Remember Me?

24

The sky was a bright blue, but the Vermont ground was a blinding bright white. It had snowed last night, and the snow was still a pristine blanket over the earth. It hadn't been touched except for a few animal prints. It was beautiful, I hadn't seen this type uninterrupted beauty before.

"I'm going to take a walk," Anna called. Her voice rang out throughout the quiet house. I turned my attention from the window to Anna.

"Can I come?" I asked her.

"Sure, why not." She answered, grabbing her coat. She grabbed a scarf that she carefully wrapped around her neck and tucked into her coat. I grabbed my coat, and a hat.

"Where's Buck?" I asked

"Dead asleep," She opened the door of the house. The cold air bit at our noses. But it was a clear, crisp, breath of air. I followed Anna, letting her lead me through the snow. She chose a trail that seemed familiar to her.

"I hate the cold," She admitted to me, it wasn't something I didn't already know.

"But here you are voluntarily walking through it."

"It feels good to be outside though, get some fresh air," Her cheeks and nose were rosy. Her hands were shoved in her pockets and she carefully walked through the snow.

"Yeah, it does" We continued on silently. I knew Anna never talked just to hear herself talk. Everything she said was carefully measured, and had a point. She always seemed to have a purpose for doing something. She just seemed to understand the world around her perfectly. But she viewed the world at a cynical perspective, and her idea of changing it meant leaving something on it that would outlast herself.

"I think I'm going to move back to Brooklyn again." She told me after a long moment of silence. She had moved back to Vermont for a couple months to be with her grandmother, who had just died a month or two ago. Bucky and I had come up for Christmas to be with her.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I think I'm going to sell this house, as sad as it makes me. I just think that Brooklyn is calling to me. I've already got a job lined up." She said and I wasn't surprised. She always had some kind of plan.

"What kind of job?"

"I'm going to work for a newspaper, my first day is the first of the month."

"Wow, how are you going to sell this place in time."

"There was a family awhile back that showed interest in this place. But I couldn't bare to sell it then, but now I think I'm ready."

"You really love this place don't you."

"It's my home just as much as Brooklyn is."

"What are you going to do for the newspaper company?"

"I got a job as a journalist, surprisingly. But I'm just writing the stories the other guys don't want to."

"Are you excited?"

"I guess, I kind of like to write." I did know that. She always had a piece of paper in her purse. I had watched her scribble a random thought in her head on more than one occasion. And they weren't just reminders to go get some bread later that day, they meant more to her. She never let Bucky and I see them. They were her thoughts, ones we would never have the privilege of knowing.

"You could become an author." I prompted just to see her reaction, the key with Anna was that she was expressive if you knew what to look for. When I first met her, I didn't think she was capable of showing what she was feeling, but now I just see that I wasn't looking in the right place. Even now, there are still times in which she remains a mystery, but those times are few and in between.