The Eternal Dream [Spirit & Love #1]

It wasn’t like Annalise had ever fallen in love before.

So, when she received a message from her best friend’s mother about Gale’s arrival back at Loyola Town, and her heart began to hammer in her chest painfully, she knew it was long-lost feelings of love coming rushing back. She was sitting at the edge of her bed, both her hands holding her phone, and they were literally quivering.

Gale Watson was coming back from his studies abroad.

At last…! – how long she had waited for this!

She should rejoice, right? After all, it was only when he left did she realise she had fallen hopelessly in love with him at some point that they had known each other. She didn’t like the prospect of having to tell him over the telephone or letters for the three years he was away. This was one of those issues for which she needed to see what a person was thinking rather than hear or read, something that was impossible – at least for her.

Annalise gulped. ’Oh, what a dilemma!’ she thought in agitation. ’But since we’d grown up together, I should at least see him once after he arrives back home…

’But what will he say when he sees how much things have changed here? Will he be okay with it? Will he think he’s been betrayed? It’s not like it was possible to explain over the telephone or something –’

“Anna!” she heard her father calling from downstairs. “Are you ready? We’re leaving in five minutes!”

She gulped, before raising her voice and yelling back, “I’m ready, Dad!” Inwardly, she sighed. ’What a dilemma!’

She stuffed her phone back in her rain jacket, adjusted her hair that was wrapped around her head like a crown with a hand-held mirror, and was about to jump off her bed, when she felt a vibration. She took it out again and unlocked the screen.

A smile came to her face automatically. It was a chat message from Quinn Castellan:

Hey love

Will be there in five!

’At least he’ll be there with me…’ Her thought trailed away as a new one emerged: ’No wait… no way… What will happen when they meet? How will Quinn react when he realises what Gale means to me?! Of course, it was such a long time ago and he doesn’t mean anything like that now… Still…’ She gulped. ’Let’s hope it all turns out okay…’

With her fingers crossed at her side, Annalise walked downstairs to join her father in the car.

Their acquaintanceship went back a long way in history, but never did Annalise think that she would fall for anyone the likes of him.

He wasn’t even in her league at all – for all she knew, she was way out of his league.

Gale had always been in her life, for as long as she could remember. He was there to ward off the “evil entities”, as she called them – aka bullies – who threatened her. He was there to soothe her when her grandmother had passed away. He was there to provide her with words of comfort and advise whenever she needed them.

He had always been there for her, like the brother she never had… with his soft, caressing fingers, he would rub her back soothingly, with a carefully curated gentleness in his voice, he would speak reassuring words in her ears.

When he left the country of Solasia and went to study in London, she remembered how completely alone she had felt the day she had seen him off at the airport. But then, he sometimes replied to her constant letters to him. Just receiving them always served to make her happy. For a whole year, she had neglected her other friends who never once gave up trying to cheer her up, and soon, they succeeded.

Life went on. She passed out of school with excellent grades and started college at Magnum Heights, the nearest city, about a hundred-and-fifty kilometres from her hometown. It was here that she met Quinn Castellan, and they fell in love after he had courted her for more than a year. They had been dating ever since then. Quinn was a major in Political Science, already graduated by the time she had entered college as a History fresher, and had been working as a Masters researcher, allegedly ‘lurking around the campus and agitating demonstrations’ amongst students.

Having known him for three years now, Annalise knew such allegations were false. When alone, they even laughed at the rumours they heard about him. Quinn never took anything against him seriously, as far as Annalise knew.

There was nothing wrong with Quinn, except that he was human. He had habits she didn’t particularly like, but she could get used to them. After all, she probably gave him a hard time with her OCD for cleanliness – with the amount of times she had cleaned his room! It ought to drive any one mad, but Quinn never got mad at Annalise for tidying up his room whenever she came. In fact, she wondered if that was the primary reason he called her to hang out at his house at least once a week!

Now, she sat in the front seat of the car with her father, while Quinn sat behind.

“This friend of yours, Gale,” he said, grinning, “sounds quite an interesting character, from what I heard.”

Mr Raven chuckled. “Oh yes, he and Anna used to be great friends! – I don’t know about now, though – doesn’t seem like he remembers her much.”

“Papa! How could you say that?!” she exclaimed in horror. “You know he writes back to me!”

He shrugged, glancing at her, as he started the ignition. “Perhaps not as much as you did.” When she scowled at him, he shook his head. “It’s the fact. Not my fault.” With that, he took a U-turn and drove in the direction of the airport.

During the ride, Annalise was very quiet, which was unlike her usual bubbly personality.

She was thinking about how he would react when she and Gale would meet after three whole years.

More importantly, how would she react?

Thoughts of this only succeeded in tiring her out. She sighed – before she realised that it came out aloud – making her father, who was driving beside her, twist in his seat for a moment to glance at her.

“What is it, sweetie?” he enquired, gently. “Is it the meeting?”

She swallowed the small lump that had been forming in her throat. “I think so,” she replied, voice unusually soft and dry. Deep down, a thought entered her mind: ’Maybe he’s right—maybe I am no longer that important to Gale now.’

Her father’s soft, soothing words floated up to her: “It’s going to be all right. After all, he’s been a close friend to you all your life. Don’t you keep saying you owe your life to him?”

“Ummm.” Her head turned towards the window on her side of the car, she nodded absently. All the trees she looked at seemed to be thousands of faces that looked just like Gale; the cars that passed by hers all seemed to have his face staring back at her—the face as she last saw him.

’Darn, I miss him so bad!’

