Thanks for the Memories

Thanks for the Memories Ch4 [New!]

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 marrying 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.


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