Chapter XIV

Dear Julia,

I'm so glad that your cold is almost over and that you don't have to stay in bed anymore. Aunt Faith and Grandmother Blythe prepared lots of cake for you to send but Uncle Jem gave them his speech to remind them that you're not actually dying and they left the cake for Cee, Nancy, Cordelia and Tom instead.

The summer is over and I started teaching at our old but still good Glen school. It's quite an interesting experience I must confess, to teach in the classroom where we as children always had our English lessons, which only you and me understood and actually liked. I sometimes smile at the memories which flow through my mind whenever I sit down in my chair and look around the classroom, seconds before the lesson starts. It's then when I can almost hear your quiet gasps you always made whenever our teacher, Miss Hemington read a poem by Tennyson or Keats. From my first impressions I come to a conclusion that the children aren't very interested in poetry or English generally but I just have to cope with it somehow. Jenny Penhallow asked me today who Jane Austen is! Can you believe this?

Sheba, it is because of you and your long but wonderful letter which convinced me not to enlist now, or anytime in the future. I promise you that I won't sign up and you know that when I promise you something, I really mean it. I am definitely too scared to go and just… shoot someone who might be a son, a husband, a brother, a cousin, a friend or a sweetheart to someone else… That's just not me at all.

But enough of me, I'll tell you all about our lovely family, although you are probably more informed about all the events that happened more than I am. I will at least tell you how's everyone doing from my point of view. Leslie, Luna and Cilia are working for the Red Cross to the loss of their breath. Leslie is even thinking of signing up as a VAD like "her sweet and brave Julia" did. I'm really pleased with this idea and I think that our parents don't mind as well.

Owen is at the top of every class at Queen's and I know that he will become a well-known businessman one day. Gil, you probably know yourself, is now in Italy and he thinks that he will stay there for a while but Father doesn't think so at all, and to be honest I don't either. Gil is so lucky, you know! To see England, Greece, Italy, Germany and Finland through the eyes of a bird is just overwhelming. But then... his job as a pilot is not an easy one as well.

You won't believe it and I myself think it to be quite funny, but your little eleven-year-old sister Cee is making sheep's eyes at my own brother Owen! And he is five years older than her! I have no idea how to think about that. However talking about Cee, I really hope that she will become a well-known artist one day, she really has a gift of noticing things people don't usually notice and she's not afraid to use this gift.

Nancy is all over the place, as always, along with the small Cordelia and Tom who are becoming more and more talkative with ever year passing. Rose is six months pregnant and she has everything ready for her new "delivery". She is positive that it's going to be a boy and I really hope it will be a girl so to prove her wrong for once in her life.

Cornelia broke her ankle and she orders me to see her every single day which becomes quite annoying as she can't leave her bed and it is such a nice weather outside. It seems that Rainbow Valley calls me to explore its magical treasures all over again. Cornelia told me that Marshall got wounded in his right arm but is recovering quickly with the positive thought of going back to the front in a month.

I'm sending you my newest published poems from "The Journal" with hope to see a mailman crossing our road and putting your next letter into our mailbox very soon, telling me whether or not you liked them printed out on a page of "The Journal".

Tell me, how are Olive and Claire? Are you sure that you're not working yourself to death? And do you think you could get a leave for Christmas and come back to Prince Edward Island?

I'm sending you lots and lots of warm kisses and hugs,

Your faithful friend,

Blythe Ford

"Rose is due in the last week of November." Julia announced on one warm evening in October just before the start of her night-duty.

The sunset was creeping outside the hospital walls and Julia felt on that evening that it couldn't look more enchanting, even though she could see all of the damaged houses and streets on which the magical spell of sunset was shining.

"How wonderful!" Olive gasped and touched Julia's hand "She must be so happy!"

"She is almost paralyzed with happiness, I would say." Julia chuckled and so did Olive while playing with her hair.

"Is Rose this girl with long brown hair and slender nose, right… there?" Claire asked and pointed at the frame standing on Julia's table.

Julia nodded, looking at the picture of Rose standing outside the Redmond College with her brother Jake by her side, smiling from ear to ear, outshining everything around her as always "It is. She is the most beautiful of our whole family, they say."

