Thanks for the Memories

Anna Coy stood for a moment in the doorway of her grandparent’s house. This was her favorite place to be, the place she always felt safe in no matter what. They had lived in this house across the street from her all twenty years of her life, and the forty-four before that, yes, this was special. Getting along in years, now in their eighties, her grandmother needed her hip replaced and her grandfather  wouldn’t hear of leaving her in the hospital even for a night, stating that the two of them hadn’t spent more than one night apart since the end of the war and they weren’t going to end that record now. Closing the door she headed for the stairs towards the attic, the best spot in the house, on her way looking for any sign of James Lewis, the boy who lived with her grandparents when he wasn’t at school and her best friend her entire life. Reaching the stairs to the attic she still hadn’t caught sight of him, but if he was there he was probably in the attic, it had been their favorite place in the house for as long as she could remember. When they weren’t outside making mischief they could usually be found up there. The stairs creaked beneath her feet as she made her way up, she hadn’t been up there in a while, she had been at school and was glad that she could finally be home to revisit this cozy spot.
Anna could remember her grandfather bringing her and James up to the attic to show them all of his things from the war and the pictures he had from over the years. The two of them would come up and go through the boxes by themselves for hours, when her grandparents would come up to find them, they usually would join in on he rummaging, telling the story of each object. The kids took in every word, amazed at how grandpa had been to Europe and jumped out of planes and that grandma had built airplanes; that was just so cool to a seven year old. Reaching the attic she stopped at the first box and found her grandparents wedding album. Memories flashed through her mind of sitting on her Grandmother’s lap and James on her grandfather’s while they looked through the album. Stopping at the picture of her grandparents kissing both of them thoroughly disgusted! Anna smiled when she found the picture remembering her grandfather saying, “Someday you two will like it.”  Only nine they both turned to him with sick looks on their faces and uttering a simultaneous “EWW!”  She could still hear her grandparents laughing at them.
Smiling she put the picture down and walked over to the record player that still had a Frank Sinatra record on it from who knows when, Frank Sinatra had been one of her favorites growing up; in fact she was probably the one who put the record on the player. The old player had been one of her favorite things as well; she would go up to the attic and play all the records she could find, sitting up there for hours at a time. James would usually join her staying there sometimes all night listening to the sounds of Glen Miller, Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, and Rosemary Clooney, another favorite, while going through her grandparents old things, not coming down until her grandparents would find them in the morning sprawled out on the floor sleeping peacefully. When her grandfather would come home from the hardware store he and her grandmother would bring up snacks and drinks, repeat stories they wanted to hear again or tell new ones. The record player was usually on in the background and they used it to teach them their best dance moves. Lifting the needle, and turning a few knobs she listened to the white noise before I’ll Be Seeing You came through the crackling old speakers. Humming along to the song she walked over to the full length mirror opening the box that had her grandmother’s wedding dress in it. She stood up holding the top pulling the dress up with her as she straitened. Looking in the mirror she could see herself twelve years old spinning around in front of the same mirror wearing the dress, the sleeve’s long past her hands, the extra length piling around her feet , the veil coming just past her waist. James had stopped her spinning when he stepped next to her and pushed her aside to see his own reflection. He was wearing her grandfather’s hat and dress jacket from the Airborne with the captains bars still shinning from the shoulders and him brimming with pride. Scowling at him in the mirror the two stood side by side pushing each other fighting for space in front of the mirror. Anna’s grandmother laughed saying, “You two will make the cutest bride and groom someday, you just wait and see.”
The clearing of his throat interrupted her reminiscing. She turned startled and found James standing at the top of the steps, with his hands in his pockets and an admiring look on his face. They hadn’t seen each other since Christmas break, she had been avoiding him all summer, but the sight of him standing there made her smile. He smiled back as her hands fell to her waist still holding the dress. “I didn’t know you were here,” she said quietly breaking the silence between the two of them.
The memories all came back to him as he started walking towards her. Standing face to face with her he looked in the box finding the captains hat he was looking for and put it on his head, tilting it like Jimmy Stewart, touching the brim and saying “Don’t you know a wedding is no fun without the groom.” He smiled looking down into her eyes.
“And that would be you, huh?”
