So here we are. At the end of the road, one might say. You looked happy today, Pip, you really did…but I can't be too sure if it was real or not. There was something about your smile…something not right. Something I've seen for a long time.
She's a precious jewel, your Diamond. Someone like her, well, they don't grow on trees, do they? And yet I wonder…can she fulfil you? She's a lovely, kind woman, great cooking, round and beautiful with long curly hair that reaches to her waist, but yet she is…well, like everyone else here. Once I might have longed for someone like her, courted them, followed them around like a love-sick puppy. Now…I don't know. Of all the people I know, you and Sam are the only who can truly understand all that we've gone through, and you're both slipping away from me with your families and…of course I want you to have it. I sound so selfish now, when really, I wish you both all the happiness in the world.
I just don't think it's something I can have.
Maybe I'm just being stupid, but I guess life in The Shire isn't quite what it used to be. It feels like in all the time I was gone, so much happened! I saw things I had never thought existed, I did things I had never thought possible, and when I come back here, everyone's still the same. Everything now seems the same as when I left it, and it just doesn't make sense. I'm not the same anymore.
And you…you conformed better than I did. You and Sam. You married, Sam had children, you probably will soon. And me? I'm just me. People worry about me, I know it. They say I'll never marry. Stay a bachelor forever. Well, something's made me wonder, maybe I'm better off like that. None of these women appeal to me anymore, not like they used to. If there was a hobbit Eowyn, maybe…I loved her, not because of her immense beauty, but because she was strong, she was willing to risk everything. And she understood. She's seen, just like I have seen.
Sometimes I wish I could go down to the shores, and sail away, like Frodo, and Gandalf, and Bilbo. I wish that, and yet I don't. I don't think I had gone that far. Frodo was hurting because of the ring and me…I have no such excuse. I've just changed, I suppose. Perhaps I will change back. Perhaps I won't. Perhaps I will conform and take a wife, when I've given up on my broodiness. All of this, it's just tears in the river…none of it matters. All that matters is that you're happy, and I'm not going to spoil this day for you. Regardless if you are actually happy, or if you're just pretending, this is what you want.
I smile, and walk over, ready to face this day without faltering.