Part 59 (2/2)

Charlie opened the notebook that was in front of her, and sure enough, there was his letter, carefully saved for all these years.

He knew she'd saved James's letters. He hadn't dared to hope she'd saved his.

”May I read some of it aloud?” she asked.

”Please,” the reporter said.

”I was asking my husband,” she told the young man gently.

Vince nodded. G.o.d, he'd labored over that letter, trying to get it just right.

Joanie sat forward as Charlotte cleared her throat.

”Dear Charlotte, ”Hove you. I've never said those words to any one. before, let alone written them down on paper, but it's true.

”I love you and I continue to hope that someday you will marry me. In fact, I'll ask you again. Will you be my wife? ”

She glanced up. ”Skipping forward a little...

”I need you to know, my dearest, that if I am to die, I will not die alone. You are part of me now. You are in my heart. I know that you love me. I know this is truea”whether you know it yourself or not. And that knowledge will be with me always. Your love for me will be my constant companion, along with my memories of the beautiful night we shared? She looked up at him, glanced at Joan, too. ”Guess the cat's out of the bag about that part of the story. It will keep me warm from now until the day I diea”whether that day is tomorrow or a hundred years from tomorrow.”

Over on the couch, Mike put his arm around Joan, and she rested her head against his shoulder.

”I go willingly to this fight. I go to keep my countrya”and you!a”safe and free. If I die, it will not be in vain. I believe this completely. And like James before me, I know you will live on. I can picture you at forty, Charles. And at sixty and even eighty, and you will still be so beautiful to me. I hope I am there to see you, to share your life and to love you until we are both old and gray. But if I am not, I hope you will have the strength to live a good life, filled with love and hope and laughter, for me.

”Always yours, and always with you, too, Vince.”

Charlotte put down his letter.

She cleared her throat. ”Naturally, as I read that, I cried and cried. And then I cried even more because I knew without a doubt that I'd fallen in love with this young man.

”It was different than my love for James, but in its own way it was just as strong, just as powerful, and just as wonderful.

”But I was young and foolish and I had absolutely no idea on earth what to do.

”That night Edna came into my room. My dear mother-in-law. And she sat down with me and do you know what she said?”

Vince shook his head, his heart in his throat. She'd never told him this before. They'd never talked about any of it, about his letter or her decision to come to Fort Pierce to find him. He'd just accepted her into his life, a.s.suming that her pregnancy had been what had pushed her into their marriage.

”She gave me permission to let go of James,” Charlie told him. She wasn't even pretending to talk to the reporter anymore. ”She told me to put hima”her beloved, precious sona” into the past, to remember him with love, but now to move on. She gave me permissiona”she used those very wordsa”to let myself love you.”

There were tears in her eyes. ”She told me that if James had lived, I would've had a good lifea”but it would have been a hard life. James wasn't easy to live with. Like his father before him, he was selfish and demanding and never satisfieda” this a mother's view of her own son! She said that James had loved me with all his heart, but that our life would have been filleda”like her own had beena”with battles and uphill climbs. She told me, with the wisdom of her years, that most relations.h.i.+ps were terribly hard work, but that every so often two people meet and click and it's obvious they're meant for each other. It's clear that their life together will be a gift, filled with joy.”

Over on the couch, Joan gave Mike a kiss.

”Edna told me you would bring me that joy if only I'd let you.” Charlie smiled at Vince. ”So I decided to let you. With yours and Edna's help, I finally buried James. Your letter brought comfort to me because now when I thought of him, I no longer imagined him dying alone. Your letter made me believe that I was there, with him, in his heart, right to the very end.”

She turned to the reporter. ”So I made arrangements to travel to Fort Pierce. It took weeks to get a seat on a train going all the way to Florida, and while I was waiting for the opportunity, I discovered that Vince and I were going to be starting that family he'd said he'd always wanted a little bit sooner than I'd antic.i.p.ated.

”We were married right away, and I lived there, in Florida, with him while he completed his training.

”It was the most emotional time of my life,” Charlie admitted. ”As our time together grew shorter and shorter, I cried every single night because I couldn't bear the thought of being apart from him. You see, I loved him so very much.

”That time when he left, I kissed him good-bye.”

She certainly had.

Vince sat on his floaty toy as the reporter asked some questions, as they all pretended not to notice that he was pretty steadily wiping the corners of his eyes.

Charlie ended the interview like a queen, standing up and sweeping the reporter out of the room and out of the house.

Joan and Mike said good night, Mike shaking Vince's hand and Joanie giving him the fiercest of hugs. After promises to have dinner and lunch in the coming week, Charlie walked them to the door.

They were alone then. She came back into the living room and sat down beside him, taking his hand. ”So nowa” finallya”you know. I can't believe you spent nearly sixty years thinkinga”

Vince brought her fingers to his lips. ”I was happy to be your second choice for sixty years.”

”You may have come second, my dearest, but you never were my second choice. I've had a wonderful, grand, joyous lifea”just as Edna predicted.”

Vince nodded. Together they'd had more than their share of good times along with the bad.

”I wouldn't change a single moment,” Charlie told him.

”I might change that one time I got that stomach flu,” Vince said, and she laughed.

”Okay. And I would change your mind about getting those hearing aids,” she said.

”Done,” he said.

She kissed him. ”Thank you.”

”I'd still like to go to Hawaii,” Vince told her. ”If it's all right with you...”

Charlie kissed him again, longer this time. ”As long as you're there, it's all right with me.”

The sound of the doorbell woke Sam from a restless sleep.

What the f.u.c.k... ? It was barely 0600.

Mary Lou wasn't in bed beside him, and he sat up, remembering. She'd left a note on the kitchen table. He'd found it last night when he got home.

Gone to Janine's. That was all it said. She didn't sign it, didn't address it to him. Just, Gone to Janine 's.

The doorbell rang again, and he swung his legs out of bed and pulled on the shorts he 'd dropped right on the floor before going to sleep last night.

First time he'd done that in well over a year. If he left his clothes on the floor, Mary Lou would pick them up and put them in the laundry. He would get a pair of shorts or jeans all comfortable and then she'd go and wash them and stiffen them up again.

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