“Of course don’t you remember Gran was the one who said it I am just listening to my elders.” He smiled and waited for some smart-alic reply.
Her smile faded instead and answered, “I was just thinking about that, at least you remembered too.”

Anna Miller and James Coy met in the spring of 1938, she was sixteen and he was nineteen. That spring wasn’t their first, but the first that meant something, the true first being when they were both to young and uninterested. He was working in his father’s hardware store trying to save enough money to get as far away from Indiana, Pennsylvania as he could, nothing was going to keep him in the little town any longer than he had to be, well, nothing until Anna walked into the store. On a simple errand for her father, she looked beautiful in her sundress pulling her bike along with her, leaning it against the wall before walking through the door, James couldn’t help but stare. He dropped the box of nails she was buying a dozen times, before he finally managed to hand them over to her, but then he couldn’t let go; as her fingers brushed his a chill went through him. Watching her leave was a mixed blessing, he didn’t want to see her go but watching her go wasn’t so bad either. Anna was just as affected by their meeting, after that day she kept trying to find reasons to go to the store, another box of nails, a few bolts; soon her only reason was to see him. The idea of getting out of Indiana slowly faded but if she would marry him he still wanted to get away from small town life.
By the end of 1940 the two of them were more in love then ever, and now that she was eighteen he finally had permission from her father to marry her, but the date for the wedding was on hold until he had the money to get her a ring and could get a place of their own, in the end money wasn’t the only thing that postponed it. December 7, 1941 stopped the world, every young red blooded American boy was joining the armed services, ready to fight for their country, and James was with them. James joined the Airborne and by the time they were given their furlough before shipping out he headed home as a 1st Lieutenant and was mighty proud of that gold bar on his hat and shoulders of his dress uniform. Anna had convinced him before he even started for home that they should get married before he left for action, she told him that if anything happened to him she wanted to at least be able to say that they had been married, so in the days he was home on furlough they got married, with the promise he would come home so they could start their family.
James made good on his promise, and when he made it home they started that family right there in Indiana. When people asked him about getting out of the small town he would answer, “I have been once, that was enough for me.” Anna gave birth to four children, Michael Alan, Samantha Marie, James Eugene (Gene) Jr., and Alexander William.
Michael chose to stay around Indiana, like his father take over the hardware store and start a family in the same town he was raised in. He and his wife, Katherine, had only one child, Annaleise Marie, named after her grandmother, her grandmother had gone by Ann for years, making a difference when they were in the same room. Having one child wasn’t the original plan but was the way it happened when Katherine and her passenger were killed in an automobile accident when a drunk driver ran a red light, Anna was six. Her father never remarried, believing that he had met the love of his life and their short time together was enough to last him a life time. While he worked Anna would spend her days with her grandmother they formed a close relationship and it grew stronger when Katherine died.
The Lewis family, Jennifer and Andrew moved to the neighborhood four years before James was born. Both of their parents had passed away by the time they moved to Indiana, so they had little family to speak of. The Lewis’ lived next door to Michael and Katherine and became fast friends with them, as well as Ann and Jim. Katherine and Jennifer became pregnant around the same time and James and Anna were born within a month of each other. They named their son James after Jim, having become such good friends and treating them like they were part of the family. The Coy’s loved having the children around and since all of the parents worked they would watch them until they were old enough to stay home by themselves, but they came over anyways. James spent so much time there he just adopted them as grandparents calling them Gran and Pa at times seeming closer to them than his parents. This is where the children’s close relationship started too.
The two of them were attached at the hip, doing everything together, everything being an understatement. When one of them was sick so was the other, when James got the chicken pox so did Anna, and when Anna fell off the tire swing and broke her wrist, everyone says that James must have been jealous because the next day he fell off and broke the opposite wrist. The bond of the two children grew even deeper at age six; the passenger in Katherine’s car was Andrew Lewis, James’ father. Katherine had offered to drive him to the airport in Pittsburg since she was headed in that direction to visit a sick friend of hers. Jennifer couldn’t handle Andrew’s death the way that Michael handled Katherine’s. She slowly declined turning to alcohol and other men. James was usually left alone, Jennifer was out all hours of the night then slept that night off most of the day, but when she was around James always seemed to be in the way. Anna always knew when he had gotten in the way too. She often woke to find him on her balcony tapping on her window with new bruises and promises that she would not tell anyone. The night visits became so frequent that she just started leaving her balcony door open for him, not evening knowing that he would come in but find him there in the morning sleeping next to her, when she would wake him so he could leave before her father could discover him. Her father and grandparents knew that Jennifer was slipping but the kids managed to keep the bruises secret for a while. At first he refused to leave his mother but Jim and Ann finally stepped in when he was thirteen and he went to live with them. Anna and James never talked about the incident or their parents with anyone except each other, what they remembered about them, moments they wished that they were there, and that they both felt cheated out of a life with there parents.
