Parting Words

Under the ivory moon, a young man stood atop a hill. Dressed in his uniform of navy blue with gold threading, he stared out and over the seaport town below to glance at the stars. Tears strolled down both cheeks. Which felt colder on this clear autumn night. He remained fixed in thought until something touched his arm, more specifically the sensation of a hand cusping the right elbow.

"What are you doing out here?" the man asked with his eyes drawn to the landscape ahead.

"Hey, I figured you wouldn't be able to stomach the party. Kind of why I came, to say farewell to you." came the voice of a young lady.

"For the last time, huh?"

"No don't talk like that" the lady snapped. But upon immediately ealizing how sharply she had reacted; gave a sigh and calmly rubbed up and down the length of the man's upper arm. "Lee, this war, this whole situation, you cannot lose hope. Not now, not ever. We will see each other again."

"Look at them down there," remarked Lee still in place like an observant statue, directing his voice to a barrack below where the noise of cheers and shenanigans could be faintly heard. "We're barely men, so they plow us with alcohol and junk food before sending us out to war. I tried Claire, I really tried. The beer tasted bitter and the food rotten. There isn't a soul amongst us who asked for this..."

"The draft has ... well affected all of us. I mean, if my father were still alive today, they'd have surely sent him over as well, only earlier. He was no soldier either, just a man trying to provide for us, his family. If I had a brother, he'd be in your shoes too. Instead, mother and I must continue working for the war effort, praying you boys return home to us safe and sound. And our prayers will be with you Lee, every day, I swear it."

"I ask myself, what is the point? The point in all of it. I worked hard to learn, to become an engineer. One of the men down there was set to study medicine. All those years spent educating us, just for those brains to be plastered by the side of a war-torn street in a foreign land. What the hell is the point in anything!?"

"Look at me Lee!", Claire pulled the man's arm to twist his body to her, and in return, he resisted staying in place. "Look at me!"

"I'm scared, Claire. I've never been so scared in all my life..."

"Lee..."

"Sorry..." Lee took a step to walk away and stopped still as Claire dug her heels into the soil to prevent him from moving any further. He had no choice but to turn and look upon the young lady.

"Wait!"

As Lee's eyes met Claire's angelic face a lump formed in his throat. He'd noticed the effort she'd made to dress for meeting him, wearing a virgin white dress and a daisy in her hair.

"I'm sorry, Claire. If only life could be different, could be kinder. Don't you see, I am no good to be around, I am lost. Even if I do return home, I won't be the boy you grew up knowing. We're all warned about that possibility, each and every one of us. War changes everything. You must forget about me, for your sake and mine."

"You're not lost, Lee! You're here with me, in the here and now."

"Claire, please, I can't do this, I...-"

"You will survive Lee, and you'll come back to me exactly as you'd left, except only grown. That's all, and do you know why Lee?"

"..."

"Because that's my order to you."

"Huh, an order?"

"Yes, that's your mission. Above all else, you'll come back to us, you'll come home to me."

"I can't promise anything, Claire. You know that..."

"No, I don't know that. As my grandfather once told me that death shies from men with a purpose, for those without one await for it."

To Claire's surprise, Lee gently moved away her hand from his arm and held it gently with both palms.

"I don't know what to say..."

"Say you'll make it home."

"I-I-I will make it back and..."

"And?"

"I'm bringing every man in those barracks back with me."