Title: Life Everlasting
Author: Jade Hunter
A.N: Okay, I read the book in like fourth grade and hated the sad ending. I went to see the movie in hopes for a glorified Hollywood happy ending, but was let down because FOR ONCE the writers stuck to the true ending. So, nagged incessantly with a feeling of disappointment and a need to write an alternate ending, I finally decided to put all my other projects on hold and write this.
Disclaimer: None of the characters of Tuck Everlasting belong to me, and neither do the spring and its magical powers.
"talking:
thinking
emphasis
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"Winnie, breakfast!"
Pausing in front of the mirror for one last assurance that her appearance was proper, Winnie dashed for the door, grabbing her small purse and bonnet on the way. She quickened her pace until she was at the stairs, but refrained from running down, instead placing a slender hand on the banister. It had been a year since she and her parents had set forth from Treegap; they were now residing in Florida, having purchased a seaside home for the duration of their stay.
Winnie was sixteen now, her birthday long passed, and although she would never admit it, found herself acting proper. It wasn't to the extent that her mother had first desired of her, so short a time ago, but there was a new feminine urge inside her to be…feminine. She still had the qualities that made her Winnie, that same curiosity, the same innocence, the same brightness that made her enjoy the simple things in life, but she was also a young woman now, with a young woman's feelings and desires.
She was becoming a lady.
And all on my own, too, Winnie smiled. Who would have thought?
She stepped into the dining room, placing her purse and bonnet in the hands of the butler – one of only three servants in the entire house – and waited until he pulled out her chair for her before moving to sit.
Her mother smiled, "Good morning, dear."
"Good morning," she replied, and folded her hands together.
Both women – Winnie fought the urge to giggle at herself for considering herself a woman already – turned to the man who sat at the head of the table, Winnie's father.
He smiled at her, eyes crinkling in good nature, and also folded his hands together, preparing to say grace before they started on their morning meal. He kept it short, but meaningful, and before long, the three of them were passing baskets of biscuits and plates of other food.
"Anything interesting in the news today, dear?" Winnie's mother asked her husband, knowing his habit of reading the morning paper before breakfast. "More news of the war?"
The war, Winnie remembered with startling clarity. The one overseas. The one Miles wanted to fight in.
As her parents talked of the new happenings in the war since it began a year ago, Winnie drifted in her still bright memory of the Tuck family, who had shown her a world outside her restricted gates. They had been something more than normal, but they had also been perfectly normal, baking, cooking, building, and having arguments. She remembered one from her stay there, between Angus Tuck and his oldest son, about Miles wanting to join the army and fight in the war. From their tones, she was able to discern that it wasn't the first or last time they had fought over it. Jesse had taken her to see a fawn only moments later, however, and she'd forgotten completely about it until now.
Thus, her trail of thought – from the war to Miles to the Tucks – eventually led her to the one person she had tried not to think about for an entire year.
Jesse. She remembered the boy – despite his age, she couldn't think of him as a man because of the carefree way he acted – who had changed her life for the better. I wonder…do you think of me, Jesse? I think of you, no matter how hard I try not to. Where are you? I hope you're not looking for me in Treegap…no, Winnie, it's too soon. He's probably somewhere else, having a grand time of it…
"Are you all right, darling?"
Winnie started a bit, looking up from her plate where she had been picking at her eggs. Her mother was looking at her in concern, her father also turning to her in askance.
"I said, dear, are you all right? You've picked at your food for the last ten minutes." Winnie's mother repeated.
Winnie nodded and smiled, returning her attention to her breakfast, "I'm fine, thank you. I was just in thought."
Her parents nodded, then exchanged a look. She knew that they were wondering whether or not she would run away again. Winnie would never do that, for she was happy with her parents now, but they still worried from time to time. They would never recover from that time. For that, Winnie was frightfully sorry, though she could never be sorry she had run away.
Her father placed his fork down, and looked at her with another smile, "We've been in Florida for three months now, Winnie. Is there any special place you'd like to go next, or would you like to stay here?"
They always asked her that, everywhere they went, saying this trip was for her benefit more so than theirs, although they enjoyed traveling as well. Winnie had never seen her mother look so happy, or her father look so relaxed. The vacation was doing them all some good. However, she had grown bored of beaches, and she knew her parents must have, too, for they only asked her when they grew weary of a place, thinking she might be weary as well. It was true, for the most part, and they'd jumped from place to place without any pattern.
"Mmm," Winnie also placed her fork down, wiped the corners of her mouth with the napkin from her lap, then placed it on her plate, for she was done eating. She barely noticed her mother doing the same, with an approving smile on her face, so deep in thought as to where she wanted to go.
We've already been to Texas, she thought, recalling the heat and the ranches and the horseback riding they'd partaken in, to New York, with its ever-busy streets and people, and to Maine, where the wilderness was as beautiful as it had been in Treegap.
"What do you think of Louisiana?" she asked.
Her mother brightened, "That sounds wonderful!" She turned to her husband, who smiled and clapped his hands.
"Then it's settled," he said, also placing his napkin on his place.
As the maid moved to clear up the table, Winnie and her family rose, for they had plans to take a long walk on the beach. The butler handed Winnie her purse and bonnet, then helped her with her coat, for Winnie's father was aiding Winnie's mother.
As the three of them walked on the wet sand, quite close to the water, Winnie gazed out at the vast ocean and felt a pang of sadness.
To think, this might be the last time I'll see this. she said to herself.
She let her parents walk ahead, slowing down to let the coming wave lap at her boots. She saw the footsteps of her mother and father being filled with the ocean water, and smiled without humor when she saw that the water fairly jumped in and out, as if it were a spring.
Always came the reminder of the choice she had made, of the choice she could rectify, for she was still young. She thought of Jesse again, of Mae, both with the same welcoming smiles and warm eyes, of Tuck who had cared for her enough to warn her, and even of Miles, who had seemed fond of her in a gruff sort of way but hadn't wanted to acknowledge it because she would grow old and die, and he'd experienced too much loss of friends and family.
She saw all their faces in the salty water of the sea, and was sad again, but for a different reason.
I'm sorry, she said to the faces she saw. I'm sorry I tried not to think about you…all this time. And I'm sorry I left without telling anyone. I'm sorry…I wish…
Winnie dared not finished that thought.
She ran to catch up with her parents.
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~Jade Hunter~