When Donna got her first phone call from Eric after he left for Africa, she was ecstatic. He had only been gone long enough to get there and she already missed him. It felt so good to hear his voice again, even if it was long distance. She wasn't sure if they would be able to last the year that Eric was gone, but she was going to try her best. She loved him with all her heart.
The next day, Donna went to the Forman's house, wanting to ask Kitty if she had received a phone call from her baby boy. She was nowhere to be found, but Red was in the living room, watching television. She figured she would ask him, knowing he knew if Eric had called or not.
"Hey, Red," Donna said after she walked into the living room. She sat on the yellow couch in the living room and looked at the television, noticing Red was watching a football game. "Did Eric call?" she asked when Red looked up from the television and over at one of kids that still practically lived in his basement.
"Yeah, he called right when he got to the airport," Red replied as he gave Donna a quick smile. "He called you, didn't he?" he asked, immediately thinking the worst. He didn't want to have to threaten his son for not calling his girlfriend. He would raise hell if he didn't call Donna.
"Of course!" Donna said quickly, not wanting Red to jump to conclusions. "I just wanted to make sure he called you guys," she added as she relaxed into the couch, sadness falling upon her again. Now that she was talking to Red about Eric's phone call, she started to remember that she wouldn't be able to see or talk to her boyfriend nearly as much as she would like. Red went back to watching the TV, but guilt crept upon him. Donna clearly wanted to talk about how Eric was half way across the world. He knew he wouldn't be the best person to talk to, but he figured he could give her some advice, having been shipped to Korea during the early stages of his relationship with Kitty.
"You know," Red said as he turned back to Donna. He paused for a few seconds before continuing, trying to figure out what he was going to say next. Donna looked over at Red while he tried to figure out what he was going to say next. "When I was in Korea, Kitty would write to me all the time. It helped me feel like she was right there with me," he said, talking as quickly as he could so he could get this conversation over with. Donna was like a daughter to him, but he wasn't good at expressing his feelings. Donna smiled at the story she had just been told. She could imagine a young Kitty and Red exchanging letters while he was out fighting a war. Suddenly Red got up and walked into the den where Kitty kept all the letters they had written to each other all those years ago. He came back with a shoebox filled with them and sat down next to Donna, setting it on his lap and opening it up, revealing all the letters. He started to rummage through it and pulled a letter out and opened it. He started to silently read it and Donna mirrored his actions. They sat there quietly for a few minutes until Kitty walked into the room. She was unpinning her nursing hat when she noticed Donna and Red reading the letters she and Red had written to each other while he was off at war. She smiled to herself, finished unpinning her hat and walked over to the two of them. When she was at the couch, she picked up the box and sat down on Red's lap, putting the box on her lap and also rummaging through it. Both Red and Donna looked up at her as she pulled a letter out. Her hand flew to her chest as she read it.
"Do you remember writing these, honey?" she asked, tears forming in her eyes. She had completely forgotten about those letters and it brought back so many memories. Red planted a kiss on the temple of Kitty's head. She was small enough for him to reach it without any problem.
"How can I forget?" he asked as he rubbed Kitty's back. The war had been as hard on Kitty as it had been on him and Red knew that. Kitty laughed her famous laugh as she wiped tears from her eyes. Donna just watched the two of them interact with each other. It was so obvious that they where meant to be together.
"His letters where what kept me going," Kitty said to Donna. Whenever she wouldn't get a letter from Red, she would panic, immediately thinking the worst. "If I didn't get a letter for a while, I would go into panic mode," she added. "But then I would get one within a week or two and everything would go back to normal." Red laced his arm around Kitty's waist and pulled her in tightly for a hug. Kitty wrapped her arm around Red's neck and hugged him back, leaning into his chest as best she could.
"I think I might start writing to Eric," Donna said. She thought it was a cute idea, especially since it worked so well for the Forman parents. She figured it would keep her and Eric close while he was gone. It would also be fun to look back at those letters in thirty years like the Forman's where doing at that moment and remember the time Eric had left for a year. Kitty cupped Donna's chin and gave her a smile that said she knew what it felt like to be in her position.
"I'm sure Eric would love that, sweetheart," she said as she leaned in and kissed Donna's head.
"Thanks, Mrs. Forman," Donna said as she smiled at the maternal figure. "And thank you, Mr. Forman," she added as she rested a hand on Red's arm appreciatively. They both smiled at the woman they had watched grow up as she stood up and quickly made an exit into the kitchen. Kitty relaxed in Red's loving embrace, his arm still wrapped around her waist.
"She's a sweet girl," Red said. "Eric would be a dumb ass to break her heart." Kitty patted the hand that Red had rested on her stomach lovingly.
"I know," she said.