The two managed to find the happier things in life and they filled photo albums with those happier moments; the two of them on the first day of kindergarten, first day of high school, the two of them and their dates before dances, prom as each other’s date, being elected prom king and queen, and graduation. After graduation they finally parted ways for the first time in their lives, Anna to Yale and James to Harvard. Though separated they seemed to do the same thing, studying the same thing, history, both coming home for all of the holidays, and neither of them being the partying type, usually end up having late night conversations with each other and studying. Having never actually been a couple, they were each other’s first kiss, just to see what it was like of course, and everyone knew they were in love with each other including them, they just wouldn’t admit it. It seemed that every time one of them was willing to admit it, the other was denying it. It was a vicious cycle they went through. They never told each other that they wanted to be with one another they just seemed to stand back and wait, but by the time the other came around they had moved on. Now that the two of them weren’t seeing each other every day, their phone conversation were even more important, as well as their trips home for the holidays, not that either of them would admit that to anyone, but if they were truly honest with themselves the real reason they came home for every break was because they knew the other would be there too.



“Remember? How could I forget, they only tell us every time they see us together!” Running his hands over the 33’s that were in a box next to him, James turned his head towards the record player as the song switched to I’ll Never Smile Again, “May I have this dance my lady?” he said bending low and extending his hand.
Anna put down the dress and put on her grandmother’s veil, “Why I thought you’d never ask.” She said batting her eyelashes, taking his hand, she was glad James had come up, “You know I was just thinking about this when I turned the record player on, the hours we spent up here dancing or just playing all of the records.”
“I remember, I don’t think my toes have ever been the same!” James said pulling her closer as they moved to the music.
“Oh I seem to remember it as you who stepped on my toes, thank you very much!” Anna laughed holding him tighter.
“You know, I think this is the longest we have been in a room together since we’ve been home for the summer, and if memory serves, before we came home you didn’t call me much for the last month I was afraid you were mad at me. What have you been doing all of this time?”
“I was busy with finals then just busy,” she said quickly her smile fading as her eyes turned away from his. “Which reminds me I do believe that I got better grades then you this semester that means you owe me fifty big ones buster!” her smile returning, James smiled back as Anna leaned her head on his chest. James inhaled deep leaning his head closer to hers.
Sighing he answered back, “Yea, yea just add it to my tab, miss smarty pants,” inhaling again he closed his eyes, the sweet vanilla scent reminded him of the last time he had held her this close, their prom. He had been in heaven that night too. As the song continued James couldn’t help but ask himself why they weren’t together, this just felt so right to him. He knew that he was in love with her but he never actually told her that, he always thought she should know, but she didn’t seem to. He couldn’t count how many times he had, had this same conversation with Pa, so many times before, he always told him the same thing to just go for it but there was always something holding him back. The two of them had been friends for years; they had pictures together in the bathtub for goodness sakes! If something ever happed between them he didn’t want to lose her. James had decided long ago that he would rather torture himself by just being friends with her than lose her because of some romantic mistake. As the song came to an end Anna leaned back and looked up into James’ eyes. When Anna smiled James noticed a sparkle in her eyes and in this close vicinity that sparkle made his heart race, he realized that they had stopped dancing, and his mind started to spin he pulled away from her and started dancing again as the song changed.