"Do you know what?" Olive said and lay down on Julia's bed, watching the ceiling closely "I always wanted to know who's 'they'?" she asked in a mysterious kind of voice.

Julia humphed and looked at her friend with twinkling eyes "That's quite a good question, Olive!" she laughed.

"I know it is and that's why I wonder if anyone can ever answer it for me." she replied with a grin crossing her lips.

"I suppose you will have to wait for them to explain it to you." Julia answered and the three girls started giggling toegther but they stopped when Mrs Ashby opened the door of their room rapidly, without any knocking first.

"You'll be late for your duty if you won't get up!" she shouted and as quickly as she came in, she came out.

"Let's go then, girls." Claire said and the three of them got into their uniforms hurriedly and left their room, starting the new day of their usual work of saving other people's lives.

"How many letters did you get this time, Julia?" Claire asked while ripping off the envelope from her grandmother.

It was the middle of November and the girls just finished their night-duty which was under the very curious eye of Mrs Ashby who happened to be especially intolerable on that day. All three of them were sitting on their beds, looking through their letters, as they always did, every week.

Julia grinned at the letters she was holding in her hands "There's one from Mother and Father, Grandmother Rosemary, Aunt Nan, another from Walt, one from Blythe, Merry and Jake wrote a short letter and there's also one from Cilia." she finished and started opening the letter from Blythe first.

Claire sighed again "So many!"

"I know. Do you want to read them too?" Julia suggested knowing that Claire was feeling very lonley whenever Julia was reading out the millions of letters she was getting from her family each week while Claire was getting only one. Claire grinned happily and sat down by Julia quickly, with smile covering her face.

"Oh, God! No! No!" Olive gasped and put her hands on her mouth in despair.

Julia and Claire looked at their friend with worry and saw how Olive's cheeks turned red because of the waterfall of tears flowing on them. But although her cheeks were red, her hands were very pale and shaking, shaking so terribly that she dropped the letter she was holding on the floor.

Julia jumped from her bed immediately and threw her arms around Olive's shoulders "What happened Olive?!" she asked and put her hand on Olive's hair and started stroking it gently.

"Michael… Oh, Michael is dead-" she breathed out between the sobs.

Michael Jones died in action in the Battle of the Atlantic on the 11th of November, and this moment changed Olive, firstly for the worse as she was grieving after her only brother for a week without leaving her bed at any time. However after that week, and after long hours of talking with Julia about death, Julia's experience with Troy's death and keeping strong for all the boys "out there", she got better. Olive changed for the better as she did get stronger and promised herself not to grieve anymore but to always and no matter what, like Julia told her, "to keep hope, dearest".

"Bacause hope is the only thing stronger than fear." Blythe wrote to Julia at the beginning of war and that was the sentence she would remember till the rest of her life and she would live by it always, teaching other people its powerful meaning wherever she might be.

It was not always death that Julia, Olive or Claire experienced during the war. Nor it was always pain or fear. Not every soldier they tried to cure died, nor every soldier suffered or stopped believeing in the better days to come. Many of the soldiers got better and returned either to the front or back home, and that was always the finest price Julia and every other nurse could ever dream of. And it was also life that came to Julia's family at the end of November.

Rose gave birth to a healthy son whom she called Gerald Jake Richardson. 'Jackie', by what everyone called him, was the very first baby of the new generation in their family and he really was the sweetest and the chubbiest baby in Glen St. Mary. Rose wrote a long letter to Julia in which she described in detail his round face, big blue eyes, curly brown hair and "perfectly perfect toes and fingers".

"Do you want to have children, Olive, somewhere in the future?" Julia asked when her friend when she finished reading the Rose's letter outloud.

"Of course I do!" Olive said and sighed joyfully "I love little children. I hope that I will have five or six one day." she said decidedly.

"Five or six?" Julia repeated and shook her head "That's too many for me. I want to have two perfect babies. My Grandmother Blythe has seven children! I mean five... who are alive today." she added the last bit with a loud sigh and put the letter away.

"When it comes to me-" Claire added "I really don't like children and I don't intend on having even one in the future!"

"You will have children one day, you'll see." Olive said to her, glancing at Julia knowingly.