Annalise was now quite sure that she would definitely not be able to face him… not with the kind of thoughts she was having now…

She felt a hand fall lightly on her shoulder. She didn’t have to turn around to see that it was Quinn reassuring her. A small smile lit up her face again and she began to relax.

Quinn was with her. What could go wrong?

“Here we are!” her father’s booming, cheerful voice brought her back from her semi-happy reverie.

She shook her thoughts out of her head and prepared to focus on the present moment. Worrying about what the future held for her was not what she was supposed to be doing.

’Right…?!’

As if in affirmation, Quinn’s hand on her shoulder pressed in comfort.

As her father parked the car and turned off the ignition, Annalise inhaled and exhaled deeply. Then, she opened the door on her side and got out. Her father followed suit, took the car keys and his phone out, before he gently slammed the door shut. Quinn joined them and they made their way towards the airport. Annalise could see passengers streaming in and out of the terminals. They sat on a bench nearby, her in between the other two, and waited.

A swarm of people made their way of out the airport to be greeted by friends, relatives, and spouses, all in tears. Some were couples themselves, a few others seemed to be single or a large group of friends. Annalise began fingering the edge of her dress in nervous anticipation: Every face that her eyes caught sight of imagined to be that of Gale Watson, only to realise that it wasn’t.

She sighed.

’Only Time will tell,’ a small, positive voice inside her head whispered.

She gulped. When she glanced at the calm face of her boyfriend beside her, a sort of serenity took over her heart and her mind seemed to be at peace. She knew she was ready to face whatever challenge she came here for.

“It’ll be all right, sweetheart,” he told her. “Gale will be here very soon and we can see if he remembers you.”

She nodded. “Well, aren’t you worried about this meeting, though?”

He raised an eyebrow playfully. “Should I be?”

She was about to give him a straight answer, before she changed her mind and instead, smirked and replied, “Maybe. Who’s to know?” She winked and turned back to staring at the terminals.

With a grin, he poked her, before turning back, too. Mr Raven noticed this and held back a chuckle.

About five minutes later, Annalise’s father got up, waving at the terminals. She turned around. A young, fair, tall, and slender lad was walking towards them, away from one of the exit terminals, a heavy-looking bag over his shoulders and another small bag in his left hand. He clutched something in his right hand.

When she looked up, an audible gasp escaped her lips, her heart skipped a beat. It was him – it was Gale!

Her companions did not seem to notice her reaction, as they stood up to greet the boy. Gale made his way in their direction, a big grin on his face.

She somehow knew that somewhere behind that smile was shielded a tired expression.

“Gale!” exclaimed her father. “You’re here!”

“Yes, sir!” replied Gale, giving the man a mock salute.

Then, he tilted his head a little to smile at Annalise. The latter involuntarily smiled back, before all the emotions she thought were gone came back to her in a rush, rendering her breathless and her chest hot.

“Hey, Ann, how’ve you been?” he asked her in his silky-smooth voice that always made her weak in the knees.

As it did to-day: A blush graced her cheeks. “I’ve… been okay,” she managed to reply, the words simply refusing to come out of her mouth – her mind froze simply by looking at those emerald eyes in front of her.

And his smile…oh that smile…!! How much she missed it!!

Another lump formed in her throat, and this time, it was bigger and harder to swallow.

’Why…why did I ignore it all this time??’

The fact was that, she did not entirely ignore it. She never thought of it – him – as a lover before.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to her and she looped an arm around Quinn, to bring him closer to her. “T-this is m-my b-boyfriend – Quinn!” she stuttered.

Gale’s eyebrows rose and his smile grew. “Oh wow! You never told me!” He extended an arm for a handshake. “Nice to meet you, Quinn!”

Quinn grinned – the same cheeky grin that always played with her heart-strings. “Likewise!” His accent came out strongly for some reason. “Annalise has told me so much about you!”

Gale grinned back. “That’s funny – she’s never told me a thing about you!” He paused, backtracking. “Hey… is this for real?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“I mean, are you from England?”

“Well, North Ireland, actually, but yes, I’ve been in England for some time now. Family is mostly English.”

“That is so nice! Ann, why didn’t you tell me about this Quinn fella?! He would’ve been a great guide for me in London, you know!”

Annalise blushed again, this time, out of embarrassment. “I… did, actually. Five letters, if I’m not wrong.”

“Oh!” Gale seemed genuinely surprised. “Well, never mind. It is so nice to see that my girl is being treated right even in my absence.”

Nobody noticed the momentary look of disapproval on Mr Raven’s face.

The heat in Annalise’s chest increased and she began shuffling her feet—a clear sign of her discomfort with the topic of discussion.

Her father must’ve noticed this, for he cleared his throat and said, “Okay then! Let’s go home! We’ll have plenty to discuss then!” He turned to Gale. “Hand me your bags, man! Did you call your parents to say you’ve arrived safely?”

Gale nodded as he handed his smallest bag to him. “How are you doing, Ann?”

“I… I’m fine!” she blurted, her stuttering coming back without her consent. “Wh-what about y-y-you?”

Gale gave her the million-watt smile he always seemed to reserve for her in the past; it warmed her heart to know that he still had it.

“I’m well… been better after seeing you!” he responded.

This made her giggle, but for some reason, she was shy about showing it to him. Nevertheless, he bent down and caught her in action.

Heat flared up her cheeks again.

Annalise’s boyfriend cleared his throat loudly, thus breaking their connection.

Her father took out the car keys from his pocket. “Come now, let’s go home!”