Living Our Waye – Chapter 1.1 – When Love Takes Over

My name is Caleb Waye and this is my story…

 

I always wanted to be a farmer. There is a tradition of that in my family. My family was always into the farming deal. They spent their days working hard and asked for their children to do the same.

 

So when I turned eighteen, my parents surprised me with my own plot of land to continue on tradition. And having always been one to want to impress the folks, I couldn’t wait to begin creating my own small garden, dedicating my time to that rather than a 9 to 5 suit and tie job.

 

What follows is my memoir. I am but an old man with many memories to share. I can still remember the day I arrived at my new home. It was a large empty plot with nothing but a small fenced area and an empty shed with no way inside. I had been confident that I would succeed in the farming business, all I had to do was try.

 

My parents may have given me the land but they hadn’t given me anything to plant. I spend my first morning carefully plowing small trenches to plant in. It was hard work, but I was used to it.

 

I wasn’t only interested in gardening though. I headed to the town park to kick start my fishing. I could have just gone across the street from my home but I had hoped to meet a lovely young woman that I could sweep off her feet.

 

The first catch is always the most memorable, even if it is just a tiny minnow. I was proud of myself, considering my father had never taken me fishing as a boy and so that had been my first attempt.

 

The first few days were the hardest. My first night alone was terrible. I had to beg a bed from the Fire Department, thankfully they were more than willing to let me stay.

 

By my second day, I was already planting seeds. I had come across four unique seeds while wandering through the town and couldn’t wait to plant them. My small garden would soon be taking shape.

 

That was the day when I first heard from her. I recieved a phone call shortly after I had finished in the garden. I was surprised, to say the least, as I didn’t even know anyone in town. Her voice was beautiful. She introduced herself as Zelda Mae, I was hooked and knew I had to meet her.

 

I decided to fish across the road, I wanted some quiet time to think. I hadn’t really given any thought as to how I was going to be able to afford things like food and furniture. I decided that I would register at the Town Hall as a Gardener, I was hoping that I would be able to make a comfortable living from my plants soon.

 

While I was at the town hall I noticed a young couple by the building, they seemed to be very much in love. I was happy for them and I hoped that I would soon meet Zelda and be very much in love myself.

 

I stopped dead in my tracks when I heard her voice. It was Zelda. I could feel my heart breaking, I didn’t know this woman and I had no right to feel it but it hurt me deeply. She only had eyes for one man and it wasn’t me.

 

I had hurried inside and registered myself as self-employed, trying to get away from Zelda and her boyfriend. As I emerged from the building I was surprised to see Zelda waiting by the door.

“You’re Caleb, right?”

Her voice was still the most beautiful thing I had ever heard. I nodded and smiled but found myself unable to talk.

“Wow, you’re cuter than I thought you would be. I’m Zelda, we spoke on the phone. I just wanted to welcome you to our town and I hope you like it here.”

I had to face the fact. I had heard nothing she had said to me, I was staring at her so intently but she didn’t seem to notice. I was in love, there was no denying it.

 

Out of curiosity I followed her around for the rest of the day. It was creepy, I know, but my heart just wouldn’t let me walk away from her. I found out that she was a musician and that she shared a house with her sister. I stood in front of the house she had disappeared into for  quite a while before gathering up the courage to go and ring the doorbell.

 

Unfortunately I had taken so long to get to the door that her boyfriend had gotten there before me. I stood awkwardly to one side as she flirted with him, asking him to spend the night there. I was crushed again but I persisted, I wanted to get to know her better.

 

She finally invited me in and I finally managed to speak to her.

“You have a beautiful home.”

It wasn’t the best thing I could’ve said but it was a start. She smiled at me and told me that she was just staying there while she got on her feet.

 

She invited me to stay the night too and I ended up having my first good night’s sleep since I left my parent’s house. Zelda seemed to have forgotten how many people lived in the house though as her nephew was left without a bed that night.

 

I was heading out to work on my garden one morning when I noticed that Zelda had wandered onto my land. She was looking at me with a strange look in her eye. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking but I didn’t have time to greet her at that moment, my plants needed my attention.

 

I thought she might’ve left when I so blatantly ignored her but she didn’t, thankfully. She whipped out a guitar and started playing some music while I worked. It was nice, having something other than birds to listen to for a change.

 

I was so happy when I noticed that she was still there by the time night had fallen. I had just finshed working in the garden and I finally went over to greet her.

“I was beginning to think you were never going to stop working in that garden of yours.”

“I’m sorry, it’s just that I have to take extra care of them just now. I don’t want my crops to die out before I can harvest them.”