James’ sudden movement startled her; the space between them left her cold where his body had been against hers. When she had laid her head against his chest she closed her eyes wishing things could be as simple as this. But with the space came relief, it wasn’t that simple. She hadn’t been this close to him in a while and she wasn’t sure she could handle it. The closeness of their dancing reminded her of prom, the whole night they had stayed close all evening and everything was simple. They weren’t best friend that bathed together as children, they were just together, all she wanted. She looked up into his eyes as James tightened his grip and started spinning them around, Anna laughed remembering how she used to hate it when he did this, just to get her dizzy, he would say, now it was just a way to get her sparkling eyes out of his mind. To keep from falling she wrapped her arms around his neck. Soon they were both laughing so hard that they finally collapsed on the floor. Anna landed with her head on his chest and James with his hat over his eyes. The both of them seemed to lie there forever just trying to stop laughing, and stop the room from spinning in circles. When Anna finally stopped laughing she let out a sigh and started to stand up. Pushing herself up on her elbows she realized Frank Sinatra was no longer on the record player instead it was Moonlight Serenade by Glenn Miller. That is a totally different record, she thought looking around, sitting the rest of the way up she realized she realized that wasn’t the only thing different.
James was still chuckling with his hat over his eyes, when Anna started shaking him, “James, James something is really wrong here.”
“What? What are you talking about?” He asked sounding slightly concerned thinking she might have hurt herself. He sat up on his elbows pushing the hat off of his eyes, he looked around, all he could say was, “Anna what did you do?”


Michael Coy walked down the hall to the waiting room of the surgical ward where he was told his father would be waiting for his mother to come out of surgery. As he passes elderly in wheelchairs with their families tending to them, Michael couldn’t help but be amazed at how active his parents were. His father could still drive and his mother still cleaned, shopped, and made and mended clothes for herself, family and neighbors, and they both took nightly walks around their neighborhood. He and Anna still lived across the street and James lived with them, James and Anna often joined them on their walks. Walking in pairs Michael would watch for them from the living room window as his parents walked hand in hand and the children followed. When they were younger they would imitated his parents holding hands and swinging their arms, now they followed hands in pockets trying not to touch, but everyone knew they wanted to.
When he reached the waiting room he found his father sitting in a chair reading a newspaper, mumbling as he read the opinion section, most likely in disagreement, he couldn’t help but laugh.
“Hey dad how are things going?” Michael asked as he walked in and put his hand on his father’s shoulder before taking a seat across from him.
“Oh hello son, the surgery should be finished soon. What are you doing here?” Jim asked lowering his paper.
“I was just finishing up at the store and thought that I would stop by and see how mom was.”
“Well she was fine going in, say I hope Anna doesn’t get lonely staying at our house all by herself.”
“Oh I’m sure James will end up hanging, he came home early from the beach, he called Anna this afternoon, I believe they are going to a movie tonight. But you know as well as I do they will probably end up in the attic listening to that old record player of yours all night.” They both laughed at the truth of his statement.
Michael and his daughter had always been close and he knew how madly in love with James she was and that the feeling was mutual. He always listened to his parents say how the two were going to get married one day, that they were just the next generation of them, same names and all. The big joke was that neither of them would die until it happened, and he believed it. He was glad that his parents were always there for the two of them, they had been a great influence on Anna when her mother had died and had really been there for him as well.
Jim and Michael sat talking about the hardware store and old times, when the doctor came in. Luckily the news was good, Ann was in recovery and they could go in and see her soon. When they finally did go in Ann bolted upright, with a look of horror on her face, the sight of her husband and son seemed to give her no relief. “Jimmy, their gone!” Ann said grabbing for his hand.
“Who’s gone?”
“Anna and James! They—they were dancing and, and Frank Sinatra was playing and, poof! Gone!”
“Shh, shh. It was just a dream don’t you worry, I’m sure they are just fine.” Jim said giving her hand a reassuring squeeze.
“But Jimmy it wasn’t a dream! I know it wasn’t, their gone!”
“Mom it’s okay I’ll go look for them as soon as I leave here okay?” Michael said softly placing his hand on her shoulder.
“It won’t do any good, their gone their just gone.” She kept mumbling as Jim and Michael helped her lay back on the bed.”


