A LOVE NEVER FADING
Chapter Fifty
On August 11, 1919, Maggie gave birth to her
second son, William Michael Fagin. They would call him Will. Rose thought it
was funny. She had gone to work in the morning, and when she came home, there
was a new baby in the house.
*****
Sunday, October 4, 1919
Rose walked past the living room and saw
Brian sitting by himself. She walked in and sat on the couch. "Brian? Is
something wrong?"
Brian looked over at her. "I was just
thinking about things. Now that I have children of my own, I've been thinking
about my childhood."
"Is that a bad thing?" She asked
that because his voice seemed sad.
He shook his head. "No." Brian
looked at her. "Let me explain my family to you. I have my two older
brothers. And they are very close with one another. Then there are my two
younger brothers, and they are very close with one another. Then there's my
sister. She's only about ten months older than me. But...you've met my
sister."
"She's nice."
Brian laughed. "She's nice. I guess.
We've never been close. My sister is a jealous thing. She was always jealous of
Maggie. Out of the two families, there were only the two girls. My sister and
Maggie. Maggie is younger and as far as I'm concerned prettier, nicer, smarter,
funnier, just better in every way. Maggie always got more attention. So my
sister doesn't like her. That's the situation of my family. My two older
brothers and two younger brothers. They're close. And then there's my sister.
Don't get me wrong. I love them all to death. They're my family. But I've
always been closer to Maggie's brothers."
Rose nodded. "I remember Maggie saying
something about that."
Brian looked down at his hands. "It got
me thinking of other things, too."
"Really? What?"
"You and Jack."
Rose was surprised.
Brian looked at her. "You've always been
like my sister. I love you very much. Over the past two years I've been so
scared for you. For all those months, when you didn't come out of the
apartment, I was terrified. If I lost you, it would be like taking away my sister."
Rose moved closer to Brian. "I love you,
too. I feel the same way. And Maggie's like a sister."
Brian nodded. "And Jack is definitely
like a brother. When he showed up, it was fantastic. I had someone to talk to.
Like I told you, I wasn't too close to my brothers. And now Maggie's brothers
live upstate. So Jack was the only man I had to talk to. He really became my
best friend. And now that he's missing..." Brian's eyes filled with tears.
"Oh, Brian." Rose wrapped her arms
around him. She had never seen him cry.
"I saw what it was like in France. All
these men died in front of me, and I was so scared that one day one of those
men would be Jack."
Rose tightened her arms around him.
"It's okay. It's okay." She put him at arms length and looked in his
eyes. "You're a wonderful man, Brian. You have a big heart. You've done so
much for Jack and I. I want to thank you. And thank you again for staying so
kind."
Brian nodded. "You're welcome. And I
only treated you the way I felt you should be treated."
Rose smiled, and hugged him one more time. He
smiled, too. Rose and Brian realized then how important they were to one
another.