She sniffed, “What?”
“Why are you listening to the doctor? He gave you two weeks, a month at the most but you are still as vital and alert as you were when we first met. You are going to beat this and we will live happily ever after. I promise, Tana.” Tana calmed down a little and pulled away from Harry. She laid back and looked up at the ceiling. She took several deep breaths to stop crying. Harry sat up a little and looked at Tana who didn't look at him. “Love? Do you remember when we first made love and you said that now that we're in love I should give my life to you?”
“Yes.”
“Right now I would do that for you. I would gladly and unquestioningly give you any remaining years I have and more if possible. I would give up everything for all this to be over for you,” Harry said.
“I know, Harry. You've been so strong for both of us through all of this that I have no idea how to begin to repay you,” Tana started to cry again.
“I do,” Harry took Tana's right hand and looked at her. “I don't have a ring but Tana Whitney, will you marry me?”
Tana cried and looked at Harry. She got up and sat on top of Harry. She took his face in her hands and leaned down close to him. “Yes, Harry. I will marry you. That is all I want at this moment is for you to be my husband,” Tana began kissing Harry and they slid under the covers and began removing their clothes. Tana pushed Harry into her and the two began making love for the first time since becoming fiancées.
A week later, Tana wasn't at school. Harry walked around like a shadow of his former self. Normally humorous and sarcastic, Harry barely said anything as he worried about his fiancée who had taken a turn for the worse. Zeke saw how hurt and depressed Harry was and tried to console him but with Geoff and Ben around it was sometimes difficult.
“How was Tana this morning?” Zeke asked Harry as they sat down together at lunch.
“She…” Harry fumbled around the words and rubbed his eyes with his finger and thumb. “She didn't look so good.”
“I know how much you love her, Harry. I wish I could help.”
“I wish you could, too. I don't know how this could happen. It's so unfair. I mean, she has her whole life in front of her and it's viciously being taken away. I've had her for eight months and it was the best eight months of my life. I want more. I want her to have more,” Harry said.
Zeke was silent. He couldn't help. No one could. Zeke watched his best friend hold back his tears and his entire world came crumbling down. Geoff and Ben came up to the table and sat down their trays. They were talking about girls in gym class and laughing loudly.
“Hey, Zeke. Hi, Harry. How is everything going?” Ben asked, in an upbeat way.
“I'm fine but Harry's seen better days,” Zeke said.
“Tana not doing so well, huh?” Ben asked, sympathizing. Harry nodded his head softly.
“I can't believe you proposed to her. You two barely know each other,” Geoff said. “No way you two could've fallen in love that fast.”
“Geoff!” Zeke scolded.
“When they started dating, Harry thought she was some crazy stalker girl. Frankly I think since you started dating her you've changed,” Geoff continued.
“Geoff, will you shut up? Tana's dying of cancer so you could be more sympathetic to Harry's feelings,” Ben said.
“I'm just saying that they rushed into things too quickly. Especially with the engagement. Luckily you won't have to stay engaged to her for too long. Then you can start playing the field. I know a couple girls in my biology class who find you rather attractive,” Geoff said.
“Geoff, if you've ever had a respectable girlfriend or relationship then I might listen to you. I do love Tana more than anything in the world and I hope everybody in the world will someday feel the love I feel for her. She's the one I want to spend the rest of my life with, that's the one thing I want most in the entire world. And I can't even have that,” Harry said.
“Harry?” asked a voice from behind him. Harry spun around to see one of the secretaries from the office standing behind him. Harry could tell why she was standing there and immediately began to cry. “You have a phone call in the office. It's about Tana.”
6
Months had passed since Tana had passed away. Harry still constantly thought about her. Still visited her. Still pictured how the wedding would've looked. He and Zeke started working at the Tank "N" Tummy convenience store. It was decent work for decent pay. Harry spent most of his time there when not deluged with customers, just reading or writing.
“Harry, come on, we should do something tonight!” Zeke suggested.
“Like what?” Harry asked without looking up from his magazine.
“There's a cemetery in Alma that's reportedly haunted. We could go there. It's only a couple hours away,” Zeke smiled.
“A cemetery?” Harry asked. “I don't know. I don't think I'd feel quite right traipsing around a cemetery at night anymore.”
“Okay, I'm tired of this. Harry, listen. Tana would want you to move on. She wouldn't like seeing you like this. She'd want you to hang out with friends and drive to strange towns and trespass in old cemeteries. She'd want you to do everything you did before and during your guys' relationship. If she really loved you like she constantly said she did, which by the way got really sickening, then she would want you to trespass in this cemetery.”
Harry continued looking at the magazine. Zeke stormed to the back, frustrated but returned a few minutes later to find Harry in the same position reading the magazine. Zeke got behind the counter with Harry and sighed. “So why is that cemetery haunted?”
Harry asked.
Zeke perked up and smiled. “Well, apparently back when the town of Alma was founded, this old man owned the land that the town wanted to use for a cemetery…”
“And the town couldn't find another piece of land to use?”
“I don't know. I only know what I got off the Internet. Anyway, the old man refused to sell which made the townspeople angry and so…”
Zeke continued to tell the story as Harry listened and occasionally interrupted with questions or actual facts that disputed the story. Soon Zeke and Harry would start arguing and everything would really start getting back to normal.
Tana would be happy.
