17Dawn didn't notice.
Angel didn't even care. She was too busy getting ready for her wedding. Tobit's family had graciously offered their home for the reception, and Tobit himself even helped with the decorations. The ceremony was to take place in the church down the road. Dawn was appointed maid of honor, Charlie the best man, but only after Tobit's refusal.
Finally, the day came. Angel was too excited to stand still, constantly hopping around and twirling in her dress and gasping, 'I can't believe it, I can't believe it. I'm getting married, I can't believe it!'
Dawn was the exact opposite. Silent and still. Charlie commented on how pretty she looked in her dress, and she made a little 'Eneeh' sound and slumped to the side, missing his shoulder by an inch. She caught herself before collapsing in his lap and sat up again.
The ceremony was beautiful, almost everyone cried. The reception was grand. People showed up from all over to greet Mr. and Mrs. William Johnson. Angel was just as excited at the reception as she had been at the house. Dawn was just as silent.
However, Charlie's constant pestering got her to dance. He escorted her to the floor. too her hand, and they waltzed. He smiled a little, and she stared back at him.
"Angel looks ravishing, doesn't she?" he tried a bit of small talk.
"Yes."
"Are you OK Dawn?"
"Yes."
"Aren't you happy?"
"No."
"No?"
"No."
She smiled a little, but refused to talk. She stayed for a bit longer, danced a bit more, ate a bit more food, but decided that she was tired and left for home early, so it was only afterwards she found out what happened.
No one really knew exactly how it all happened, but someone knocked a lap over upstairs and it caught on fire. No one noticed until it was almost too late. Tobit had been resting with his eyes closed and didn't realized his bed was on fire until he got burned. He jumped up and discovered that he was trapped in his room.
Below him, the stairs had caught on fire and everyone was evacuated. After a quick count they realized Tobit was missing, and realized that he was trapped in the house.
Only Charlie had the guts to head back into the burning house and up the stairs to rescue Tobit. Just seconds after Charlie stormed into the flaming house, it collapsed.
Everyone was silent for a moment as it dawned on them. They were gone.
Everyone wandered home numbly as firefighters stayed and put the house out. Two bodies were removed from the ashes, crushed and burned. No one could really understand, how?
Dawn was awoken early in the morning by Angel's sobbing.
"What's wrong?" Dawn queried, "You're supposed to be happy."
"Ch-Charlie's dead!" tears dropped off of her chin onto the floor with tiny little pings, "So is Tobit. The house just - just..."
"How? Why?"
"I don't know, I don't know! Oh Charlie!"
Dawn sat for a moment, thinking, thinking. Then, she jumped up and grabbed her coat.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going to tell Jack that I..." she paused for a moment, "You wouldn't understand. I'll be back shortly."
She knew, she just knew what she needed to do. Jack would understand, he would have too. He loved her.
She walked more slowly as she approached the house, but some strange force got her walking faster, and faster, and before she knew it she was standing in front of Nana Carvajal saying the words she never thought she would say...
"I love Jack, but I can't sacrifice myself for him. I can't do it, I just can't."
There was a moment of ringing silence before Nana let out a small laugh, "Oh Dawn, I knew you would do this."
"Excuse me?"
"Dawn, you've changed..."
"Jack isn't really going to leave?"
"Oh, Dawn!" Jack was standing behind her with tears in his eyes, "You are amazing, you really are. I've never cared for someone as much as I care for you, and I honestly never will."
"Dawn, he has to leave." Nana sighed, "And you have to stay. That is the way it should be. That is the way it's going to be."
"Good-bye Dawn," Jack whispered, "I only have enough left to do this..." he gathered her up and held her really close. She could feel him slowly melting away around her, "If I could, I would kiss you right now."
"Do I ever have to let go Jack."
"No, no. Whenever you have empty arms, I'll hold you. When ever you have an empty heart, I'll touch it. Whenever you have a tear on your face, I'll wipe it away. I promise, I..." where he stood there was only air.
"It is amazing that a person could lose so much in one day and survive, and it was surely because of Jack being with her that Dawn survived. She never found another love, she lived alone until her last dying day.
"Angel often asked her why she didn't move on and find another man, Dawn's cool reply was, 'Three's a charm, and he was a ghost.' Angel never believed her.
"Dawn told every one of Angel's children the story, and they laughed at her. They called her 'Crazy Aunt Dawn' and teased her behind her back. All except for one, the youngest. His name was Charlie.
"He loved Dawn, and he even spent the last few days of her life by her side, asking quietly to hear the story, just one more time. Just one more time, just once...
"He told his children, and they told their children, and so it became messed up and confused, and was more than a simple love story, it became the town's history. It became something silly and useless. But, the truth needs to live on, and that's why I'm telling you the story." she turned and looked at me, "Now I'm old and useless, and someday you will be the same. Take that picture and that book, in fact, I'm giving you all of the books and all of Charlie's paintings. They aren't worth much, to any outsider. But I hope now, to you, they will be worth all of the gold in the world."
A few more words were exchanged, some hugs and kisses were given. Then I left, book and picture in hand, to go and start a new life in a new state with a new best friend.
My grandma passed on early the next morning.
Even now, it seems like the reason my grandmother was so interested in Dawn's life was because in a way she was Dawn. My cousins and even my own siblings often whispered about Grandma's mental health in a rude and degrading way. I loved my grandma, but never enough I now know.
Learning the truth about Jack was sort of a new awakening for me. I approached life in an entirely different way, as I am sure Dawn had. I told my husband the story, and he laughed. He laughed and patted my head and said, "Sweetie, your grandma was old. That story was just as fake as the others. There is no Jack, you aren't the great great grand-niece or whatever of Dawn. She isn't real, he isn't real."
But I believe.