CHAPTER 6

"Candy, I love you. Marry me! Will you marry me?" Jeremy asks as he stares into Candy's eyes.

Candy hesitates. "Oh Jeremy, how I have longed to hear those words come from your lips. But the answer is no. I can't marry you with me going blind. Not now, maybe not ever," she cries.

"Candy, just hear me out, okay."

"Okay."

"I know you probably think I'm just asking this on the spur of the moment. But I'm not. I've been thinking about this for a while now. Look," he says as he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small box. "Look Candy! I bought this ring when I was gone on my trip. I was going to ask you to marry me the night that I got home but with your accident, I couldn't. I had to wait. So I came to see you tonight with the ring to ask you to marry me. Candy, will you please marry me?"

"Jeremy, things have changed since you bought that ring."

"Yes, some things have changed. But the love I have for you hasn't changed and I don't think your love for me has changed either. You know I love you no matter what, right, which means I'm going to embrace anything and everything even if it's out of our control. Candy, I want this more than anything."

"I do too, but I don't think this is the right time," she cries.

"Why not? We're going to be married someday, right? So why not now, before you lose your sight. This way you can see our wedding. See how beautiful you'll be in your wedding dress. How we look when we say our vows. You'll always have those memories to remember."

"But Jeremy. . ."

"Wait, I'm not finished. I don't know if I can explain this well enough for you to understand what I'm trying to say." Jeremy licks his lips and begins. "Our wedding night. Candy, I want you to see our wedding night. I want you to see how much we love each other. Us holding each other, touching each other, making love to each other. Our expressions. Everything. Then, if your vision should go, you can always remember us making love, how we looked, how we felt. I want that for you Candy."

Tears are cascading down Candy's cheeks. "I want that too, Jeremy."

"I love you so much. I want to spend the rest of my life taking care of you," he says as he takes her in his arms again.

"I love you too, but I don't want you to waste your life having to take care of me. It's going to take me a while to get use to being blind. How do I take care of you? How do I take care of myself? And what if we have children? How do I take care of a baby? How do I take care of a house and do the cooking, the cleaning, the washing, the ironing? Jeremy, what if I'm not able to do all those things?"

"I'm sure you'll learn how to do all those things given enough time. Until then, I'll help you. I'll take time off from work, even if it's a year or more. I'll. . ."

"No! You will not do any such thing, Jeremy Bolt!"

"Well, we don't have to decide that tonight. We'll take it one day at a time."

Candy nods her head as she asks, "Jeremy, where will we live? We don't have a house."

"We can live at our cabin. I'm sure Jason and Josh won't mind us being there until we get our own house built."

"Me live there with all of you? Oh Jeremy, I don't know about that," she replies hesitantly.

"It won't be long, I promise. I'll get some men together and we'll have us a house built in no time. Trust me, please."

"Jeremy, I want to marry you so badly, but look at me, look at my face. I still have scratches, bruising and some swelling. I don't look anything like how a bride should look."

"Candy, it doesn't matter to me. You may not be healed yet, but you are still the most beautiful woman I've ever seen," Jeremy replies as he places his hand on her cheek.

"Jeremy, I think you forgot that with this sling and wrapped shoulder, well I don't know if we'll be able to, you know, uh, make love on our wedding night."

"Oh, I guess I did get a little ahead of myself. We'll do what we can, all right? I'm sure whatever we can do will be beautiful."

Candy bites on her bottom lip, then holds her hand out to Jeremy. "Yes, I will marry you. Would you please put the ring on my finger?"

A big smile breaks out on Jeremy's face. "Candy, I'd be honored to. You won't regret this, I promise." He then kisses the ring, places it on her finger, and kisses it again.

Candy looks at the ring on her finger. "It's beautiful, Jeremy. I'm so happy I got to see what a beautiful ring you picked out for me. I love it and I love you, Mr. Jeremy James Bolt."

"I love you, Miss Candace Ann Pruitt. A beautiful ring for my beautiful girl." Their lips meet in a sweet tender kiss before Candy pulls away quickly. "Jeremy, we need to talk to Reverend Adams. He may not be able to marry us so quickly."

"Well, let's go find out." He rises and helps her up. Hand in hand they go in search of Reverend Adams.

As Jeremy and Candy exit the church with big smiles on their faces, they see two young boys playing in Seattle square. "Charlie, Paulie!" Jeremy calls to them.

The boys stop and stare at Jeremy thinking they're in trouble. "Relax boys. How would you like to make a little money?"

The boys laugh and Charlie says, "Sure Jeremy. What do we have to do?"

"I need you to go over to my cabin and tell my brothers to meet me at Lottie's. Then go to the dormitory and tell Biddie the same thing. Tell all of them it's urgent. Can you do that?"

"That's all?" Paulie asks.

"That's all," Jeremy says as he pulls two coins out of his pocket and hands them to the boys. "Now be sure to tell them it's urgent."

"Okay," the boys yell as they take off running to deliver their messages.