Saying Goodbye

• April Carlisle, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2013

The wind blew against her petite body, sending chills up her spine so she wrapped the coat around her torso tightly. She held a hand up to her face to block the wind so she could see him.
He stood next to the old boat, the waves splashed up against the bottom of his pants. He would bop up and down, in out of the water, as if he was checking for leakages on the bottom of the vessel.
He would occasionally look her way and she wondered if he looked for her. The winds were getting stronger and the night getting darker, she worried whether he would even make it to Gallipoli. She watched as he looked her way again, this time he stopped what he was doing and came running out of the crashing waves. She smiled when he reached her but he did not smile back.
"I told you not to come down, Cynthia," he said. His voice stern but worried. The young woman look disappointed. "But I wanted one last goodbye," she told him. At her saying this the young man stepped in and embraced her. She laid her head on his shoulder which was wet from the waves. "I love you," he whispered, stroking her blonde hair. She looked up at him, the tears spilling down her pale cheeks. "Please stay," she whispered, her voice was hoarse and tiny. The man looked at her, tears welling in his intense green eyes, "I can't" he told her. "But the baby," she quietly complained. He looked down at her rounded stomach and laid a caring hand on it.
"I'll come home," he promised before running back down, towards the ocean.
She stayed there, on the cold, windy beach, The tears drying on her cheeks, until his boat was just a tiny spec in the ocean.
The she went back home.
The house was dark and lonely without him.
The days dragged on by, her bright blue eyes became dull and sunken, like a light had been switched off inside of her, she couldn't bear to live without him near, even if he was just at war.
She received letters from him daily, she sat for hours staring at his curved, carefully practiced handwriting. He always promised to make it home, make it home to her and their unborn child.
Ten days since he'd being gone. She had the child, a baby girl, Elizabeth, after his grandmother. Elizabeth was two when she received news that he was returning from war, although he was badly injured and would need immediate medical treatment, he was returning.
The woman took Elizabeth down to the old train station with promises of meeting her father.
But he never arrived.