cables, the truck isn’t running, he needs to jump the truck, you know it always acts up in this weather.”
         “Yeah, I have one in the shed, if you want to grab it, just bring it back when you’re done with it,” he stated.
         “Sure thing, Pops, I’ll see you later,” he hugged his grandfather, and looked at the beautiful Emily, “I’ll see you again, I hope…”
         “It’s a small town, I’m sure I’ll see you again,” she grinned, and finished her cherry soda, as he left, the bell ringing after him.
         She looked at Mr. Collins, and he smiled, “go ahead, he likes you…” She beamed and kissed Mr. Collins’ cheek and ran out of the drugstore, she walked towards the shed, and found him pulling jumper cables out of a tool box. He turned around and saw her standing in the doorway.
         “I’ve seen you before, in school, you never talked to anyone, you were in your own world all the time, never even went to prom or anything.”
         “I was never asked,” she smiled shyly, and leaned against the wall, and stared at him, there was something about him that bewitched her.
         “For some reason, I don’t believe that, maybe it’s because you’re beautiful…” he told her, and she looked at her hands briefly, and he walked towards her, and touched her hand softly, “would you like to have dinner with me?”
         “I’d love to,” she said, looking in his eyes, wanting to kiss him, but realizing that was an irrational idea.
         “Tonight at six?” he proposed, “how’s that sound?”
         “Perfect,” she whispered, and for a long moment they stared at each other, wanting to kiss each other, but feeling unsure about all the feelings they were feeling at once.
         “I’ll pick you up, at six…”
         “Okay,” she grinned, “I live at 3114 Hampton…”
         “Alright, I’ll see you then…” he touched her hand gently again, and took the jumper cables and left the room, glancing back at her, and lifting his hand in farewell. She watched him get into a truck, and realized she was about to endeavor on something she had no idea or control on the consequences regarding the end.
         She walked away from the shed, and careful not to slip, she ran towards her house. No one was home, so she quickly let herself in, threw her keys on the table in the foyer, and ran up the stairs, her pug dog following her, barking in excitement. She glanced at the clock in the hall; it was about to stroke four pm. She gulped, and dashed into the bathroom, quickly turning the shower on, and slipping out of her clothes, and taking her hair down. She looked at herself in the mirror, and sighed, hoping he would call her beautiful again.
         She stepped into the shower, and began to wash herself, her mind absorbed with the upcoming date, she leaned against the wall in the shower, and let the hot water pour on her, her eyes closed, trying desperately to wash her stress and anxiety away, as she awaited the upcoming date.  Her thoughts were consumed with the outcome of this date, questions flooding her mind with worry. ‘What if he doesn’t like me? What if he does? What if we get serious? What will happen when he leaves for boot camp? What will happen if he gets deployed?’ She sighed and turned off the shower, as the heat was depleting from it.
         She stepped onto the bath mat and reached for her towel, she looked at herself; she wasn’t as beautiful as the majority of the individuals that she had gone to school with. She didn’t look like she was model material. She had never given much thought to doing her hair or applying makeup. Her wardrobe was bland, and not full of designed clothing. She owned clothes from general department stores, and didn’t even own a purse that advertised her taste. She owned a plain black purse, which she had owned since she was twelve. She never cared how she appeared, until that moment, when she stared at her naked reflection in the mirror.
         “Fuck,” she whispered, wishing she had more time, she heard the clock strike 4:30pm, she wrapped the towel around her and ran into her bedroom, and began looking for clothes to wear for her evening out. She tried on several different dresses, and finally settled on a blue sundress, she slipped on matching shoes, and began searching for a coat to wear over it, when the doorbell rang. She looked up at her alarm clock, and saw that it was 5:55pm.
         She ran down the stairs in a hurry, and before she opened the door, she looked at herself in the mirror, and straightened her dress, and took a deep breath, and flung open the door.  Alden stood there, wearing a green dress shirt, without a tie, and black slacks, he smiled at her, looking her over, amazed at how she looked. The way her hair, slightly damp, slid around her shoulders, he smiled at her, and reached for her hand, and gladly took his. “You look like a dream, Emily…”
         “So do you,” she blushed, and together they walked towards his truck, the front door closing softly behind them. He opened the passenger side of his truck, and she stepped in, and buckled her seat belt, and he walked around the front of the truck, and opened the door and jumped in, and buckled his own seat belt and started the engine. He looked at her before he placed the car in reverse, and smiled at her, he was speechless because of her beauty, and he then backed out of the driveway and took a left toward the town.

                                                 *******

         She sat across from him in the old Bar and Grill, he was as sweet as he was handsome. His eyes seemed to penetrate every cell in her body, he seemed like he could read her mind, in fact, she wished he would, for she was thinking she was about to fall in love with him. He was disarming, alert and in every aspect and definition of the word, ‘perfect.’ He was what she had been looking for; he was her knight in shining armor, a knight dying to rescue her from her self-isolation. The petty depression she had created to hide herself from the world.
         He was real, real as the fabric her dress was made out of, real as the emotions that were so simple, so direct and so unmistakably true. She was falling for him. He wasn’t the suave, debonair, drop-dead gorgeous man that’s image polluted drug-store romance novels, he was real, he was a true man, a real man, who wasn’t afraid to be himself, he was, in fact, himself and that made her fall deeper and deeper into that uncomplicated emotion called love. Uncomplicated because he was.  The only thing that could awake her spirit, and allow her to become the woman she was destined to be.
         “Where are you? He spoke, after setting down his iced tea. She looked up, he had been staring in silence as her mind flowed with thoughts and emotions, simple thoughts, inventory of every desire she had, her thoughts of womanhood and finally joining that crowd.
         “I’m right here, I’m not going anywhere,” she replied, looking into his eyes, wanting, with school girl excitement to kiss his lips, feel their softness, taste them, and learn every detail of his mind, his heart and his personality. She secretly wished he was a book she could devour and read over and over again, and know the secrets of his heart.
         “I pray you won’t go anywhere,” he said softly.
         “Why’s that?”
         “I enjoy looking at you,” he told her.
         “I don’t see why you would, but thanks for the compliment, it’s really flattering, but unnecessary,” she blushed, and met his eyes, she knew he was telling the truth.
         “Only because it’s true. You’re sweet and absolutely gorgeous; you have the appearance of a goddess, an angel. I can’t believe you agreed to go out with me.”
         “I did because I wanted to and I still want to and I have a feeling I’ll always want to. There’s something about you, something so appealing, it makes me happy to be around you, after the nervousness subsided.”
         “You shouldn’t be nervous, there’s nothing to be nervous about,” he told, reaching over the table to place his hand on top of hers. She felt a breathe leave her chest, and her stomach get the feeling of butterflies, as she tried to calm herself down, he stood up, walked over to her chair, and tilted her chin up, and softly kissed her.