The Last Love

This is the original version. I hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think :)

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They are there leaning on her special tree and planning their amazing future, for they are in love and want to be with each other and never see another...

The year is 1895. The McKane farm needs help so, Mr. McKane hires a young man to work the farm with him. Mr. McKane has a young daughter named Bonnie, who was seventeen when this young man was hired to help on the farm. As fate would have it, this young man grows fonder of Bonnie as the days go by. Bonnie grows fond of the young man as well and as the days go by Bonnie often sits in her special tree from her childhood singing beautiful ballads of love and loves lost.

The young man hears her singing up in the tree, her legs dangling over the river as she sits on the branch like a little bird, singing her heart out. The young man stands next to the tree watching and listening to young Bonnie as she sings her beautiful ballads. When she looks down and sees the young man, her heart skips a beat and she feels a blush rising up her neck. Then he smiles at her. She climbs down, quietly surprised by this fascinating, young, handsome man. This young man just happened to have the name of William Stayer.

Mr. Stayer had just turned 18 and was already halfway in love with Bonnie, even though the two had never spoke before. She looks at him as he started to speak, but he couldn't utter the words that he desperately wanted to say. She stands there patiently waiting like she waited for the animals of spring to come back and the way she waited for hours to climb into her tree and sing the ballads that she loves so much. Instead of speaking, though, he leaned forward and kisses her cheek then tells her how amazing her voice is.

From that day on Bonnie would spend all day singing her heart out so that William can hear her every word, clear as day.

One hot summer day in June William decides that he will ask to court his beloved Bonnie. So he goes to her special tree and as always, she is there singing the ballads he has grown to love hearing every day, all day.

She climbs down as she saw him approaching and when she said yes, they share their first kiss.

As the months go by, they grow to love each other more. Then Bonnie's dad found out, and determined to keep the love-struck teens apart, he fires William on the spot.

This didn't deter the young teens. William gets a job on a neighboring farm and Bonnie just continues to sit in her tree singing the ballads of love that William loves hearing all day long.

At night Bonnie sneaks down, down to her tree in her white, flowing nightgown and white slippers to meet her beloved William. They meet there and plan what they think will be a bright and beautiful future full of happiness and joy.

They do this for months; then one of the neighbors reports to Bonnie's father that they were still seen together, Bonnie in her white nightgown and slippers leaning on her tree. Her father that night waits till Bonnie sneaks out to meet William; then he grabs his gun and in a rage running after her to her tree where the love-struck couple stands planning their future.

One shot is fired; Bonnie stands there in shock and horror as her beloved William crumples to the ground. He lays there breathing shallowly; his last words on that unfortunate night are "I love you, Bonnie". Bonnie starts to cry her eyes out as she says in return "I love you too William", but it was too late for he had died before she was able to say the words.

She kneels in the mix of mud and blood, holding her love's head in her lap, begging for him to speak again as the tears flow down her face. Suddenly there's a sharp pain in her upper arm as she's pulled to her feet. She looks up to see her father gripping her arm tighter than necessary. She's pulled up to the house by her arm. She is locked in her room as she waits for morning to come. When morning finally came there was no evidence of the night before, except for a muddy blood stained nightgown and a broken heart. Soon enough the nightgown is gone leaving only the broken heart of a young girl who was and is in love and lost it.

Bonnie's heart is shattered from the night before and that very night like every night before then for months on end, she went to her tree. This time, however, instead of waiting like normal, she took off her slippers and went into her tree before jumping into the ice-cold river below.

The next day a neighbor said he seen Bonnie the night before in her nightgown running toward her tree. Worried, her parents checked her room and found it vacant of Bonnie. The only thing that was ever recovered were her white slippers at the base of her favorite tree. That was the last time anyone ever saw Bonnie, or was it?

A few months ago I was near "Bonnie's tree" and heard, clear as day, a female voice singing and what sounded like a male saying that was amazing. Could this have been Bonnie and William? I wasn't sure, so that night I snuck out and at the base of the tree saw a young woman with Honey Blonde hair in a white nightgown and slippers talking to a young man in a pair of brown pants and a white shirt. I stood there quietly watching the two listening to what they are saying and all I hear is talk of the future and how amazing it will be for them. The woman smiles and giggles. Then she suddenly starts singing and I know immediately this is the woman I heard singing earlier that day.

My heart races as she sings softly of a love lost to a gun on a bright night of future planning. As she does, a shot rings out and the man falls over. She kneels down and cries as she continues the song of pain and heart break. I want to scream out "stop" before he dies, but I stay quiet, too stunned to speak. I watch as the girls dragged towards the house and as she sneaks out the body of the boy gone. I watch her climb into the tree and then drop into the river, her slippers left at the base of the tree. I stand there shocked and amazed as they appear in ghost form again and walk toward the river bank.

Bonnie's nightgown white as snow her hair blowing in what seems to be a faint wind but the air is silent as they stand there. Williams hand brushes against her cheek wiping away the tears that she has cried over his death. She smiled as if nothing had made her happier than that moment. He smiled back at her then he kissed her cheek. She said "I love you too, William." and he just smiled like I know you do.

I realized soon after that I was witnessing the beginning of what would be forever for them. Now whenever I am near that tree I hear them talking and planning their future like there's nothing that's stopping them now. I am starting to think her father's plan was a failure cause in the end he could have had an amazing son-in-law but decided to kill him and lose his only daughter in the process. I hear them a lot any more but there happy and I'm not going to ruin that for them it's not fair so they can stay.

They sit in her special tree planting and singing. They love each other and they never wanted another. Now they get the chance at true happiness and love every second of it. As if it is an unexpected pleasant surprise.