Thanks for the Memories

Thanks for the Memories Ch2 [edited]

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?”


Yours Truely,
Anna
~What's past is prolouge~