Continued...
By the time Anne arrived at Life Groups everyone was gathered in the kitchen and living room. The adults were in the kitchen, and the used to be, teenagers sat in the living room playing Liar. They were all there for one thing, Christmas; the gift exchange would start as soon as everyone arrived.
“Okay we are ready!” Lisa called from the kitchen,
“What I thought we were still missing Noah and Cameron?” A familiar brunette answered from the living room. As she stood she looked up and saw the two boys standing in the doorway. Anne turned around and realized finally that the red truck following her had been the boys. She set her present down with the rest of the gifts and turned to two boys, her heart jumped at the sight of Noah. It had been way too long. The brunette ran to give them both a hug, all Anne could do was look at Noah, all dressed in his uniform.
“Did you just get home?” Anne managed to ask, as Noah looked up to see her standing in a plaid winter coat, nice jeans and comfy boots. A smile spread across his face.
“Yeah,” he replied, “, but we stopped at the gift shop on the way home for the present.” He shook the plastic bag there was a small little box in it, she wondered, who does he have? When Noah was done giving everyone a round of “I miss you” hugs he came over to Anne and gave her a big hug. Looking over her shoulder he realized a big bluish, greenish bag lying on the floor. “You still have that green, I mean blue purse?”
Anne gave him a smile, “it’s my favorite.”
“Everyone get in a circle and hold hands we are going to eat.” Lisa said taking the pot of
The night moved fast, with a ton of catching up with what seemed like the entire youth group. The stories continued through the night, the brunette ended up getting a huge scholarship to a college and has been being a worship leader in a huge church. In the meantime she had been working on her own worship album. Noah was only going to be out for two more years, and Anne explained how well things were going for her with the books. Cameron caught everyone up on what’s been going on. Then the conversation moved to relationships, it was interesting to see who was in one and who wasn’t. The brunette was, another worship leader at her church, he also accompanied her in the album.
The gift exchange came next, she had drawn Noah’s name, she got him a blanket that went from green to blue, so there would be no argument about what color it was. When Anne got her present it said “From Cameron,” in his neat handwriting. It was in a big box, and as she opened it a casing shaped like an acoustic guitar came into her eyesight. “I was hoping you hadn’t gotten one yet, I remember you talking about wanting to learn how to play. It’s my old one so it’s not great, but hey there’s thought in it.” He explained.
She smiled and gave him a hug, “thank you, I completely forgot I mentioned that.”
“You don’t already have one do you?”
She let out a laugh, “no music… at least playing it has slipped my mind as of lately.”
Then Noah gave his present to Cameron, it was the bag with the small box in it. "Keep it safe while I'm away, okay?" Cameron nodded and everyone passed around weird looks, "it was my grandmothers'," Noah explained, and everyone shook their heads as if they had understood what had just happened.
The night continued, for the first time ever Anne saw the fire lit in Cameron’s house. It was warm, and everyone was having fun enjoying each other. Noah tapped Anne on the shoulder, she turned around, he had her coat in one hand and her boots in another, “wanna go for a walk?” she smiled and grabbed her coat from his hands. She went to grab her boots from his hands and he gave her a look. “Sit down,” her smile grew and she sat as he slipped them onto her feet. Quietly they slipped out the back door and went for a walk. It was as if he had never left, the feeling was great. With each step her feet sank into newly fallen snow, the moon light was piercing through the darkness. It glowered onto Noah’s face as they walked.
“Question one what are you going to do when you come home for good?”
He smiled and answered the question, “I haven’t figured that out yet, I know I want to settle down, eventually get married. You know the usual.”
“What about you… do you have a boyfriend? You never mentioned anything inside.”
“No,”
“Really?” Noah sounded surprised and Anne just shook her head yes.
“I’ve been waiting for the right guy… and he just hasn’t come along yet.” He nodded and they continued with their twenty questions. It was a night Anne would never forget, things happened between them on that walk, things that she never told anyone.
When she got home her lips still tingled, her hands were frozen, her boots were soaked and so was her coat. Her new guitar was safely put next her bed and she went to sleep smiling about what had happened that night as she rubbed her fingers across her lips. She had decided that it was going to be a great Christmas, she was going to get to hang out with him for two more days through the next week then he would be gone again. Then she had only two more years of waiting.
Two Years Later… (but a week before he’s supposed to return)
There was a knock on the door; again it was a dark rainy night. A man in uniform came up to the door. Anne turned on the light and opened it up slowly. This couldn’t be happening; she had only seen Noah one other time since that Christmas night. When he was finally home they spent the whole week together. She even went with him to see his parents; again it was as if he had never left. They played the usual twenty questions, finally when Noah got to question number twenty he told her that she had to wait until he was home for good to be asked the question. It killed her, but she agreed. That meant that he had to make it home, and he never told her but he had given Cameron a note explaining what the twenthiet question was if he never made it back. Cameron agreed to keep it, and he stashed it away along with the box.
Anne breathed deeply as the door stood completely open, and the man dressed in full uniform handed her a piece of paper, “I’m so sorry for your loss.” He said and walked away with his head down trying to dodge the pouring rain. There Anne stood in her doorway crying and crying, she knew what the letter was. He was gone and it was time for her to move on. It had truely been the worst Christmas, pouring rain, no snow, and Noah, gone.
After a few minutes of silence it hit her, she wasn’t married to him, or engaged. Why were they coming to her house to tell her? Wouldn't his family be the first to know, not her? Quickly she opened up the letter, maybe he requested that one be sent to her house. She had to check.
Dear Anne,
You never did ask me in person if I got any of your letters. Of course I did I just couldn’t right back, just incase something did happen to me. I didn’t want our entire relationship to be based off of letters. I’ve tried to keep friends online and it doesn’t work, so it wouldn’t have worked on paper either. Every time I came home for the past two years you have been there. You have been the one to pick me up and you would open your new house up to me, make me welcome and come with me to random things. We played twenty questions… which is obviously our game, I helped you write and I loved every minute of it…
So I have made you wait for the past two years for me to ask you question number twenty… and I’m ready to ask you, but I want to do it in person. Now if you have jumped to conclusions like I think you did you may be wondering how thinking that I’m dead, but I can assure you that I’m not. (I know the man in the uniform made you think so… but I’m not.) Come to the road… Our Road. There you will find one street light on and I’ll be standing under it ready to ask you question number twenty.
Hope to see you soon.
-Noah
With a little bit of hope Anne grabbed her coat, slipped on her boots, took her purse and ran to her car. She sped down the road trying to get to the road that Cameron used to live on. She made a left turn and there he stood. Completely unharmed and drenched in rain water. She stopped the car, got out and ran not caring if she got wet. She wrapped her arms around him and he gave her a peck on the cheek, oh how I’ve missed you. He said spinning her around. He set her back down gently, and that’s when she noticed what he was wearing. He was wearing a suit and not his military one… a black and white suit… with converse of course.
Anne was missing something… he began, “now question number twenty, at first I was hesitant when I told you to wait, but the letters kept coming. I actually wasn’t going to do this, but I couldn’t wait anymore. I was actually going to ask a simpler question, but we have waited so long and took so many risks…” Anne’s face went from a smile, to confusion and faster than lightning it went so shock as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small familiar box. It was the one that had been in the bag, suddenly it all made sense; he had given it to Cameron that night to keep safe. It was his grandmothers, and he wanted to make sure nothing happened to it. He opened the box and he slowly put one knee on flooding road. A smile spread across her face as he started to talk, “Question twenty… Will you-“
“Yes.”
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