Chapter XXVIII

The second week of May had just started, and the days were getting warmer and warmer with every passing day. The spirits of people all around the world were getting higher and higher ever since the Hitler's suicide a month earlier.

Blythe was already in Glen with his family for three months, and was searching for a job all over the Island. Gilly was moved to France, being terribly tired of the war already and talking of nothing else but the way to stop it. His brother Owen was "quite alright" on the Atlantic, and his cousin Jake was still in the trenches in Italy. However his sister Leslie started smoking cigarettes, to the horror of her family, and dancing with all the possibly "free" soldiers out there in London, "enjoying herself to bits". Julia, Olive and Niall had less work than ever since the beggining of the war, and that itself was giving them more and more hope that maybe, although they were even too afraid to think those words in their minds, maybe the war really was close to an end.

On one special day, when the sun was shining high on the sky which was almost completely cloudless, General Knowles came proudly and happily into Julia's ward where she was working that day. He brought a carefree blow of wind inside, the blow which could be felt in every corner of the ward, which could be felt by each soldier and nurse inside it, the blow of wind which all of them would always remember as a reminder of a victory they all achieved.

Julia, Olive and everyone else looked in the direction of where General Knowles was standing and everyone waited for him to say what was going on, fearing that something bad could have happened. "Listen everybody!" his clear voice filled up the "newly-arrived" ward "The Germans surrendered! The war is over!" and he put his hand high in the air with a small telegram inside its grasp.

Julia put her hands on her mouth as she felt that her eyes filled up with warm tears of joy. She screamed happily first and was followed by all the other nurses and soldiers in her ward and could hear the shoutings from the other wards as well. It seemed as if even the birds started singing again, and the world was covered with peace and love again.

How strange it all felt! The whole world seemed to hold nothing but agony and horror for not just Julia but for each of the people around her just a few second earlier, and it suddenly turned into a world of peace and tranquility which they all forgot about after the long six years of this journey which touched each of their souls one way or another. But oh, it felt good, it felt good!

Julia kissed the soldier, whom she was nursing, twice on each cheek causing them both to turn positively fiery. She looked around her, searching for her friends somewhere in the crowds. She finally spotted Olive and she was… She was… Julia gasped. Olive was kissing Niall! Straight on the lips! And he was kissing her back! "How wonderful!" Julia breathed out and laughed so merrily that even Mrs Tate joined in when she came to pat Julia on her back gently but still meaningfully.

"Everything is going to be alright now, Nurse Blythe." she said to her warmly with smile crossing her face, while both she and Julia were looking at all the other nurses and soldiers talking, laughing and singing together.

Julia looked at Mrs Tate and dryed off her tears of happiness from her cheeks "Yes, for the first time in six years I can finally be certain about that." she said.

Dearest Blythe,

I wish you were here with me today. We had a real party, probably not as huge as the one on the streets of London, but surely just as much joyful. We danced all afternoon, now it's one o'clock in the morning but I don't care, I had to write to you and tell you everything!

The War is finally over! It is Over, written with a capital "O". The time of death, pain, suffering and heartbreak we all experienced for the past six years of our lives is now replaced with the time of life, blessing, joy and love and let us keep them all always on the same table near the flowers of peace.

Olive and Niall got engaged today, too. Olive cries all the time because of both the end of the war and her engagement, I know it is becasue of how happy she is but it is getting quite annoying, it must be said! Niall still gazes at her with his loving blue eyes which are overfilled with love he could never show to me (and I'm so grateful that he couldn't!). They want to get married in July, as soon as we all can go back home. Yes, dearest of all Blythes in the world, I will come back home in late June! Can you believe it? It's just two months to go!

And then I'm all yours.

Leslie wrote me a telegram today, I'm sure you got one too but I'll say it anyway, and she's coming back to P.E.I in four days time! Lucky, lucky girl! Thankfully she won't bring a killingly handsome British soldier with her, or otherwise your Mother would probably get a heart attack!

I got a beautiful picture last week, with the youngest ones of our new generation; Jackie (who is almost four-years-old!), sweet Julienne and a very good-looking Knoxie. Julienne really looks just like Walt, with her brown locks and hazel eyes, and this funny little nose. Wheras Knoxie is the sweetest little baby-boy I have ever seen in my life! And Jackie, of course, who gets more and more handsome with every year. I understand now why Rose is so excited for John to finally meet his son!