There was something about the way she was looking at me that gave me goosebumps.

 

“I have to tell you something.”

She glanced at me shyly and then quickly looked at the ground. I leaned in closer, wanting to know what it was.

“I think you’re cute, but I’m not sure if anything can happen between us.”

My heart soared, she thought I was cute. I started thinking that there may be a chance for us yet. Then I remembered her boyfriend. I gave my excuses and asked her to leave. She seemed upset by this but left without arguement.

 

I headed to the park again to do some fishing and meet some new people. While I was there, I overheard something that made me extremely angry. I spotted Zelda’s boyfriend there with a toddler and he was on the phone to someone.

“Yeah, yeah I love you too. No Zelda doesn’t know about us. No, listen to me…she’s not going to find out. Yes, I do love you but I need Zelda, she’s going to make it big someday. We’ll get married and when she starts bringing in the big money I’ll divorce her, take every penny and then we can be together. Okay? Good, love you.”

My heart started thumping and I could feel the anger rising in my cheeks.

 

“Hey buddy, what’s with the stare? Just get out of my way, I’ve got places to be.”

He had no idea who I was. I was about to change that.

 

“Just who do you think you are?! You can’t go stringing women along like that! Zelda is a beautiful woman and she deserves someone who will treat her right, not some scum like you!”

I didn’t care who heard me, all I cared about was protecting Zelda.

“Whoa buddy! That was a private phone call and what’s it to you anyway? This is none of your business.”

I wanted to hit him. I wanted to wipe the smug look off his face. But he was holding a child and I was not about to attack someone with a child. He smirked at me and walked away. I was left standing there, shaking with anger.

 

I put the confrontation out of my mind and headed home. I can still see the small field clearly, it was my first harvest. I was so proud of myself.

 

Zelda invited me to a formal party at her house one evening. I arrived hoping to get some time with her so I could try and let her know how much I loved her but when I got there, someone was already trying to do the same.

“Aww come on Zelda *hic* You know you want this!”

The older man wasn’t letting Zelda move, even though the small infant in her arms was screaming. I could see that she wanted to be anywhere but with that man at that moment.

(Please excuse the badly rendered Gobias Koffi, I got fed up of waiting for him to load properly.)

 

“Can’t you see she doesn’t want to talk to you? Why don’t you just leave her alone?!”

I couldn’t help but drag the man away from her. It took everything within me just to stop myself from punching the man.

 

He sniffed and turned indignantly away from me. Everyone at the party was looking at me like I was crazy. I had to get out of there. Without saying a word to anyone, I turned and left. Not even saying goodbye to Zelda.

 

I took out my frustrations on my newish toilet. I couldn’t believe it when it broke mere hours after it was installed. I heard someone moving around outside and quickly got dressed so I could go and see who it was.

 

It was Zelda. She approached me and placed a hand gently on my arm.

“Thank you.”

She didn’t need to say anything else. I leaned in and kissed her softly. It was the best moment of my life.

 

From that moment on we were practically inseperable. I invited her over to my land one afternoon. I had been saving every penny I had and was finally able to do something that I had wanted to do for some time.

 

I asked her to marry me and I couldn’t believe it when she said yes. I couldn’t stop grinning, she had made me the happiest man alive.

 

I immediately set up a holiday for us. I wanted to go somewhere romantic, just the two of us, with no distractions.

 

We headed to France for a short, 3 day vacation.

 

We started the holiday with fishing. I had fun teaching Zelda some of the tricks that I had learned myself.

 

I found a few treasures as well as catching some frogs and snails on the first day.

 

Zelda soon tired of fishing and went to explore the catacombs and other areas of France while I fished.

 

On our second day we spent the entire time together, we had a romantic meal and then we walked along the bridge at night, gazing at the beautiful sight of the Eiffel Tower in the distance. It sparked an idea for me.

“Why don’t we get married here?”

Zelda’s face lit up with excitement.

“Get married in Paris? Really?”

“Of course. We can do it tomorrow as the sun sets.”

I wanted it to be the most romantic day Zelda could imagine, it had to be perfect.

 

The wedding was perfect. I couldn’t believe that Zelda was finally my wife. I had promised to love her forever and that was exactly what I planned on doing. We had to leave a few hours after the wedding but we were both so happy to be together that we didn’t mind our holiday coming to an end.

 

We headed back for my home. I extended the shed and made it more suitable for living in. I wanted our married life to start out the way we meant to go on. My new life was only just beginning but it was off to the best possible start.