Life Long Love

I met Lorraine when she was 5 years old, but to my 7-year-old heart I just knew we were going to be best friends. At 5 years old, Lorraine was spunky, full of energy and life. We went on adventures, got in trouble together, and began a friendship that would last through the toughest times. We would run out and jump in the pond every day after lunch, hand in hand. Splashing and laughing. We’d stay out until the crickets started singing then run back home, just in time for supper. 

Lorraine’s dad was the town drunk, and her mama was a quiet little thing. Every night it seemed she would sneak out of her house when her daddy would start yelling, and sleep in my tree house. I’d given her a flashlight for her 6th birthday because I didn’t like seeing her knees skinned from missing the wood steps every night. 

By my 8th birthday, I’d taken to sleeping up there with her then sneaking back into my own room to mess up the bed so mama would think I’d slept in it. We’d sit up there and read each other our favorite books or pop the roof hatch to look at the stars. We would make up different names for all the constellations. I named my favorite star after her, it’s Mars, but I didn’t find that out until later. It will always be Lorraine to me. We’d spend all night looking at those stars, then be dragging our butts to our own beds at first light. 

By the time I was 15, I’d been in love with her for 5 years. She was so full of life and energy and our spark had grown into something more. When she turned 13, I kissed her behind the cherry tree on our farm. Boy let me tell you, the rosy red that flushed her cheeks is the prettiest picture I’ve ever seen. She kissed me back then ran away giggling. Smiling to myself I chased after her, and together we jumped off the dock into the pond. We fell in love in the hot of July, and my heart gave way to the fireworks that sparked between us. 

My world crashed the day, I turned 16. We had only courting for a year when my heart dropped to my feet. She was leaving. Her daddy had finally done it, he’d shot her momma and then himself, Sunday after church. She ran to my tree house covered in her mama’s blood and cried in my arms until I could get her inside. She stayed with us for a couple of weeks until the state came to take her away. I begged and pleaded with my parents to let her stay, but we couldn’t afford the extra mouth to feed. My heart broke the day I lost my Lorraine. 

Our lives didn’t end, and I never looked at anyone the way I looked at my Lorraine. I wrote her letters every day and she wrote me as often as she could. She was staying with a foster family, but the daddy was mean, and she didn’t have no tree house to escape too. Sometimes I knew it was bad, because there would be drops of blood from the bloody nose, he’d given her. I vowed that I’d come save her as soon as I could. 

I turned 18 and had no idea where my Lorraine was. I knew she was somewhere up north and in a place that didn’t have good postal service because I only got letters once ever few months, but they were always dated close to when she’d have received mine. Truth was that I was still in love with my Lorraine and I had a plan now. I was going to marry my Lorraine and join the Army to support her so she would never have to rely on anyone else and we could stay together. 

I found my Lorraine, but it was not what I had hoped. Her belly was big, round, and heavy, by the looks of it. She was barely 16 and she was pregnant. By the detachment in her eyes, I could tell she didn’t want to be. My heart broke for my poor Lorraine, so I took her hand and kissed her wrist. I swore to always love her and the baby no matter what. I offered to raise that baby as my own and love her with everything I had, just like I had for the last 8 years. I loved her so much, I’d give her the stars if I could. 

She cried. She cried so hard I was afraid she was going to have that baby right there in the doorway. I pulled her in with my arms and told her to go wait in the car for me. She looked at me with fear in her eyes but did as I asked. I walked inside, a new adult's confidence in every step. I walked up to that old man and punched him square between the eyes. I kept hitting him to the screams of his wife and children. After his face was good and bloody to my satisfaction, I grabbed him by his collar. 

“I’m taking Lorraine with me. Don’t follow us. Don’t ask about us or our baby. And so, help me if you lay a hand on another young girl, I’ll come back and finish this.” As I got up and turned for the door, he got up on his elbows and said to my back. 

“That girl ain’t nothing but a whore, and a lousy one at that. Ha you can’t make a whore into a housewife.” 

I turned and punched him square in the jaw. No one talks about Lorraine like that, especially this piece of crap. Wiping his blood on my pants I looked at his wife and shook my head at the despair I saw in her eyes. She isn’t mine to save. 

I went out to my car and got in the driver's seat. Reaching over I buckled Lorraine in and then myself. I whipped out of that driver faster than you could say “Yee haw.” 

“Are you okay?” she asked timidly. 

“Now that I’m with you, I am. I won’t let anyone hurt you or our baby ever again, “ kissing her hand I ask, “Marry me?” 

Tears fell as she told me yes, kissing the back of my hand. I drove straight to the recruitment center and enlisted in the US Army. I was sent to boot camp, but they made an exception and let Lorraine and the baby move into a house not far from the base. She had the baby later that month, but it wasn’t happily ever after for us yet. 

Every day, every time she looked at the baby she would just cry and cry. He looked exactly like his real father and it hurt her to see him. She told me she couldn’t love him and that it wasn’t far to him. So, I set out looking for an adoption family for the little baby. I’d do anything for Lorraine. I found a young army wife and her husband was a lieutenant, but they couldn’t have babies. So, we gave them ours and the love in their eyes when they saw him made it all alright. Then seeing the relief in my sweet Lorraine made me feel that we’d done the right thing. 

When Lorraine turned 18, she enlisted to become an army nurse and served on with my unit. In little to no time, she became one of the highest-ranking trauma nurses the army had ever seen. She even became a higher rank than me. I was so proud of my Lorraine. We went through 6 tours together and both retired when she turned 45. 

We never had no children, but we had each other. Over time, the life came back into my Lorraine. She started to overcome her terrible time in foster care. I loved her so much, oh man did I love her.

When we bought our first home, she asked me to build a tree house for her. I built that tree house and now we are both in our 50’s and I’m making a pulley so we can still go up there and look at the stars. So, I can look at the prettiest thing in the sky, my Lorraine.