Prologue

Forever by Lucy Maud Montgomery

I
With you I shall ever be;
Over land and sea
My thoughts will companion you;
With yours shall my laughter chime,
And my step keep time
In the dusk and dew
With yours in blithesome rhyme;
In all of your joy shall I rejoice,
On my lips your sorrow shall find a voice,
And when your tears in bitterness fall
Mine shall mingle with them all;
With you in waking and dream I shall be,
In the place of shadow and memory,
Under young springtime moons,
And on harvest noons,
And when the stars are withdrawn
From the white pathway of the dawn.

II
O, my friend, nothing shall ever part
My soul from yours, yours from my heart!
I am yours and you mine, in silence and in speech,
Death will only seal us each to each.
Through the darkness we shall fare with fearless jest,
Starward we shall go on a joyous new quest;
There be many worlds, as we shall prove,
Many suns and systems, but only one love

The paper is soft and worn with age, the printed words blurred with handling, as I gently flatten it out on the table in front of me. I don't need to, the words have been committed to memory for years now, but I find the familiar act of unfolding the paper and reading the lines comforting.

"Anything I can get for you, hon?"

The friendly but impersonal voice of the waitress breaks into my thoughts as she approaches my booth. I smile at her sweetly. She's got bleached blonde hair with two inches of grey roots and her apron is dirty, but everyone is beautiful to me today. "A cup of tea please, and a donut." I won't eat it, but I don't know how long I will have to wait and it will give me an excuse to linger.

She places a chipped white cup and saucer in front of me, and a plate with a large, greasy looking donut beside it.

"Thank you!" I say brightly, and pretend I don't notice her smile falter a little as she looks into my eyes.

"You're welcome," she says, after a pause that probably no one but I would notice. "Anything else you want, you just call."

I drop my eyes back to the paper in front of me. One edge is jagged, as though it was torn out of a book, and once again I wonder what happened to the rest of the book. My eyes scan too, the handwritten scrawl at the bottom of the page, the pencil faded after nearly thirty years. Alice- you called him Jasper. Find him. Good luck.

Jasper. I have to stop myself from dancing with impatience in my seat, and I whisper his name like it's a talisman. Jasper. I've been waiting so long, and now it's finally time…it occurs to me briefly that most people would be nervous in this situation, but even the idea of it makes me giggle. Jasper. I can't be anything but joyful, knowing that soon – soon!- he'll be walking right through that door and then I'll never be alone again.

I pretend to take a sip of my tea, keeping the grimace off my face, and pick at the donut, slipping the crumbs under a napkin. Outside, the Philadelphia sky is grey and dreary and there is a sudden spatter of raindrops against the diner's window. As the rain settles into a steady downpour I sigh and sit back. I know that I won't see him until the sun comes out. There's nothing to do now but wait.

Time ticks by. I crumble my donut and hide it in the napkin. I read a newspaper. The waitress brings me another cup of tea and I ask for a piece of pie, and then I have to try and dispose of that as well without eating it. I watch the lunchtime crowd flow in and eat and flow out, but even with all that delicious scent and the hypnotic siren call of the heartbeats my focus never wavers. Jasper. I know it's going to be today. The dress, the waitress, the way the sun breaks through the clouds and makes the wet pavements gleam…everything is right. Everything matches the vision I've carried in my head and heart for the past twenty eight years. I prop my chin on my hands, looking out the window and waiting, and then my heart soars and my whole world blooms bigger because there he is.

The chimes above the door ring and he steps through. Jasper. He's wearing ill-fitting grey serge trousers cinched together at the waist by a belt, and a threadbare shirt that might once have been red but is now more of a faded pink, and a grey pinstriped waistcoat that somehow manages to match neither the trousers nor the shirt…and despite this fashion disaster he's still the most beautiful sight I've ever seen. His hat is pulled low over his forehead and he's looking down so that I can't see his eyes, but I can see the dull gleam of his blonde hair and the long, strong masculine fingers as he reaches behind him to pull the door shut. It's finally you. After all this time…my Jasper.

I don't even hesitate. Not now, not after all this time of waiting. Instead I rise to my feet and smooth the crumbs off my sweet cherry print dress and swiftly move to his side. He turns his head sharply and takes a step back, but nothing can stop the dizzying swirl of happiness I feel inside. I tilt my head to peek under the hat and his blood red eyes meet my glowing golden ones and I feel my whole face light up with my joyful smile.

"Jasper," I say softly. "It's you…you've kept me waiting a long time."

I hold out my hand to him, and I watch his face shift from taut suspicion to a kind of incredulous happiness, and then he bows his head and gives me the crooked grin I've seen so often in my mind as his fingers fold around mine. "My apologies ma'am," he murmurs, in the syrupy Southern accent my ears have been aching to hear. "My apologies…I'm here now."