1968

A girl sits on the now-deserted bleachers littered with wrappers from the Friday-night football game. The gum in her mouth snaps loudly as she pops it between her teeth.

A boy plops down on the bench behind her.

“Why are you still here?” he asks her.

“Waiting for you,” she replies, without turning to face him.

He wraps his arms around her shaking body. Hot tears splash onto his tanned arms as he rests his chin on the top of her head.

“Why me, Allie? Why me?”

2018

Allie Hannigan pulled her mud-stained station wagon into her high-school parking lot. It had been 50 years since she had walked down its halls.

She turned off the ignition. Resting her hand on the well-worn handle, Allie wondered why she drove six hours through the Appalachian Mountains for this ridiculous reunion.

No. It’s not because of him. I- I- I want to see my friends. That’s it. Aaron won’t even be here, right? Of course he won’t. He’s dead, Allie.

Allie tightened her grip on the handle and popped the door open.

Aaron Wood threw his backpack out of the city bus. He jumped out of the door and scooped up his pack. The doors of Pine Creek High School loomed high before his face.

He remembered the hill that led up to the school. Oh yes. He remembered that.

1966

The heat of the Virginia summer beat down on Allie as she sat on Pine Creek’s famous hill. It was the end of August: the first week of her sophomore year.

Allie slouched down into the grassy hillside, waiting for her older brother to come pick her up. A boy she hardly knew plopped down behind her. Actually, that was one of the only things she knew about him: he plopped. He didn’t sit down the way normal people did, he seemed to let his body go limp and allow gravity to do the rest; making a loud “plop” when the Earth got in the way.

“Hello, Allie,” he said, shocking her when he greeted her by name.

“How do you know my name?” she snapped back.

“I know all the pretty girls’ names,” he answered calmly. Allie glared at the boy, who was obviously a player.

She got up, pretending to spot a car come to pick her up.

“If that’s your ride, then you better not keep ‘em waiting. But if it isn’t,” he shrugged. “You can always hitch one with me.” The boy smirked.

“And why would I accept a ride from someone whose name I don’t even know?” Allie asked.

“Aaron. Aaron Wood. ‘Member me from biology?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” Allie said as she sighed. “And from US History too.”

“See? You do know me!”

This conversation was going nowhere. Allie sighed yet again and tried to pick her brother’s truck out of the din the school called a parking lot.

“No luck again, Allie?” Aaron bothered Allie once more.

“And why are you just so intent on badgering me this afternoon?” she shot back. Aaron just grinned at her.

2018

Allie recalled how her brother, Nathan, never showed up that afternoon, which meant she had been forced to let Aaron drive her home. What would have happened if Nathan came? Allie wondered. Well, we probably would have ended up together anyways. She liked him way too much for that not to happen.

As Allie opened up the door and made her way to the cafeteria where returning students were supposed to meet, a hand grabbed her shoulder.

1966

Allie ended up with a date that Saturday and a ride home all that week by the time Aaron had dropped her off at her 100-year-old plantation home.

A light breeze ruffled the hem of her skirt as she ran her hand along the rail that bordered the Hannigan’s property. Day lilies and buttercups bloomed along the fence posts, waving in the wind as though welcoming her home. She plucked a lily as she waved goodbye to Aaron.

Entering the house, Allie stopped at a mirror and carefully placed the aqua blossom behind her ear. She settled her auburn hair about the flower and fixed her polka-dot day dress. There. She was perfect.

That Saturday, Allie sat on her front steps as the sun sank slowly past the horizon and dusk filled the air. She had on the same dress she wore on the day when Aaron asked her to this date. With the aqua blue polka-dots and full, swingy ruffled hem, Allie’s best dress went with her eyes just right.

Lifting her hand up to her eyes to block the last rays of the waning sun, Allie peered over the fields. Aaron’s car shimmered on the horizon, wavering in the stifling heat. Allie jumped up, wondering what the night’s fun would hold.

“Allie! Hop on in!” Aaron yelled over the car’s vicious motor. She ran to the door and sat down next to her date.

