Rafe sat down next to Danny on a bench in front of the large plane that would take them back to the states. He looked him straight in the eye and then over to Evelyn who must have followed him there. Her cheeks were shiny from the tears and she pulled her hair from her face as it blew in the wind. "Danny, you can't go." Evelyn said as she reached the bench.
"Evelyn I have to."
"Danny, I'm pregnant," she said still not believing it from the time she told Rafe.
Danny's face grew the similar expression that Rafe's had held at the sound of the news. He looked at Rafe who was staring at Evelyn's face. Then at Evelyn's whose eyes had met his glare. Danny felt an outside feeling as if he had pushed his way in-between two lovers who could never be separated.
"Please Danny, don't go," Danny nodded as he looked at the plane and then back at her.
"I'm going to stay." He said quietly then looking at Rafe who was picking up his things to board the plane. Evelyn ran to him.
"Rafe you can't go either," she said looking up at Rafe and grabbing onto his arms.
"Why, so I can sit here and watch you guys do all that lovey dovey shit."
"No because you're weak and well because I love you more then anything in the world." She hugged him tight in her arms and he hugged her back. He looked down into her glistening brown eyes so beautiful, so pure. The moment swept them into their own world where they were alone and free to do whatever they pleased. He leaned over and then he kissed her.
"So are you going to stay?" Evelyn asked as she lay her head on his shoulder. He looked back at the plane. He knew it would be dangerous by the top secret on the top of the orders in the envelope. He then looked back into her eyes, he had found home.
He wanted to say oh of course I'd stay! But this was war and America needed him. "I'm sorry," he said beginning to grab for his bag again, "but I have to got."
"Why?" Evelyn asked as she began to cry again. "So you can be a hero again? So you can go die for your country for no reason but because you were trying to do what a hero would. Rafe don't you see your already a hero. You're a hero to me, to Danny, to all the drowning soldiers that you might have saved, for all the family's in Europe you saved from being blown up by a German bomb. You've got nothing more to prove."
Rafe looked away then back at her. "I'll come back," he said putting his hand on her cheek. "I promise." Rafe grabbed his bag and turned to the plane. He took a deep breath and walked to the plane that would take him to God knows where.
He felt a hand on his shoulder. It wasn't the soft gentle hand of Evelyn but the friendly hand of his best friend, Danny. "I'm not going to let you die again." He said his voice cheery. "Let's go." Rafe was confused. Danny wasn't dragging him back to Evelyn he was boarding the plane.
Rafe took one last look at Evelyn. He raised his hand to her and waved, she could see his silhouette clearly in the doorframe so bold and beautiful. She raised her hand back. She could see Rafe yell something but the propellers started and the voice was drowned away in the loud sound. In her heart she knew he had said I love you.
Evelyn looked at the little paper folded swan and then at the notes that Rafe had wrote to her. She could still taste his kiss and smell the gel in his hair, the cologne he wore the day he left. She could still feel his arms wrapped around her.
She looked back down at her diary. She found the folded piece of yellow paper and opened it:
I soared above the songbirds
And never heard them sing
I lived my life in winter
And then you brought the spring
Had she completely forgot about Danny? He still had so much meaning in her life. I owe him something she though to herself. She remembered when he had given it to her. It was the day after the night in the parachute hanger. He ran up to her, happy, excited and handed her this paper telling her how he always wanted to write something with meaning. That was worth writing down on paper.
She smiled at the thought; she opened her diary to a blank page and began to write something as meaningful to her as his poem was to him:
Dear Danny,
Even though things haven't turned out the way they were supposed to I still wanted you to know that I do love you. Just not in the way you want me to. I always wanted to write something as beautiful as what you wrote to me. So well here it goes.
When I think back on these times
And the dreams we left behind
I'll be glad cause I was blessed
To get to have you in my life
When I look back on these days
I'll look and see your face
You were right there for me
In my dreams I'll always see you soar above the sky
In my heart there will always be a place for you for all my life
I'll keep a part of you with me and everywhere I am, there you'll be
Well you showed me how to feel
Feel the sky was in my reach
And I always will remember all the strength you gave to me
Your love made me make it through
Oh, I owe so much to you
You were right there for me
In my dreams I'll always see you soar above the sky
In my heart there will always be a place for you for all my life.
I'll keep a part of you with me and everywhere I am, there you'll be
Cause I always saw in you my light, my strength
And I want to thank you now
For all the ways, you were right there for me
You were always right there for me
For always
In my dreams I'll always see you soar above the sky,
In my heart they'll always be a place for you for all my life.
I'll keep a part of you with me and everywhere I am there you'll be
And everywhere I am, there you'll be.
There you'll be.
Evelyn
She looked back at the paper. Then looked back at the swan. These men were so important to her nothing could ever happen to them, could it?