“Me? Why is this my fault? I didn’t do anything.” Anna yelled standing up and putting her hands on her hips. In doing this she realized that her jeans were no longer jeans, looking down she saw that she was now wearing a blue sundress she had never seen before. She reached up to see if the veil was still there, finding it still in place she pulled it off her head. Looking at it she started shaking, it was a bright white, instead of the slightly dimmer white with its sixty-five years of existence. She turned toward a window and saw the dress hanging on a bar near it, like the veil it looked brand new. Her eyes roamed the room and finally rested on James, it had happened to him too, the hat now had a gold bar in front, he was in her grandfathers dress uniform but it was different, instead of two silver bars on his shoulders the gold bars of a first 1st lieutenant were their instead.
James seemed to realize it at the same time she did, when he looked down at his jacket he jumped up, hitting his head on a beam, a beam he knew shouldn’t be there. “ow!” he yelped rubbing his head and looking around, the whole attic had changed. “Anna where are we?” He finally managed to ask still rubbing his head and looking down at the insignia on his jacket. Seeing the silver wings on the front and the eagle on the left shoulder he recognized it as the same one Pa had from the airborne, save for the one gold bar instead of the two silver ones.
“I don’t know.” Anna answered looking around the attic they were in. She knew it wasn’t her grandparents, it was too small, but she had a feeling she had seen it before, it even had some of the same things in it, like her great-grandmother’s mirror that she and James had stood in front of years ago, and the record player. She walked toward the window and dropping the veil as she moved. She pushed aside the curtain and didn’t quite know what to make of what she saw on the street. All of the cars were classics, in perfect condition, lining both sides of the street, there wasn’t a single one that could have been made later than the forties, she had never seen so many. “James look.” She ordered without even turning in his direction, standing beside her his jaw dropped.
Before they could say anything they heard the creaking than slam of a door underneath them. Their attention snapped away from the window as they looked at each other, afraid of what would happen next. Silently listening for a clue to who could be in the house. Soon they heard cabinet doors opening and closing, then the refrigerator, then Anna’s name, well almost Anna’s name.
“Anna! Where are you?” The blood drained from Anna’s face, her eyes widened and jaw dropped. “Anna Miller you better not be up in that attic again, you’re going to ruin your dress, come here and help me with these groceries.”
James watched as Anna mouthed the name Miller. Her heart started pounding, she knew that name, but it didn’t make sense to hear it now. Turning and grabbing James by the arms, “Miller, James, that’s my grandmother’s maiden name!” she whispered her eyes wide with horror.
Anna watched as recognition crossed his face, “But who’s--” James started.
Before he could object she had grabbed his hand and was leading him down the stairs. With James in tow she ran down the stairs, stumbling down behind her he couldn’t help but wonder what people would think when they saw them coming down the stairs. When Anna hit the bottom step she stopped dead in her tracks, James knocked into her seeing look of horror on her face James tried to figure out what she was staring at. Finding it he too was horrified; she was staring at their reflection in the mirror. They looked the same to each other but when they looked in the mirror it was different. Anna’s eyes looked from the mirror to the pictures that were next to it, they were pictures she and James had seen many times before. One was of her grandmother when she was about Anna’s age and the other of her grandmother’s brother William in his uniform, who was killed in Europe. When she looked at the picture of her grandmother and back at the mirror it was the same person. Instead of her brown eyes she had blue, and her hair was lighter than her normal dark brown hair. What is going on! She wanted to scream. Having finally found his feet, James pushed her forward from the stairs, then moving around her blocking her view of the mirror, now facing her she was still staring straight ahead. Still holding onto her hand he placed the other one on her check inching closer trying to get her to look at him instead of through him, “Anna—“
Before he could say anything else the owner of the voice calling her grandmother’s name turned the corner, “Oh there you are, James I didn’t know you were here, can you believe that it is only two more days? There is so much to do before Saturday!” The two of them just starred, “everything alright?” nothing. “Alright then, you two come help me with these bags.” James and Anna had seen all of the pictures, they knew right away who she was, it was Anna’s great grandmother Mabel, and she thought they were her grandparents. They looked at each other unable to move, how is this possible, Mabel had been dead since they were four. James managed to gain his senses first and guided Anna toward the kitchen, unsure exactly what they would say when they got there.


Mabel watched as the two came into the kitchen looking rather frightened. When they got to the door way of the kitchen they just stood there and stared at her, as if she wasn’t real. She stopped what she was doing and turned toward them waiting for some kind of movement, anything, but they just stood there staring at her.
