Being alive was nothing. At least, being alive someplace else was nothing. This place, here, this was where being took shape and conveyed a meaning to him. He was finally back.
He ignored the shrill in his spine, as the remembrance of his plane crashing crossed his mind once again. The despair of not having his cries for help listened to, that blue wilderness drawing dangerously close, being utterly alone, looking at her picture and knowing he would never see her again. Never again hold her in his arms, wrap her, shelter her.
Being stranded from everything and everyone he knew, lost in a foreign land unbeknownst to the enemy, always in hiding, always alert, forever in fear.
But then, all of a sudden, they'd won. Just like that.
He'd gotten his decoration, oh yes! But his true award was finally being able to come home. He was finally going back to life. To her.
He'd lost the count of the days, once lost. It wasn't until his being rescued that he found out: seven months. Top it off with the other six months in the Air Force... But then he'd had the comfort of her letters, whereas in the East...
He shrugged it off: why focus on that now? He was going. His parents had been duly notified, and his "lost in action" rectified. He then wrote a letter, telling them the day and the time of his train. And with that, a private letter to her, bearing the same good tidings. She knew he was going back to her, just as he'd promised.
He ignored the shrill in his spine, as the remembrance of his plane crashing crossed his mind once again. The despair of not having his cries for help listened to, that blue wilderness drawing dangerously close, being utterly alone, looking at her picture and knowing he would never see her again. Never again hold her in his arms, wrap her, shelter her.
Being stranded from everything and everyone he knew, lost in a foreign land unbeknownst to the enemy, always in hiding, always alert, forever in fear.
But then, all of a sudden, they'd won. Just like that.
He'd gotten his decoration, oh yes! But his true award was finally being able to come home. He was finally going back to life. To her.
He'd lost the count of the days, once lost. It wasn't until his being rescued that he found out: seven months. Top it off with the other six months in the Air Force... But then he'd had the comfort of her letters, whereas in the East...
He shrugged it off: why focus on that now? He was going. His parents had been duly notified, and his "lost in action" rectified. He then wrote a letter, telling them the day and the time of his train. And with that, a private letter to her, bearing the same good tidings. She knew he was going back to her, just as he'd promised.
***
Oh, that the human hand could becomingly describe the joyous tears of the reunion! With what abandon and candour were them shed! The pain of losing your son can only be surpassed by the incomparable blessing of having him back from the sea deities! Their happiness seemed endless, and it tears one apart to tell that it was not so.He had to go to her, and bring her there. Only then would his blessings be fully accounted for.
But the other two smiles faded. And with a shattered heart they told him she wasn't there anymore. He stared.
- Why? Where is she?
(...)
(...)
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