“So… where are we going?” Allie asked.

“I’ve got a few ideas, but-“

“But what?” Allie questioned him further. Aaron winked at her.

“It’s a surprise!”

That night turned out to be one of the most memorable from Allie’s high school years. Aaron drove them to the local drive-in movie theater, where they spent two hours sneaking glances at each other instead of watching the screen. After the movie was over, they didn’t go back home. Aaron had other plans.

“Come on, Allie!” he yelled after the girl as she struggled to keep up with his long legs. Aaron towered over Allie, being around 6’2”. With her miniature frame of 5’3”, Allie was dwarfed by him. But sometimes it was handy to be with a guy so tall.

Tonight was one of those times, as Aaron proved to her when he gave her a piggy-back all the way to the beach.

“Oh!” was all Allie could manage as she looked out upon the waves breaking gently at her feet and the cloudless night sky littered with thousands of twinkling stars.

She turned around and looked back at Aaron. With his hands stuffed into his jeans pockets, he smiled at Allie before joining her at the ocean’s edge.

Then, and only then, they kissed.

2018

The face belonging to the hand stared at Allie almost a foot above her.

He was more rugged and grown up than she remembered. But those deep green eyes and broad smile were still the same. She recognized him instantly.

“Aaron.”

“Aaron,” Allie repeated when her boyfriend from 50 years ago didn’t respond.

“And hello to you too, Allie,” he said, finally breaking his silence.

All of a sudden, she couldn’t take it. She broke down in tears as she fell into Aaron’s broad chest. She felt his strong arms wrap around her once more as she remembered doing the exact same thing a long, long time ago.

1967

They had been dating for over a year when the big news came, a well-established couple, which meant going out on the weekends and talking all the time at school.

Allie slipped her hand into Aaron’s as they walked to the park after school one brisk fall day. She pulled her burnt orange jacket closer to her body as the playground came into view.
“I haven’t been on a swing in years!” Allie laughed as she kicked her legs back and forth, propelling her far into the sky.

After a few minutes, she slowed and glanced at Aaron. He was sitting in a swing like Allie, but his feet were planted firmly on the ground instead of hanging in mid-air like her’s.

Studying his hunched-over profile, she asked him why he wasn’t swinging.

“Allie,” he began, his words sounding wooden and rehearsed. “I got a letter today.” Allie waited for him to go on. “It was… from the military… Allie, I’ve been drafted to go to Vietnam.”

She stared at him, dumbfounded.

“But… you’re not old enough! You’re not out of school yet! They can’t take you!” she argued. In her head, Allie added I can’t possibly let you go. Not if you’re going to die out there and leave me all alone. How can you do this to me???? But Aaron interrupted her thoughts.

“You know I turned 18 last month. And the army apparently doesn’t care whether or not you’re in school.”

“Aaron,” she struggled to find an answer. “Oh! I know! Go to Canada! I’ll come with you! We can get married and live there till the war is over!” Allie said in a rush, excited to plan their move and start their life together. But the look on Aaron’s face stopped her.

“No. No, Allie. I’m not a deserter. I could never do that to my country. I’m going, Allie. It’s final,” he replied.

She stared at him. “When do you leave?” was the only thing she could think to ask.

“This spring. The day after the first baseball game.” Aaron said, not meeting her gaze.

“So… are you gonna be on the team still?” Allie wondered. Aaron had been on Pine Creek’s baseball team since he was a freshman.

“Nope. The wolves are gonna have to do without their star player,” Aaron lamely tried to crack a joke. He really was a decent player, but he was constantly running himself down, Allie thought.

She got off of her swing and walked the few steps over to his, only to see the tough-guy-Aaron she had always known begin to cry.

2018

Allie hadn’t seen Aaron since that night after the baseball game when Aaron had asked the unanswerable question: Why him?

So sure that the boy she loved would never return from the battlefields, Allie had cut off all connections with him. But he had returned. He was here.

And as she looked up into Aaron’s eyes, Allie knew, that even at age 67, she could find the love she had been waiting for her whole life.

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