You asked me about your job proposition and I think that you should definitely accept it. I know it's in White Sands and so two hours away from Glen but I think you should accept it anyway. You always wanted to be an English Literature Professor in the university which isn't the Redmond College.

I just wanted to let you know that whether you will like it or not, my darling, I will want to work as a midwife in whatever place we will move to. As much as I love my job as a nurse, I really have to get some more joy from my work and being a midwife will allow me to witness a great joy and the beginning of life and not death with which I have been working for for the past five years of my life.

We really are going to get married, aren't we? Isn't it such a weird thought, beautiful and very romantic of course, but weird! I would laugh if someone would tell me six years ago that I will gladly marry you. It seems that you really are the only person who can tame me. My dear Blythe, I am very ready to become your wife, I am sure about that. How much I would love to kiss you right now! Do you have any idea how much I wanted to kiss you when I saw Olive kissing Niall today, when we heard that the war was eventually over? But I will stop whining, after all, I will become your wife in a few months' time!

Goodness, it's half past one! And I have to get up in four hours!

Sweet dreams my lovely Mr Ford,

Forever Yours (and only Yours),

Nurse Julia Una Blythe

My darling girl,

Everyone is over the moon not only because of the ending of the war but also because… surprise, surprise: Jake, Gilly and Leslie are safetly home! Jake and Gilly made us all a big and wonderful surprise and came together three days ago. You can imagine faces of my parents, Aunt Nan's and Uncle Jerry's! Simply undescribable. They arranged the "surprise homecoming" two weeks ago when both of them sent us letters that they are going to get home in the middle of June. "Little liars!" that's how Rose greeted her brother and a cousin.

They didn't change at all on the insides, not really. Gil is still the crazy dancer and joker but very much in love with his Faye who, from the picture which Gilly showed me, looks positively radiating! Talking of Faye, she is supposed to come to Canada in November and just three days after there is going to be their wedding.

Going back to Jake, he is a bit more quiet than he was before the war, but other than that (and the long scar going through his neck) he is the same as he was the last time I've seen him. When he took his violin in his hands, he cried, Julia, he cried. And then when he played… If only you could hear it! It was like the song of summer, so wild and passionate, yet very sensitive and as free as the wind.

Leslie, well, she didn't change one single bit. Not at all, except for her smoking habit which I detest just as much as our Mother. You won't believe it but I noticed that Jake is making sheep's eyes at Leslie! My sister! Do you think it's possible? They are so different… I'm sure of one thing though, that Leslie is not in love with him. Another tragic love-story, isn't it? I just hope it will have a happy-ending, just like ours has.

Sheba, I did as you told me, and accepted the job in White Sands. Now I am looking for a house of our own there… "House of our own", doesn't it sound so promising and simply wonderful? Darling, if you want to work as a midwife, I have no objections at all. You know that I'm definitely not the kind of a man who would want his wife to stay at home and do God-knows-what all day, while she desperately wants to work. I promise you that I will have a look in White Sands and ask at some of the hospitals if you can join there as a midwife.

There is one more thing to tell you; Owen is going back home as planned, in the middle of June. I don't think he would make a surprise homecoming too, knowing his personality.

I have a meeting in White Sands today again; I will visit the four-bedroom house near, I heard, the fields full of sunflowers (doesn't it sound delightful?). My Dad will come with me of course, someone has to push my wheelchair anyway.

Darling, darling girl of mine, don't tell me of how much you want to kiss me, you have no idea how much I desperately want to kiss you, and always wanted to ever since I was sixteen years old (was it really eight years ago?). Gilly and Jake tease me about my engagement to you, as they always thought that I would marry Cornelia at the end. Such wonderful cousins we have, don't we?

Dear, I think about you every day, and every night, each passing minute and each passing second and I count hours to that bright, sunny day in late June, when I will be able to see you dancing between the flowers again.

I wish I could write more today, but I truly have to get ready now.

Enjoy your day, and could you please make the clock go faster a bit and then slow down the moment you come home, to me?

Your very own,

Blythe Ford

Surprisingly, the 25th of June arrived very quickly and Julia, Olive and Niall were all going back home. Julia and Olive spent a whole night before talking about their dreams, dancing together, singing "their" songs which they used to sing in the shelter in the small hospital in London, during the Blitz. And, of course, together they made promises to each other. "I know that you won't be at my wedding with Niall." Olive said when both of them were lying together on Julia's bed, holding each other's hands tightly.

