Never Alone Chapter 5: Act of "Faith"
Noah opens his eyes and for a few seconds he can still see Luke in the water. Noah grins at the sight of Luke splashing around and daring Noah to join him with his eyes and mischievous grin. Noah walks towards the edge of the pond and takes his plaid blue and white button down shirt off.
“Noah! Don’t!” screams a female voice.
Noah turns around as a girl runs into him, almost knocking him over. Noah steps back a fraction so as to see whose body just hit him. He stares at the young woman in front of him and he recognizes her as Faith Snyder. Noah glances back at the pond, but Luke has vanished. Noah, a little disoriented, becomes frantic.
“Where is he?” Noah screams as he looks around frantically.
“Where is who?” Faith asks confused and concerned by Noah’s actions.
“Luke, he was just in the water. He was silently teasing me and daring me to join him.” Noah gasps still searching.
“Noah, Luke died a few weeks ago. Don’t you remember?” Faith whispers calmly and comfortingly.
“No, no,” Noah shakes his head and starts to cry again, “He was just here. He had promised to be my one and only. He can’t be dead. You’re lying to me!”
“I wish I were, Noah, I really do. However, Luke is dead.” Faith cries softly.
Faith then stoops over and picks up Noah’s discarded shirt. She wraps her arms around Noah and leads him back to the farmhouse. Faith glances at Noah and notices all the things different about the one man who had loved her brother unconditionally.
His once sparkling blue eyes are now a dull blue almost gray. It is as though the life has left them. Noah’s appearance seems haggard and worn. Faith can remember a time when Noah towered over her with his stiff, military posture. Now Faith can tell Noah could care less about the formalities of being an Army Brat.
The two young adults enter Emma’s vacant kitchen. Faith leads Noah over to the kitchen table. She helps him sit down and when Noah doesn’t even move, she hugs him. All her love and warmth tries to enter Noah’s soul, but his sadness doesn’t allow it.
Faith stands up straight and walks to the front room in search of anyone who can help her. She finds Emma and Lily sitting there talking quietly. Upon Faith’s entrance Emma looks up.
“Can you guys help me?” Faith asks tentatively.
“Why sure sweetheart! What do you need?” Emma says warmly as she wraps Faith in a hug.
Faith proceeds to tell her mom and grandma her plan. All the while Lily listens, quietly pondering a flaw she has found.
“Sweetie it’s a great plan and all but are you sure Noah can handle it?” Lily asks concerned.
“No, I am not sure, you just got to risk it in order to find out,” Faith answers, “So you guys in?”
Emma and Lily nod, and Faith grins. The three women set to work on Faith’s plan. Meanwhile, Noah has snapped out of his trance and is trying to figure out where everybody is. He looks around at the familiar, yet strange kitchen belonging to Emma Snyder. He remembers all the times spent in here with Luke when they were younger and still in college.
The sound of the back door slamming causes Noah to jump. He stands up and spins around to face Holden Snyder.
“Noah, it’s really good to see you here. We haven’t seen you since Luke’s funeral.” Holden softly mutters as his grief filled brown eyes meet Noah’s lost and broken blue ones.
“I came here with my therapist. Thought it might help, but I ended up feeling worse.” Noah croaks.
“You wanna talk about it?” Holden asks half-heartedly.
“I guess.” Noah shrugs.
“Why do you feel worse instead of better?” Holden asks.
“I was telling my therapist about Luke. Then when she left I remembered a day back in June. I swear I saw Luke in the pond. I was going to join him when Faith stopped me. Why do I feel like this all the time now?” Noah tells Holden.
“Feel like what,” Holden asks a little confused.
“Like I am all alone; like Luke left me without anything to live for.” Noah mumbles, shuffling his feet.
“Noah,” Holden sighs as he wraps Noah in his arms, “You are never alone. You will always have the Snyder’s to call family. Furthermore Noah, you have plenty to live for.”
“Like what,” Noah asks softly.
“Noah, even though Luke has passed on you still have his love inside you. He would have wanted you to keep doing all the things you used to. You have to remember that you still have a lot of life left in you. That is enough to live for, if you ask me,” Holden reassures the saddened man in his arms.
Noah pulls out of Holden’s embrace and gives him a forced half smile. The two men silently exchange words of comfort. They continue to silently stand in close proximity to each other. Suddenly the kitchen is filled with noise as the rest of the Snyder’s entered. Noah glances out at the faces of Faith, Lily, Emma, Ethan, Natalie, and Holden Snyder. He sees the same pain and sadness, he felt, reflected on their faces.
“Noah, we would like you to stay for dinner with us. That’s if you want.” Emma invites warmly.
“Please stay Noah! We miss seeing you,” Natalie pleads.
“Fine,” Noah concedes wearily.
The entire Snyder clan smiles at Noah’s acceptance of their dinner invitation. They all sit down around the table as Emma brings the food over. Noah hesitates before sitting down at his usual spot. The vacancy next to him is, in his opinion, so monumental that it seems to be the elephant in the room. Noah gently caresses the wooden chair next to him.
“It’s so weird being here without Luke.” Noah comments so quietly he wonders if he actually said it out loud.
“Yeah, Luke always made dinner lively.” Lily reminisces.
“Luke was a lot of things to all of us,” Faith states what everyone was thinking.
“Remember all the times Luke would come in sweaty from farm chores and want food immediately?” Emma asks with a chuckle as she remembers.
Everyone nods and their spirits raise just a little bit more. Then a silence falls as everyone looks to the other to say the next memory.
“My memory of Luke will always be that of him teasing me about boys. He always said that any boy who wanted to be my boyfriend would have to be approved by him; which meant that I would be an old maid because no one was good enough for me,” Faith giggles.
“It’s true,” Holden responds.
Noah observes everyone else as they eat and reminisce about Luke. He can’t even think of a memory suitable to add to the conversation. Noah hears Holden add his memory.
“I remember this day in June when Luke was 18. Luke came home and started gushing to me about this dark haired guy who was the new intern. He also agonized about this guy because he was dating Maddie,” Holden says as he glances at Noah with a grin.
Noah smiles trying to imagine Luke talking to his dad about this new guy he was working with. Noah had always known that Luke had feelings for him from the very beginning.
“I remember Luke telling me he had feelings for me. I was shocked and relieved at the same time.” Noah finds himself saying.
“Relieved?!” Lily and Faith exclaim at the same time.
“Yeah, Luke had this hold on me from the moment I met him. Before that I’d never even thought that being with a guy was possible or right. Luke changed me in more ways than I can count.” Noah explains to the Snyder’s.
Not a single word is said for the next five minutes. The silence that falls over the room is no longer a sad one, but a joyous one. It seems as though Luke is still working his magic even from the grave.
“I knew that my plan would work.” Faith exclaims suddenly, “I knew that if we all got together and talked about Luke it would make us all feel better.”
Noah looks Faith in the eyes and mouths words of thanks. For the first time in weeks, Noah felt like everything would get back to normal. Noah realizes that Holden’s words were true, Noah would never be alone. Thanks to Luke, Noah now had a place to call home and people to call family.