Terrible Things

Anthony Bennett was a blue-eyed, shaggy-haired boy of fourteen-almost-fifteen. He lived alone with his father, Gregory Bennett, and he had never known his mother, for she died just after he was born.
Anthony Bennett was also in love. Next door lived a girl, just a few days younger than he, by the name of Clarissa Melody. She lived with her parents, her brothers, Simon and Elijah, and her younger sister, Emma, but she often spent time alone in the garden with a book. That's where she and Anthony first met, six years before. Her siblings would never bother her when she was outside, but Anthony didn't know any better, and bother her he did.

"Hello!" A brown-haired head bobbed up from the bushes. The little girl looked up, startled.
"Hello." She replied.
"M'name's Anthony. Who're you?" He asked brightly.
"My name is Clarissa, and you shouldn't be here." She replied quietly.
"Why not?"
"Because I'm reading, and I don't like to be disturbed."
"Why would you be reading? It's lovely outside! You should come play!" His voice grew increasingly louder as he jumped up and down, smiling.
"Please go away." She pleaded, trying to go back to her book. It took three more tries before he sulked away, defeated, but he came back the next day, and the day after.

Each day, he would ask about the book she was reading. Each day, she would send him away, until one day he did not ask about the book, and just sat quietly beside her. When asked what he was doing, he said he was listening to her read, for she whispered the words as she read them. Each day after that, he would come to listen, and at the end of each book, they would talk about it, and eventually, they fell in love.
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Anthony wandered the large house he called home, following the sound of music through the house until he found his father at the piano, playing similar notes over and over again.
"Anthony, come here." And Anthony did. He sat beside his father and watched him play.
"By the time I was your age, I'd give anything to fall in love truly. It was all I could think." He began. "Then I met your mother, the girl of my dreams. The most beautiful woman that I'd ever seen." A faint smile graced his lips as he spoke, and his gaze was far away, though his fingers continued the melody.
"She said 'Boy, can I tell you a wonderful thing? I can't help but notice you're staring at me. I know I shouldn't say this, but I really believe, I can tell by your eyes that you're in love with me.'
Now, son, I'm only telling you this because life can do terrible things." The melody continued still.
"Now, most of the time we'd have too much to drink. We'd laugh at the stars and we'd share everything. Too young to notice, and too dumb to care, love was a story that couldn't compare. When we were older, I said, 'Girl, can I tell you a wonderful thing? I made you a present, with paper and string. Open with care now, I'm asking you please, you know that I love you, will you marry me?'
You'll learn one day, I hope and pray, that life shows you differently.
She said 'boy, can I tell you a terrible thing? It seems that I'm sick and I've only got weeks. Please don't be sad now, I really believe, you were the greatest thing to ever happened to me.'" Tears welled in his father's eyes but a smile was still on his face.
"Slowly I fell to the ground on my knees. So don't fall in love, there's just too much to risk. If given the choice then I'm begging you, choose, to walk away, don't let her get you. I can't bear to see the same thing happen to you. Life can do terrible things."
Gregory Bennett stopped playing and looked to his son.
"She lived more than the weeks she was given, you know. She and I married, and we were happy, though the knowledge that she would die any day weighed on us. She wanted to live life as normally as she could, and her face was the brightest I had ever seen, the day she birthed you, and held you in her arms. She died soon after, but she died happily." He whispered. "But it broke my heart beyond repair."
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The story haunted Anthony for many years after that.. His father lived for many many years, and so did Anthony, who married the Melody girl and had two children, twins, a boy and a girl, just before her untimely death four years later.
"Life can do terrible things." His father said to him, after her death, and he passed the story along to his children and his grandchildren, though for many generations, they all fell in love and lived to old age.