“Why, you two look like you’ve seen a ghost what on earth has gotten into you?” hands on her hips looking from Anna to James waiting for a response, when none came she turned to the counter picked up two packages and handed them to the two of them with instructions, “Well if you are just going to stand their silently you might as well make yourselves useful, take these up to the sewing room I am going to have to mend them. And when you come back down maybe you will have found your voices again.” 
Mable shook her head as the two turned to leave. Their strange behavior made her wonder what they were up to. Normally they were talkative, but now nothing, no hello, no excitement about the wedding, nothing. They didn’t seem to be hiding anything just shocked to see her, two hours ago they had been fine. Anna had been her bouncy bubbly self, talking about the wedding, how excited she was about her dress, she had been positively glowing! Now, Mabel thought as she started to chop vegetables, she seemed frightened, as if she didn’t know where she was.
James, led the way out of the kitchen and to the stairs, at the top of the stairs James stopped, Anna nearly fell down the stairs as she ran into him. His mouth was wide open and he stood completely motionless, directly in front of him the door was open to a room, on the desk was a picture, he knew he had seen that before. He figured it out, he knew where they were, what year it was, and he was even certain of the day. But that’s not possible! It can’t be!
Just as suddenly as he stopped he turned grabbed the package from Anna’s hands ran to the room on the right, where he knew the sewing machine was, ran back out, grabbed Anna’s hand and ran down the stairs. Anna wasn’t sure her feet touched a single stair. In the kitchen Mabel was startled by their sudden return and hopped that this weird behavior was just pre-wedding jitters. She knew they were both worried about the wedding and James leaving for more training in a week, but what on earth had gotten into them? Their staring was starting to bother her.
“Mrs. Miller, Anna and I were just going to go for a walk, is that okay or do you need more help with these bags?” James asked with a grin and his hat in his hands.
Now that was the nice young man she knew, “Oh no, you two go ahead dinner is in an hour, are you joining us James?”
Not knowing exactly what to say he came up with the best answer he could, a good solid maybe, “I will have to check with my family and let you know.” With a smile he grabbed Anna’s hand and pulled her out of the kitchen and out the door, but he didn’t stop there. Keeping a grip on Anna’s hand he pulled her along, down the front walk and across the street.
“James, where are you going?  You’re going to pull my arm off!” Anna protested, a little startled by his strange behavior.
James didn’t answer he just kept walking, finally stopping at a park that was surrounded by willows. He looked from left to right in search of something, something he hadn’t seen in years but knew was there. When he found it he yanked on Anna’s arm, “Come on” he demanded pulling her along again. He stopped in front of a willow, Anna stood motionless, she recognized it, as if reading her mind, James explained why.
“We’ve been here before, we’ve been in that house, look at the tree. That’s the tree Pa proposed to Gran under, notice something missing?” Without giving her a chance he answered his own question, “Our initials, you know why their missing? We haven’t been here yet, and the picture of Gran that pa carried through combat with him, it’s still on the desk in her room. Anna we’re still in Indiana, but it’s 1942 Saturday is their wedding, our wedding, we’re them.”


Michael had finally gone home and Jim sat in the small hospital room holding his wife’s hand as she slept. The nurse had come in and given her some pain medication which had finally managed to put her to sleep. She had drifted off mumbling about Anna and James, 1942, and the two of them falling in love. Jim just sat by her side saying, ‘Yes dear,’ to everything thinking it was from the medication she was on and hoped it would wear off soon because she was starting to worry him. What he had pieced together of her frantic ramblings she, for some reason, thought that James and Anna had been sent back in time to the summer of 1942, what it had to do with love, he wasn’t sure. Maybe she meant that they were in love, but he already knew that, so did everyone else. Perhaps when she woke up she would have forgotten what all this was, and if she hadn’t maybe he would be able to get some coherent answers from her.
