Disclaimer: I don't own The Mysterious Benedict Society
Chapter 10 (Reynie's POV)
I wasn't sure when it had started to snow. Only that I faintly remembered seeing the flickers of white against the dining room window pane. Now it was clear that the flakes had grown into sheets and were covering the backyard like a blanket wrapping tightly any last trace of autumn. It was the first snow this year. I felt my face fill with a bittersweet feeling. First snows and last chapters...
Turning the final yellowed page I gather up my emotions so I could read the last words as clearly as possible. The story deserved the dignity of that much. But in someways I thought the tears I was holding back would have also given this ending that sort of dignity. Perhaps even more so. But I held them back nonetheless, as I slowly folded the back cover to a close.
I took in a deep breath as I simply listened to the silence that lingered around us. It wasn't a bad sort of quiet though. No it was a calm pause, the moment to reflect that a finished story deserved. And most importantly of all I knew this story was unchangeably tied into my own. It was in so much a sense my past, and like the book resting in my palms, I now fully realized that it was at an end. For all the good and the bad, I knew I couldn't change a single thing, nor would I have. I would have lived through each lonely moment if it assured that my life would end up here now.
Slowly I heard Kate let go of a soft sigh and then give a gentle chuckle. But it was in that sweet sound, that I realized this moment wasn't really at an end. So looking up I gazed into her face. She was smiling as kind and confidently as I had always remembered her, but surprisingly two streams of water were falling from her blue eyes. I had seen her cry before yes, but somehow this felt different, as if I wasn't sure if I should try and comfort her or simply smile back. As if there was something right in her cheerful tears.
With mixed emotion tugging at her watering eyes, she reached to wipe her face on the fabric of her sleeve. "I can't stop crying, isn't that crazy Reynie?" She asked with another cracking laugh. Reaching over to take her hand I slowly shook my head. "No it's...I'm happy it meant that much to you." She smirked as if her face wasn't unusually red. "I'm really happy too, that's the crazy part. I just don't do well with ending I guess huh?"
I nodded as I felt her squeeze my hand tighter. She looked down and then back over at me. "It's just when something great ends, you can't help but wonder what's gonna happen next huh Reynie...? And the bad part is I get the feeling that life is like that too."
Then before I could say anything or even gather my thoughts into a reply, she looked me straight in the eyes, as a look I'd never seen played across her face. She was still crying, but now her smile had melted away. In it's place was a sort of earnestness that I'd never imagined Kate would ever display. Because with it came a vulnerability that softened Kate's whole bearing.
"I uh..." She bit her lip and tightened her grip on my hand almost to the point of pain. "Reynie... Reynie what chapter...uh are we on...?"
For a moment I simply stared at her as I tried to understand just what she meant, but as she spoke again I finally understood the weight of just what she was asking me. "I mean...where are we gonna end up when it's all said and done...?" I felt my lips quiver as I tried to form my feeling into thoughts, and they into words. But before I could even allow myself to believe what she was truly asking I felt that old rush of fear fill me.
Surely she couldn't mean...?
"Where would you like for us to be then...?" I asked slowly as I cowardly turned my eyes toward the floor. I heard her release a frustrated sigh before she spoke again. "I'm not sure exactly but... Well what I mean is, I don't really care about the details, just as long as we're in it together, you know...?"
I did know all too well just what I wanted to say right then, but getting the words to move past my throat was harder than anything I'd ever done before. But she had been honest with me, and now it was my turn to be as truthful. Looking up to meet her eyes I questioned my own bravery again. But it didn't matter, because in her face I saw the clear signs of doubt. They were the sort of doubts I had felt from the very beginning, but not for a moment could I stand to see them on her beautiful face.
So mustering a courage I knew she must have taught me herself, I slowly reached to touch her still wet cheek. With a gentle firmness I opened my mouth as I prayed everything I felt in my heart would somehow reach the surface.
"I'd be very happy to spend my whole life with you... That is...if you'd consider spending yours with me...?"
I never would have imagined just how I would have asked her to marry me, but as it was, those were the words that found their way out of my heart.
She smiled as another stream of tears drifted from her eyes. But she seemed to ignore them and grin all the wider. And in the simple and clear way she had always said what was in her own heart she answered. "Well yeah of course I would." She said, and to me it seemed as if her blue eyes gleamed with each word. It was a realization that stuck me at long last. It was a proof of her love for me and not even my doubts and worries could take it away.
It was in that moment that she seemed something more than beautiful. I knew she'd never believe that...but to me I could imagine no one else that I would have said those words to. And looking back, I realized that from the start no one else could have possibly been Kate Wetherall...
Slowly I felt my eyes close as I leaned to gently meet her lips.
For all the words I'd ever read, I found my mind completely blank in that instant. As if this moment was a work of art that needed nothing else to be perfect. Because I was at long last, just like the aged book still sitting in my lap...
Not at an end...
No...simply complete.
Thanks for reading! But stick around for at least one more chapter to come. Anyway as always reviews are nice! :)