Mike and Annie had been close ever since grade school. It all started when his family moved from a small farming town into the city. On his first day at the new school, Mike was sure he’d stick out.
He figured the city kids would make fun of him for being from the sticks. But to his surprise, his classmates were decent kids and welcomed him right away. The one he noticed most was Annie.
“Now where should I put you?” the teacher said after introducing the new boy to the fourth-grade class. “Ah, I see an open seat. Go ahead and sit next to Annie, if that’s all right with you.” Annie was more than all right with it.
She liked the serious-looking boy with the furrowed brow almost immediately, and once she got to know him better, that childhood fondness turned into something real. Mike was shy at first, but before long he realized Annie was someone he could trust completely. That was how the two of them became inseparable, though life still had plenty in store before they could truly be together.
The years flew by. Carefree school days gave way to draft board visits, and before long Mike was called up into the military.
Like a lot of young men, he had imagined military life a little differently. One thing that surprised him was that the easiest path didn’t always belong to the most responsible soldiers, but to the ones who knew how to stay in the good graces of the right people. It was Mike’s first real lesson that life didn’t always run on fairness.
Even so, he took to military service and was glad when he was offered the chance to stay on under contract. But there was someone waiting for him back home, and his love for Annie outweighed any plans for a military career. His superiors worked with him and gave him a two-week leave, during which he was supposed to convince Annie to come back with him to the base.
After thinking it over, Mike agreed. When his leave finally came, he did what he always liked to do—show up unexpectedly. He came home a day earlier than he’d told everyone, not wanting his arrival to turn into a whole production.
At that moment, Mike cared about only one thing: say hello to his mother, then head straight to Annie. Soon he was standing outside the apartment building where she lived. He didn’t even need to buzz in, because just then one of the residents was coming out, looking like he’d already had a pretty good night….