Julia sighed "Yes, but you have to go to my wedding, dearest Olive." she said and smiled at her with twinkling eyes.

"Of course I will!" she replied energetically "I would never miss it for the world!" and then her voice quietened a bit "Bath, do you think that it will be fine, with, you know, Blythe-not-walking?" she asked her shyly.

"Of course it will be fine." Julia said without any doubt in her voice "I don't even think about it. I know it will be a different life than what I imagined it to be, maybe more difficult at times, but yet I think it will make us even closer to each other, you know?" she said with this shadow of a tender smile creeping upon her lips.

"And so, I'm very happy for you!" Olive said with a joyful sigh, but Julia could see how the small tears started forming in her black eyes.

"Olive Jones! Don't you dare!" Julia warned her.

"But I must!" Olive protested as small tears started running down her cheeks, but she couldn't help laughing at the same time.

"Save your tears for tomorrow!" Julia said again, pretending to be very serious but failing with every second.

"But my make-up will come off then!" Olive said and the tears started coming out of her eyes even quicker. Julia bursted out laughing, and Olive quickly followed her example. And so the two bosom friends cuddled up together, and didn't even realise when their eyes closed and both of them fell asleep.

"For the very first time in my life, I see you three in casual clothes instead of uniforms!" Mrs Tate greeted Julia, Olive and Niall as they came over to her office to say their final goodbyes.

Julia looked positively beaming. She wore her old navy-blue pleated dress with her brooch in a shape of a rose which she inherited from her Mother eight years earlier. She also put on her best black hat in which she looked like a real movie-star. Olive looked better than ever, with her flowing green dress with gold belt around her waist and her "country-hat", as she called it which was just a lovely straw-hat. Niall couldn't keep his eyes off Olive, and she couldn't keep her eyes off Niall, for he looked positively handsome in his grey suit and a black hat on his head.

"Well, children, I wish you all the best in the world, and who knows maybe we shall meet again, one day?" Mrs Tate gave each of them a quick kiss on the cheek.

"I have a feeling that we will, Mrs Tate." Julia said warmly. And so the three of them left the small military camp near Rouen with gleam of many memories in their eyes and the sweet feeling in their hearts of the new world awaiting them just around the corner.

The train station in Rouen was very crowded, and it seemed as if every soldier and a nurse was going back home that day. Julia caught the same train as Olive and Niall did, a train to the port in Calais, and just as suddenly they found themselves in the moment they all dreaded the most of all; they had to go their own separate ways. "Oh, Julia, we were seeing each other for every day, except for the Christmas periods, for five years of our lives, and I promise you that our friendship will never fade." Olive said through the tears which came even though Olive swore they wouldn't.

"I promise you that I will write to you, twice a week, and I promise that I will visit you one day in England, I have to show Blythe my dear old London anyway." Julia chuckled bitterly and put Olive quickly into a tight hug.

"I love you, Bath." Olive whispered into Julia's ear "And I won't say goodbye, becasue I will see you in a two months time. At your wedding." she said with a small smirk on her bright face.

"Yes, you will." Julia replied softly and kissed Olive's cheek "And I love you too, Olive Jones, my dearest kindred spirit." she whispered.

"And what about me?" Niall demanded with a grin.

Julia turned to him and put her hands on his cheeks gently "And I love you, Niall Harris. Maybe not in the way you once wanted me to, but I do love you a great deal as my friend." she whispered and tears started flowing down her red cheeks for good.

"And I love you, Julia, in a way I should." Niall chuckled wistfully "Take care of yourself." he said caringly and squeezed her hand.

"I will." she relied softly "And most of all, take care of this beautiful lady over here." she took Olive's hand and winked at her knowingly.

"All aboard for the ship which goes to Canada!" the voice of a crew-man filled up the noisy air. Julia embraced both of her friends at once, not saying a single word. She wanted to breathe them both in, to remember them as they were in that moment; young, optimistic, full of life and love dearest friends to one another. After all, Julia thought, they would always have those sweet memories about the years gone by till the rest of their lives.

"I'll see you soon then!" Julia said eventually and took her suitcases in her hands, being ready to go aboard at last.

"See you soon, Bathsheba!" Niall and Olive shouted back together and started waving to her for as long as they could see the small dot of her ship on the horizon, until it disappeared completely from their sight.