Infinitely Brave

by theletterdee

AU: 1940, Matthew is preparing to leave for training in the army. He enters a diner and meets a waitress working her way through medical school, and asks if he could write to her while overseas. Almost Doctor Alice Harvey accepts after they spend some time conversing after her shift, and a friendship blossoms in exchanged letters. Inspired by "Traveling Soldier" - The Chicks

50. 27 May 1942

27 May 1942

My Dearest, Matthew,

Thank you for the kisses, they're quite enjoyable (though I do prefer the real thing). Hopefully, mine lives up to expectations at the end of this letter.

Of course I don't mind going to Ballarat, my dear; it just so happens that I have a break the week of 7 June, hopefully, that's not too short notice to notify your mum? I can go up for the week, meet your mum, get those photos, and see a bit of where you grew up; it also gets me out of the house for a bit - blackout curfews have kept us cooped up more than we like here at Wardlow. I assume your mum knows where the Beazleys live or that you can tell me how to get there… Does Christopher's wife know I'm going to drop by, or is this a surprise for his family?

Excuse me, I'm not a "mama duck"! At most I'm more like… an "auntie duck", I get all the fun of getting the children messy or riled up and then get to hand them back to their mothers. And I think you'll not regret letting me meet your family - though your judgment of whatever craftiness we'll get up to might be warier than ours. So far, your pride and sanity are safe, and I know you hope it will stay that way.

I'm… still not quite ready to delve into my past, but I'm certainly far less worried about your reaction to it after reading what McAvoy did to you. I never know why people pick on others purely for entertainment's sake, but it still angers me that it happens. How unfair that you had to deal with that and felt like you couldn't turn to your parents - or at least to your father, one would have thought he'd been able to help you in some way… but parents aren't always what we want them to be, are they? Let's see how the trip to Ballarat goes, and how the meeting with your mum goes, and I'll try to muster up the courage to tell you all of my past before I arrived in Melbourne

Think nothing of reimbursing me, I'd love to help you and your friend.

Yours,

Alice

[Next to her signature, Alice has left an imprint of her kiss in the same bright red lipstick she wore to their cinema date, below it she writes in a postscript: "Not quite the same, and I still need practice kissing your letters, but not bad for the first time, I think? - A"]