Six months and three days since she'd last gotten the last letter. Six months and three days since she'd last felt any sort of happiness or hope or anything. Now life is just... there. And despite her father's efforts, despite the efforts of her friends, Summer felt as though she'd been walking through a fog, a horrible dream she couldn't wake up from. Except, she had nightmares, so many of them, her mind filled nightly of images of him laying dying. There had been no word, nothing, from him or anyone else for that matter.
Was he dead? Was he injured somewhere? Why couldn't anyone tell her?
Every day, every time she had to open her eyes to face the morning she felt her heart fracture even more, felt hope slipping through her fingers. But still, she forced herself to face it, to live, to keep going because she still had hope. She wouldn't wear black until she had to, she wouldn't put that start in her window, no way, no how. Even if she knew, deep in her heart, she wasn't ever going to see him again, that the possibility that he was alive grew smaller by the minute.
And she tried her hardest not to think of it as she walked down the sidewalk on her way back from the market, a basket tucked in the crook of her arm as she stared at the cracks of the side walk, wondering just how the earth wasn't crumbling beneath her feet like it felt like it should be. Her eyes lifted when she realized she was she was on her block, brown eyes lifting to see...
"Leckie?" There he was. It had to be him because even from behind she knew him, she knew those curls, she knew that slightly bad posture that came with leaning over a typewriter or a desk for so long. He was dressed in his uniform and... She couldn't believe it. And suddenly her heart was soaring, the earth righted itself, no longer about to crumble as she dropped the basket, eggs be damned, tears brimming in her eyes as she ran towards him intent on turning him around and pulling him down for a kiss. "Robert Leckie!"
<3
Was he dead? Was he injured somewhere? Why couldn't anyone tell her?
Every day, every time she had to open her eyes to face the morning she felt her heart fracture even more, felt hope slipping through her fingers. But still, she forced herself to face it, to live, to keep going because she still had hope. She wouldn't wear black until she had to, she wouldn't put that start in her window, no way, no how. Even if she knew, deep in her heart, she wasn't ever going to see him again, that the possibility that he was alive grew smaller by the minute.
And she tried her hardest not to think of it as she walked down the sidewalk on her way back from the market, a basket tucked in the crook of her arm as she stared at the cracks of the side walk, wondering just how the earth wasn't crumbling beneath her feet like it felt like it should be. Her eyes lifted when she realized she was she was on her block, brown eyes lifting to see...
"Leckie?" There he was. It had to be him because even from behind she knew him, she knew those curls, she knew that slightly bad posture that came with leaning over a typewriter or a desk for so long. He was dressed in his uniform and... She couldn't believe it. And suddenly her heart was soaring, the earth righted itself, no longer about to crumble as she dropped the basket, eggs be damned, tears brimming in her eyes as she ran towards him intent on turning him around and pulling him down for a kiss. "Robert Leckie!"