The mention of 1942 made Jim think back and smile. In 1942 he and Ann had been married, sadly only a week later he was shipped out for training and then off to Europe. He was with the 101st Airborne and had jumped into Normandy on D-Day. In the mass ciaos his company commander was separated from his company, what few men managed to assemble were under his command until he was found; when he finally was found he had been wounded and was being shipped back to England. He was shortly promoted to captain, Ann had told him he would be. He could vividly remember the men he was with, the faces of everyone he trained with, marched countless miles with, and finally got his wings with, they were still as clear to him today as they were sixty-five years ago. Memories of combat washed over him as he sat in the dim hospital room, the frightened faces of the men who served under him and the peaceful look of those who had succumbed to their deaths. He remembered it all so vividly, but for that week in the summer of 1942 the only thing he cared about was marring Anna.

Michael walked in to the old dark house, the floor boards creaking with every step. Before shutting the door he looked across the street and saw the light on in the attic, and Anna and James’ cars in the drive way. When he finally got to the first light switch he flipped it on and looked into the now luminated room, it was the same way it had been for years. He saw the old rocking chair that his mother had rocked him to sleep in, the same one he watched Katherine rock Anna to sleep in. The coffee table was the same one that, when learning to walk, Anna had fallen and hit her head on, twelve stitches and a few days later, she was walking circles around it.
He sat on the couch popped the top off of his beer and stared at the pictures on the wall, Anna filled most of them. His favorite picture was the one of the whole family, it had all of his Aunts and Uncles, their children, his siblings and their children, his parents of course, and Katherine holding Anna, she was only two. To the right of it was a picture he had taken of Katherine laughing. She was beautiful, he thought to himself. Anna had her dark hair and her same skin tone. Katherine hadn’t even known he had taken the picture until they had the roll developed. When she saw it she smiled, and told him it was one of the few pictures she liked of herself, so much so that she had it enlarged and hung it on the wall. When she had died it was the one that he had beside her casket during the funeral.
As he sipped his beer he turned his eyes to the family picture. As he gazed at it he thought about each person as he went through the faces. In the back row he saw his Aunt Melissa; she was his dad’s sister. She never married and lived far enough away that he only saw her at Christmas and Thanksgiving, she died in 1992 after a battle with lung cancer. Next to her was his Uncle David, he was still around. He used to live in New York but after his wife died he moved to Los Angles, she however was in the picture and smiling next to him. Right below him were his children Alexandra and Matt, they were off somewhere he never really heard from either of them. Next was his sister Samantha. She lived in New York now had two kids and an excellent husband. His brother Matthew was next, still the bachelor he was then he lived in Chicago trying to start a new business. After him it was himself and Katherine and Anna, such a lovely picture. Michael could remember his mother saying that though it was a good picture, two people would always be missing. Her brother William, who had been killed in Europe in 1944, and his brother, James, he had been killed in Vietnam in 1971.
Yes, a good picture, he thought as he leaned back on the couch and closed his eyes.


Everything disappeared, all she could see was the tree. The J and A inside of a heart. She couldn’t feel James’ grasp on her shoulders or hear whatever it was he was saying. It couldn’t be, it wasn’t possible.
“Anna—“ James yelled shaking her, her head snapped in his direction but before James could say something Anna burst into tears and fell against him.
Startled he didn’t know what to say or do except put his arms around her and try his best to console her, “Anna listen to me, we’re going to be fine. I promise we will figure this out” he sounded more confident than he really felt, at least he hoped he did. But his confidence didn’t seem to matter, she continued to lean against him sobbing.
Standing there with her wrapped in his arms he lost all sense of time. He hated that she was so upset but reveled in the closeness of her. Even in 1942 she smelled like vanilla, it was a good constant that gave him confidence as he whispered to her, “we’re going to be okay, I won’t let anything go wrong.”
She unwrapped herself from James, took one last look at the tree and inhaled deeply. James took a hold of her hand, tugging slightly in an attempt to get her attention away from the tree. As a tear trickled down her cheek she finally turned away, but instead of letting go of James’ hand she held it tighter. Walking back Anna wiped away a few stray tears with the back of her hand, she wished she still had on the sweatshirt she had been wearing before this whole mess, then she would have had sleeves to wipe her eyes with instead. Seeing her tears James released her hand to put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close to his side, as she looked up at him he smiled, “that’s the time you must keep tryin’ smile, what’s the use in cryin’, I know you don’t want me to sing the rest.” She gave a slight chuck as he squeezed her shoulders and they continued their walk.