Return To You

As she laid awake in her bed, she looked over at her husband. She felt it was only a matter of time before he would get the call. The war was just reaching its peak, and the U.S. army needed as many willing soldiers it could get. The year was 1944, and the States were in the middle of all the action. Her husband seemed to be sleeping peacefully next to her, but she could tell that he was dreading the call as much as she was. As the phone rang, she knew it could only be for one reason. Her husband rolled over and slowly picked up the phone, it was silent for a minute while he listened to what he was being told. She let out a gasp as her husband's last words were "Thank you sir" before he hung up.

He rose out of bed and started to get changed into his uniform. She stayed in bed until he was fully clothed, she had the thought that if she never got up then he would never have to go. But that wasn't that case at all. She forced herself to get up, the tears were streaming down her face. Once she got to her feet, she leapt into her husband's arms and started to sob. For the next ten minutes he sat on the edge of the bed holding her. It was hard for a newly married couple to go through this, but he always told himself that fighting for his country came first. Neither of them said a word, there was really nothing to say. Five short minutes had passed while they sat holding one another, when the horn of a buggy rang through their house. They stood slowly and walked toward the door hand in hand. He placed a kiss on her lips and then a soft one on her cheek as his hand slipped from hers. He whispered something in her ear before exiting the house and getting in the buggy.

She sat on her window sill, her hand pressed up against the glass. Tear drops beat against the sill as she watched his buggy disappear in to the early morning fog. She wished he could've stayed, but she understood that that couldn't have happened. She closed her eyes and imagined his face, praying she would never forget a single detail. The tears were still rolling down her face. She wasn't only faced with her husband leaving, she was also pregnant. She hadn't told her husband of the baby because she afraid it would worry him too much. She finally dragged herself away from the window after almost an hour of sitting there. Her cheeks were tear stained, her eyes red and her breathing was slower. The last words that he spoke to her would forever be in her head. "I will return to you..."

A year passed while her husband was at war and she had given birth to a baby boy. She named him Jake, after the boy's father. Every time she looked at the baby she remembered her husband and their child gave her hope that the man she loved would return to her. They had exchanged letters while he was gone, but one letter would change it all. One rainy day she received the last letter that she would receive from her beloved. She carefully tore it open and read every precious line.

[i]My Dearest Madeline,

It has been 378 days since I last saw your beautiful face. Each day that I am not with you is harder than the last. It is nearing the end of the war and I will be discharged once it ends. In just over a month I will be home to you and our baby Jake. However, there is one last battle to be fought. The men seem cheery that it will be an easy win, but I have my doubts. I don't want to alarm you, but I am on the front line. Tonight is the night before the battle, you will be on my mind the whole time, you will get me through it alive. I love you more and more each day. If I do not return, please do not weep. I do not want your life to be faulted because of me. I am enclosing my cross, give it to Jake for me, to remember me by.

Don't forget, I Will Return To You.

You Are My Hope And Love,
Jake[/i]

Her heart sunk as she read what it had to say. She understood that he would not return in body, but that he meant that he would return in spirit. She fell to her knees and wept. There was no father for her baby and no husband for her side. She vowed to do as he wanted her to, she would go out and find someone new, but the memory of her husband would live on forever.