Claire humphed "I will not. They are fat and… uncleaned all the time!" she said and shivered as if something disgusting crossed her mind. Julia and Olive giggled together.

"And what about your Captain? Does he want to have children?" Julia asked playfully and grinned knowingly to Olive.

"I would never talk about such things with a man, Julia Una Blythe!" Claire said indignantly, her eyes being wider than usual.

"Why ever not?" Olive asked her curiously.

"There are some topics which girl shouldn't talk about with a man. That's what my Grandmama taught me and I'll obey everything she says." Claire replied sternly.

"Do you think that your relationship with him is something serious?" Julia asked her suddenly.

Claire shrugged "I don't know. Half of me hopes that 'yes', the other that 'no'… I don't know myself." she shook her head.

"And are you in love with him?" Olive asked her with a raised brow.

Claire looked down, trying to hide her red cheeks and a smile on her lips "I think… I am. Yes, I am in love with him." she said eventually in a voice which sounded as if she just discovered something extraordinary.

Olive opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by the knock on the door "Come in!" she said loudly.

The door opened and Mrs Ashby entered the girls' room "I just wanted to tell you something Nurse Blythe." she began in her usual cold manner.

"Yes, Matron?" Julia stood up quickly and felt how her heart began racing with the thought that maybe there's a long-distance call or a short telegram from P.E.I or the front.

"Me and the Head Nurse, Mrs Lowny, allow you to go on a three weeks leave beginning 15th of December." Mrs Ashby declared, crossing her arms.

Julia gasped and jumped under the wave of happiness which drifted over herwhole body "Oh, thank you Matron! Thank you so so much! You don't know how happy I am in this very moment!" she shouted and started shaking Mrs Ashby's hand in gratitude, almost forbidding herself to kiss her cheeks.

However Mrs Ashby took her hand away immediately and scanned Julia from head to toe "Yes I do know, Nurse Blythe. I have eyes and I definitely have ears." she said and with that she exited the room.

Dear Sheba,

We are all unbelievebly happy that you will spend your Christmas with us again! Mum, Dad and Cee jumped from their seats when they read your letter and I found myself not being able to do anything else but to run and write to you. I can't wait to see you, dear sister o'mine! Don't you think you will be able to escape my arms throughout those two weeks you'll be back!

And you will meet little Jackie! And I will be able to hear your voice again! And you will sing "Silent Night, Holy Night" for all of us again! Oh, I really think I will go mad until I'll see you at the train station in a three weeks time.

I have to tell you something, dear sister. Two days ago I told our family that I will enlist after the New Years Eve like I told you I wanted to, two months ago. This decision was very hard to make, I assure you. But I did decide and I feel good with it for I feel that it is my duty I have to fulfil. I can almost swear that a massive gulp which was in my throat for a long time, disappeared entirely. I will enlist to the LFC like Merry, Jake and Marshall did with hope that I will end up being in the trenches with them.

Father took my news well, Mother cried for a bit but then also said that she agrees on my going, and little Cee, well you know our sister, she couldn't stop hugging me for the rest of the afternoon. The others also took it well, I think. Blythe was the only one who showed me that he didn't like my news at all. He asked me if I know what I am doing and I replied that of course I know. And it's true, I know what I'm doing and what I'll do; Merry wrote me a quite long letter describing exactly what he does day after day and so I think that I am partialy aware of what awaits me.

Lily was very sad but at the same time she was very understanding. And that is the other reason she will come from Kingsport to Glen for Christmas, so that she can see me off after the New Years Eve. I am going to propose to her next Saturday. I'll catch my train in the morning and I will return in the evening. I'm getting more and more nervous, I do hope she will say "yes"!

I have to go to my other lesson now.

I'll see you soon then, dear sister!

Always Yours,

Walter Blythe

Three days before Julia's journey to P.E.I., the telegram from Walter came with nothing but the jolly news: "Lily said "yes". You'll meet her soon. - W.B.". "I knew she would say "yes"!" Julia thought to herself "Oh how glad I am that at least my brother didn't experience the heartache I carry in my soul for almost two years!"

And with this she went towards her suitcase which got quite dusty while lying under her bed for a year and a half. She opened it and with a happy sigh, she finally felt that she was going home.