The silence is unusual. As I rock back and forth in my squeaking wooden chair, I start to reminisce about the many things that have happened throughout the war.


It was back in the year 1942, she was very much of a teen being forced to grow up too quickly as she and her younger sister became orphans when the Nazi's killed their parents and burned down their home during the war. Anne, was 13, while her sister was only 3. The event was horrific; thus, they didn't have a place to go. They only had the clothes on their backs and some supplies that could only keep them alive for a few more days.

A few days later, a priest took them into his church to help give proper care for them. They were more than delighted! Anne helped out in the church, cleaning pulpits and benches to statues and floors. There was a boy there, who helped out and became very good friends with her. He was an orphan too, who was another lucky 14 year old who had a second chance to survive. He was left alone since 1939 when the war started.


Anne carried many responsibilities and cared for her sister very much. She had planned to move into a proper home with her sister after the war ended and have a new life. The boy and Anne were close as they talked and was together everyday. Three years later; on the eve of her 16th birthday, Anne finally had the decision to tell him that she loved him. She dropped her bar of soap and floor brush and ran as quickly as possible to find him.

Her heart beat franticly while she searching for him from room to room. And then she stopped.

She listened a little harder to the room a little further in front of her. She inched slowly towards the door only to find the Priest and the boy in a deep conversation. The Priest asked him if he had considered about being the Priest's successor in the church. He answered a soft "yes." and agreed. Anne's heart was shattered as tears start to fill her eyes as she had known very well that a priest can never be married.

She found a home and job when she was 18 in the year 1945. The war had ended by then, and the boy was now taken under the wing of the Priest. She moved out of the church to restart her life with her sister, still having her feelings buried deep within her.

12 years later, Anne was getting married to her fiancee. She was to be married in that very same church she and her sister lived in during the war. As she walked down the isle in her white dress, the wedding march starts to play. The guests arose to their seats to admire her beauty and grace. The march ended when she reached the end of the pulpit; standing in front of her fiancee. Then, the Priest proceeded to open his Bible to read the verses of unions. There, bookmarked between the pages of it, lay a small paper crane.

Anne was shocked to see what it was. Hence, her memories started to race through her mind. She took a closer look at the priest and realized he was the orphan boy. She could not believe her eyes. She used to fold plenty of paper cranes with him to cheer her baby sister up when she was down or had fallen sick.

"Oliver? Is that you? Is it really you? For all these years you're still keeping that old thing, o' olv..?"

"Anne..I." he paused.
"I love you so much Anne. I have been trying to hide it all these years, this is not supposed to be. I was supposed to be right there with you." He looked at her fiancee with eyes filled with regret.

Her fiancee had his mouth gaped open in disbelief.

"Ol' Olv you have always been my first love, hence have you chosen to be a priest when we would have the chance to be together?"

"I did it for your happiness, Anne. A week before you turned 16 the priest has asked me to be his successor. Thinking of you, I rejected his plans for me and had realized how much you mean to me. I ran over to find you and I couldn't wait to share about the plans we were going to have after the war. I was going to tell you that I love you. But I didn't. "


Daisies in one hand, and another fitting up his hair in his old brown hat, the 17 year old orphan boy rushed to see her. His first love. He was so excited with his heart racing faster than his legs could carry him. His heart stopped when he saw Anne with another boy. Her eyes were gleaming , and furthermore she had frequent visits from this boy on the other side of the church gate. He backed himself against the wall, hiding himself. Tears start to well up in his eyes as he had never been so hurt before. He often hid himself for days and had decided he could not believe in marriage anymore if it was not with her.

On the eve of her birthday, he met up with the priest again in the store room to tell him that he would do it. He was crushed when she left with her sister, but he had to accept the fact that she wasn't his.

"He was just a friend then, Olv! In fact I wanted to tell you too, but when I found out you had agreed to the priest. I just stopped. I had never regretted so much in my life." confessed Anne.

Oliver stepped down from the pulpit and took out a small weed ring big enough to only fit her pinky.

"Marry me."

The guests started to stare and whisper in shock. Her fiancee that was once the boy-at-the-gate, was dumbfounded; stood there in horror.

"Yes, I will!" Anne exclaimed.
"Yes, I will definitely marry you, Olv.." She repeated it again and again and Oliver wedded themselves there.

They ran out of the church and eloped in a countryside and lived together till they were ripe in age.