"...I loved her, but I couldn’t save her," said the sentence written on the back of the photo of them 8 years ago. She was beautiful, too beautiful. Long, pitch black hair that felt like silk just touching her shoulders, her gorgeous hazel eyes that reminded him of spring. Her lips, soft to the touch; body as tender as a newborn. She was 5’ 2” and slender. Jack had short, dark brown hair that was full of blue highlights. He had blue eyes that told a story, of a past of love and loss. A rough, chiseled face and tough, brute body made him look like a cage fighter. He was only 5’ 6” though, and very skinny due to being a vegetarian. He stared at that picture long and hard. They were holding hands, embracing each other softly, near a tree with a heart carved in it, “Mary and Jack 4 Ever” it read. That’s how it was. Mary was Jack’s, forever and always.
They met in college. Two kids who knew what they wanted from life. Mary was 18 as she enrolled at Westridge Community College. A 4.0 student through and through, she looked forward to college. She was going to achieve her dream of becoming a photographer. She had been behind a camera since she was a little girl. Always working with her dad in the darkroom he had. Helping him take pictures, and even starring in a few pictures herself. She came to love photography, the old way it was done. With film, not computers. She had albums full of the pictures she took, and even of the pictures that were too spotty to know what it was. She was hoping to land a job taking photos for a nature magazine. Nature was always her favorite to capture. Always there, but never the same. Jack on the other hand was a music lover. He played the violin, and had loved a good orchestra piece to play to. He was 21 and had been going to Westridge for a year when Mary enrolled. He had loved music since high school, when he played violin for the first time. It instantly clicked with him. He was going to start his own company and produce records for anyone who wanted to make it big. He was a dreamer.
They had English together at 9:00AM. It was the one class that they both didn’t seem to like. Mary didn’t like writing, like Jack didn’t like spelling. He never was the brightest bulb in class, but he was always listening and learning. Mary was pretty smart, but couldn’t make a story for anything. They both sat next to each other in class, but never talked, not until 2 weeks into school. “Do you have a pencil?” asked Mary in a whisper.
“Yeah,” said Jack as he handed his pencil to Mary.
“Is this your only one?”
“No, I got tons more,” Jack lied as he smiled at Mary. “It’s Jack, by the way.”
“What?” Mary asked in confusion.
“My name is Jack.”
“Oh,” she said feeling stupid. “Mine’s Mary. Mary Haften.”
“Jack Bensten,” he said as he smiled at her. She smiled back at him. They instantly clicked. The rest of college was a blur after that moment. They started dating. It started off with a simple dinner and movie, then more, and more. He would eat at her place, and she would come over and eat at his place. They got closer and closer, as they each pursued their degrees.
5 years later, they were happily married and had a place to call home. They lived in Maine, right next to the ocean. They loved it there. Jack never became the engineer he wanted to be, but settled for making jingles for commercials. Mary got her pictures in several nature magazines and got free trips around the world from several different magazine companies. She took Jack along, wherever she went, they were inseparable. Now, at 23, Mary started to notice some health problems arise. Her family had a history of tumors and cancer, and she was afraid she was getting one of them. She never told Jack, but she went to the doctor as soon as they got back from South America. “Mrs. Bensten, I’m sorry to say this but…you have a tumor on your brain,” said her doctor, Hiyat.
