Love Will Last Forever

The barn had changed since she had last seen it. She could remember when it’d been freshly painted red, the paint had gleamed in the sun for days. Her father had joked that you could always tell who snuck out of the dance hall those days since they would always come back with paint on their clothes. Now, even the wood was faded. Had it really been so many years? Even though it had seemed like a blink of an eye, her aching bones reminded her it had been many long years since her days dancing in the barn.

Her youngest grandchild, the most curious of the bunch she had been blessed with, always asked her how she and Grandpa met and how she knew he was the one. To tell the little bundle of energy, she decided to take her on a car ride to the old barn. It had been abandoned for years; in fact, she couldn’t remember who had owned it last. It looked so worn and shabby, that she felt a stab in her heart when she remembered the nights it was filled to the brim with people laughing and dancing.

“Where are we?” Stella asked, her bright blue eyes looking around at the overgrown tall grass and the giant trees. “You said we were going on an adventure!”

She couldn’t help but snort at Stella’s accusing tone, because she had promised an adventure. “It’s an adventure into the past, Stella. I thought you liked my stories?”

“I do, but that doesn’t explain why we’re here,” she said eyeing the barn outside of the car window. “It looks like it could fall at any moment, Gran.”

“It does,” she sighed, her sadness coming through. When Stella gave her a questioning look, she smiled at her. “This was where I met your grandfather all those years ago.”

“Here?” Her tone was incredulous, and she couldn’t help but laugh, because she too couldn’t even believe it was the same place. How time had destroyed another beautiful place from her past. “Maybe you should start at the beginning, Gran.”

“The year was nineteen sixty-two…”

Cassandra looked around at all the bodies in the barn, almost overwhelmed by the amount. When her father told them about the idea for a dance barn, she’d laughed along with her mother and brothers, because honestly, who would want to dance in a barn? Joke was on them because so many people turned up night after night to mingle with each other. Now that summer was in full swing, plenty of teenagers her age were there, and she was excited. Sure, there were dances at school, but this was more liberating. No one was there to make them stay six inches apart or dance like good young adults.

Her father had just painted the barn with a bright red color, all of them having helped a bit, which she was regretting now. The paint would not come off her hands no matter how much she scrubbed. Her mother hadn’t been any help, telling her to wear a red dress to match. She wanted to mingle, but how could she possibly when she was covered in red paint? Her brothers were having the time of their lives, but she was stuck in the corner like a wallflower. Covered in dried paint.

“Hello.” The voice was timid, almost reminding her of her own when she had to talk to strangers. When she looked up, she was startled to see one of her fellow classmates. She’d seen him at school, but he was on the football team, not the star, but so far out of her league that she’d never tried to talk to him. She was surprised he was even talking to her now. “Why are you sitting in the corner?”

“I’m embarrassed,” she found herself saying. She blushed a dark red as she looked down. “It’s the first official day of summer and I’m covered in paint.”

He laughed, but instead of being offended, Cassandra found herself smiling at him. “That’s nothing to be ashamed of. Shows you worked hard.”

“I don’t think people see it that way,” she protested, but he just smiled at her.

“I see it that way,” he offered, his voice still soft and timid. “I’ve seen you in school, you always seem to be working hard, or having come from here, working with your brothers.”

“I didn’t know you noticed me.”

“I never said anything because you didn’t seem interested,” he admitted, holding out his hand. “Grant.”

“Cassandra,” she said, taking his hand and shaking it.

He kept her hand, examining the dried paint with a smile. “So that’s why people are coming in covered in paint.”

She huffed, shaking her head as she unknowingly followed him onto the dance floor. “We put up signs, it’s not our fault they can’t read.”

“True,” he agreed taking her other hand before she could protest and pulling her close. “Now, since we’re already here, why don’t you dance with me?”

She couldn’t help it; she laughed and laid her head on his shoulder to try and hide it. “And here I thought you were shy and timid.”

“Oh, I am,” he said as they moved around the floor with the others. “However, you seem to be giving me courage.”

“Gran, that’s so corny,” Stella interrupted, but she could tell her granddaughter was caught up in the story. “How could you fall for that?”

“You’ll fall for lines like that one day,” she assured, Stella making a face. “Now, as I was saying…”

“Careful, I’m the daughter of the man who owns the barn, don’t want to get caught saying things like that,” she joked, making him laugh as they danced. “Though I think he’d just be glad I was dancing with someone.”

