You Were Always On My Mind
(I don't own the song nor "Dogfight" the movie)
"Maybe I didn't hold you all those lonely, lonely times,
And I guess I never told you, I'm so happy that you're mine,
If I made you feel second best,
I'm sorry, I was blind.
You were always on my mind,
You were always on my mind."
She took to writing love songs. It was amazing how actually feeling something made writing about it so much easier. She couldn't keep the smile off her face, and she patiently waited for the letter that she knew would come, because Rose was always patient.
Time passed and the only letters that fell through the slot were bills and an invitation to an old high school friend's engagement party.
Vietnam was showing up on the news more and more frequently, and each time it did, Rose's heart clenched a little tighter. The nights felt longer, her bed seemed smaller than ever. She sat up late, and quietly, once her mother was asleep, she would play her records. She knelt on the floor, leant against the bed and closed her eyes. She saw Eddie.
She started to write sad songs, bittersweet, lonely, longing. No letter from him yet, just a card mentioning something about a hen's night. She still checked the mail every morning with a thumping heart.
Rose didn't date. She'd never been much good at it anyway; guys didn't jump for her, and though the odd patron of the cafe asked her to join them for a coffee, she was never as interested as she felt she should have been.
The days hazed by and was another year gone? A whole year? That made it two since he'd left. Her songs now spoke of anger and hurt. Flustered, frustrated; why couldn't she get him out of her head? He'd forgotten her or he was dead. Those were the two possibilities she told herself existed. Dead or forgotten.
She never entirely believed either.
She was sent a message inviting her to a wedding, but no word from Eddie. And even though the clenching in her chest was fading, she couldn't extinguish the strains of hope that pierced her when she saw the mail flap swinging.
Three years after Eddie, her mother retired and handed the shop over to her daughter. She was tired. Rose looked at her mother and saw her future, and she wanted to scream; this was not how she wanted to end, tired and unfulfilled and lonely. But she stayed at the cafe anyway, feeling as though she was waiting for something to happen to her, though she promised herself it wasn't Eddie.
And one afternoon, after checking the mail (a bill and a request for her attendance at a baby shower), as she wiped down tables and hummed "We Shall Overcome" to herself (why was that in her head, of all songs?), she heard the bell on the cafe door tinkle. She looked up.
A young man stood at the doorway. He was looking at her. Rose knew him immediately, knew him innately.
His hair was longer; his eyes seemed darker. He walked with a limp; fidgeted with his hat in his hands as he watched her walk to him. Eyes met that hadn't for three years, and after a slight pause, their arms were around each other.
Where was his confidence? Rose wondered. But no, she realised, it wasn't his confidence gone, it was his cockiness, his assuredness of himself. Later, when she saw the four bees tattooed down his forearm, she understood in words, but for now she understood in the way he held her.
She smelt him; sweat, cigarettes, Eddie. A smell she was sure that she'd forgotten, but here it was, and she'd remembered it all along. He wrapped his arms around her tighter, and she felt tears pressing hot at the corners of her eyes.
Eventually they pulled apart, her hands on his shoulders, his around her waist, as if about to start to dance. Then, abruptly, he bent and pulled something out the bag at his feet.
"I never sent these," he looked down at the bundle of letters in his hand and held them out to her. "I'm sorry," his voice cracked. "Rose...you were always on my mind..."
But she was smiling, and the tears were running down her cheeks, and she took his face in her hands, and she kissed him.
Yeah, couldn't help myself. I suddenly had to write this, and did so in 20 minutes, so apologies for any mistakes. Rose and Eddie are my favourite couple of all time. Seriously, where are the other Dogfight stories?! Please review guys, you'll make my day :D