Thinking Back

Taking Engagement photos with the Captain the other day made me think back about our relationship. When I thought he was stuck up and didn't like me while secretly hoping he'd like me. Or when we were finally friends and I was terrified that my having a crush on him would drive him away. Going to proms together, playing Stratego over Skype, watching what felt like every other girl flirting with him, and Aisling trying to console me without giving anything away while we were living in the dorm together.

The more I think about it the more extraordinary our story seems to me. The Captain is the only boy who ever gave me flowers, and I still have the first one he ever gave me pressed in my old journal. He's also the only one who ever told me I was beautiful. Other than my dad the Captain was my first dance partner, and neither of us has ever been in another relationship.

Looking over the pictures the Mouse took of us it's ... I don't really know how to describe it. They make me think of heros from my childhood. Wesley from the Princess Bride, the prince from Sleeping Beauty, Morgan from Magic Island, Caspian from the Narnia books, Jim from Treasure Island, Ivanhoe, Aragorn from Lord of the Rings. The Captain is like all of them, or twice of all of them. They seem so... halfhearted now. I don't know how else to explain it.

We took some pictures out on the bridge the Captain built over the creek. When we started courting he took me out to show me the cables they had just recently finished stringing across. When we were walking to the bridge I commented that we were standing somewhere nearby when he asked to court me. He took me a few steps closer to the bank and said that we were standing there exactly looking at a recently fallen tree which is still there. I'm blown away that he remembers so well. All I remember are the flowers and him smiling, but knowing that he remembers it makes it twice as sweet.