“My parents are like that,” he said, chuckling dryly. “We’re still young, I don’t see why we have to fall in love so soon.”

“I think my dad is worried because I’m the only girl among four boys,” she admitted. “I plan on going to college one day. What about you?”

“If I make the cut,” he admitted, shrugging. “Who knows what will happen in a few years, we’re only sixteen after all.”

“We danced all night in that barn until my father shut it down,” Cassandra sighed happily. “We had a good summer in that barn, not just on the dance nights either. All summer and into out Junior and Senior year we became best friends. We laughed at what society wanted from us. We were both so quiet around others we realized we could only do that with each other.”

“Wait, you never dated in high school?” Stella asked as they walked down the small path to the barn.

“No, we thought it was a stupid concept, though our parents always wanted us to. We never dated other people, so in hindsight we probably were dating and didn’t realize it,” she laughed, catching Stella before she tripped on a stone.

“What happened after high school?” the young girl asked, looking up at her.

“I went off to college to study history and journalism,” she said, smiling as Stella’s face split open in a wide grin. “I wanted to change the world, even if it was in a small way by writing. Grant decided he was going to take a few years off to make money at a local factory.” Her smile fell as she remembered what happened in those years. “That was when he got drafted into the war.”

Stella gave her a confused look before it dawned on her. “That’s why Grandpa didn’t have his left arm?”

She nodded, blocking out those years. She had prayed Grant wouldn’t be drafted, but he hadn’t been in college, so it was going to happen. When he called to tell her, she’d broken down in tears because she was convinced she would lose him. The letters they sent back and forth had cemented whatever relationship they wanted to convince themselves they didn’t have. By the time the incident happened, she was down as his girlfriend without either of them having realized it.

“What happened?” Stella asked peering into the barn, which surprisingly looked sturdy.

Cassandra didn’t want to talk about it, it still scared her even after all this time. Even after losing Grant to cancer, just thinking about what happened made her scared to lose him again. But looking at Stella, she knew she’d tell the story.

“They were walking in the jungle when one of the men in front of him stepped on a bomb,” she said taking a deep breath to calm herself. “It was a big enough blast that it took out nearly all of them. Only three people survived, your grandpa being one of them. He still had his arm when they recovered him, but due to infection, they had to amputate it. He almost died, but he was able to come home after that. Come home to me.”

“Did you guys marry right away?” She knew Stella hadn’t completely understood the story, but when she was older, she would.

“Almost. We married a year after he got back so he could get better,” she said, smiling at the barn. “We actually got married in the barn. Dad still owned it back then, even with the war going on. It wasn’t a dance barn anymore, but it was great for storage. Grant and I thought it was fitting to get married where we’d first met. Actually...”

Cassandra told Stella to stay as she took a few steps towards the staircase. She knew where to look, and she hoped it was still there. Her smile widened as she saw it, still clear as they day they carved their initials into the banister. She motioned Stella to her and picked up the young girl, pointing it out.

“We did that when we were seventeen, the summer before Senior year,” she explained smiling at the memories of all the fun they’d had, and all the trouble they’d made. “It was a joke because everyone carved their initials into the barn. We chose the banister because Dad never repainted it. Guess whoever owned it later never cared.”

“Who owns it now?” Stella asked as she was put down.

“No one,” she said, sighing and looking around. “I don’t think it’ll last much longer, my dear. But things like this aren’t meant to last forever.”

“But you’ll love grandpa forever.”

“Love will last forever,” she assured the young girl with a smile. “Physical things don’t last forever.”

Stella seemed to be thinking hard as she looked around the barn and then up at the banister where the initials seemed to stand out. “So, even though the physical forms of grandpa, and my parents, are gone, they still love me like I still love them?”

Cassandra just smiled at Stella, nodding. She hadn’t been trying to make a point but leave it to a child to say something like that. “Like I said, love will last forever.”

Stella looked around again, almost imagining her grandparents in the barn, having seen pictures from when they were younger. She couldn’t help but smile, because they had loved each other, and would forever. She was just sad the barn couldn’t last forever. As she turned to follow Cassandra out of the barn, she stopped, turning to face the corner where her gran had said she’d sat all those years ago. She smiled when the sun lit up the area.

“Come on Stella, time to go home!” Cassandra called.

“Love you grandpa,” she whispered into the air before racing after her grandmother.

Though Cassandra was sure it was her imagination, but she could have sworn the barn seemed to breathe out and sag as they drove away. Almost like it was finally letting go.