Disclaimer:
I don't own Peter, Sophie, Shelby, etc. I'm not using this for money. Yatsa, Yatsa, & Yatsa.
Claimer:
I own all those who aren't from HG.
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Past & Future
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I still wonder to this day what life
would have been like if my beautiful Scott hadn't been drafted. We were still so young. He literally had his birthday cake on the
bus with Nick, Auggie, and Ezra. Xan
cried so much that day. She probably
would've killed her brother if she could have. As if enlisting wasn't bad enough, he had to do it under a false birth-date
just so he could stay with the other three.
I can still smell the dirt from under the
bus's tires as the prison on wheels took them away. I still remember the tears Jules and Daze cried. And how Xannie yelled to the sky through the
trees at a being she said she didn't believe in. I remember how Francis stood watching, trying to stay calm but
eventually turned away and cried. I can
still even remember every single kid at the camp who watched and cried for
their friends. I remember every name
from Alex Allen to Patrick Zimmerman. Strange, isn't it?
We used to believe that we were
invincible. We lived at a summer camp
year round with our "parents", Peter and Sofie (actually it was Sofia, but she
hated that name). They counseled us
about our problems – the ones our parents had sent us away for. Pete and Sofie readied us for life. They helped us so much; there were days when
we knew we couldn't get any better.
But everything came crashing down the day
the president announced that America was entering World War II. Another thing I remember. Those horrible words sure had meaning – "A
day that will live in infamy."
All the rules were broken. Everything we had ever known was in shreds. Pete and Sofie had started to tie everything back up when Auggie, Ezra, Nick, and Scott got letters saying they were going to serve.
But that wasn't the most distressing
part. It was the day they left. All I could do was watch from the comfort
and protection of Pete's arms as my fiancé boarded the bus, dressed in their
new uniforms. I couldn't even speak
until the bus started to speed away. I
ran after it as though I were a dog chasing a squirrel. I screamed for Scott, begged an unhearing
government that these four wouldn't make a difference, as I ran. Eventually I saw Scott look out the window
and I understood the message in his sad, puppy-dog eyes. I stopped and the bus evaporated from my
view. Pete ran down when I stopped,
gathered me in a hug, and let me cry for hours and hours.
That was the last I would ever see of my
beloved Scott, my fiancé, the love of my life.
Time blurred after that. My daughter, Joy, was a moment of clarity
towards the end of the war. She was
living embodiment of my secret, my burden, and my curse. Peter quickly got custody of me after
that. Ha. There's another moment of clarity.
Everything ended in 1945. Well, the war ended then, but my world ended
a year before. The day four caskets,
ten army officers, and Letters of condolences from other men arrived at Horizon
Hills. Our boys, our loves, didn't even
see the treaty get signed. They never
got a chance to see life after the war.
They were buried on the Agnes Mountain, a
half hour away. We buried them by the
falls. Hope Falls. After then every person in Agnes called the
mountain Mt. Horizon.
Nothing was the same after that. Of all of us, Francis was the only one who
actually moved on – he had a son and married. Frank, his son, even built a new Horizon on the mountain – we never told
him about the people buried by the falls.
Xannie, Daze, and Jules all did the same,
but they were never the same and their marriages ended not long after their
kids were born. Xan had a boy she named
Nicholas Francis. I think he recently
had a son…Michael, I think. Daze had a daughter
and a son. Her little girl, Kelsey,
died in an accident at the falls when she was eight. Her son was named Elijah. And Jules…she had a daughter and a son, too. Guinevere and Charles. It's
weird; all the kids have their "fathers'" last names. Knowles, Noellesen, Barringer…
Well, my gals are gone now, tired of
their fight for life. Even Pete and Sofie
are gone, but they had each had kids with other people. Sofie had two daughters and a son, and Pete
had four boys. Now my time is coming to
an end. I pen this letter as the last
page in an anthology of one I've left for our descendents. Here's to you, gals, Peter, and Sofia.
R.I.P. Forever
Xania Alyssa Noellesen
Nicholas Franklin Noellesen
Daisy
Marianne Lipenowski
Ezra Elijah Knowles
Juliet Annelise Waybourne
Augguste Ciceros
And
Scott Mario Barringer
Love,
Shellie Hayes
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Shelby continued looking at the photo album she had found in Peter's office. So many faces stared up at her as if they knew her. Cautiously, she removed the photo from its spot in the scrapbook and looked at the names on the back.
Xania, Juliet,
Nicholas, Shelby, Ezra, Scott, Daisy, Augguste.
1st day
of camp, 1941.
The pen was fading but she could see the names, and smiled. 'We were together once, and we are again.' She thought in a voice unknown to her, but it was comforting.
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Cassie Jamie
Do you need for me to tell you what I want?