Kissing The Stars

Excellence Award in the 'The Write Track 2015' competition

“Dear Mary,
I stand in the trenches with my fellow fighters. Some kissing pictures of their families, others crying and praying. I, too, am doing a mixture of all three. If I said that I wasn't scared, I’d be lying. But I don’t wish to send, what could be, my last letter to my family in fear. Mary, I could spend hours and hours contemplating the words to use but no combination of twenty six different letters of the English language could ever convey even a fraction of my love for you and the joy you bring to me. My world was nothing but a blank canvas until I had met you.

Your laugh, your kindness, your love, your heart and YOU are all the paints I needed to colour my blank canvas, and if it wasn't a masterpiece as it is, you had agreed to marry me and have my child. And I can tell you, from the bottom of my heart, you are all I am thinking of, for every second of every day. I will always remember the way your eyes held the weight of the ocean, one look would send me drowning in them. The way your lips formed words as swiftly as a bullet can puncture the skin. And the very way your hands made a constellation of the most beautiful of stars the same hands that made me feel as though I am caressing the heavens and kissing the stars by the slighted of touches.
As for my Son, Ethan, I trust that someday your mother will be speaking of the reasons I had gone. And I wish that you understand one thing; despite my departure early in your life, you will always be the candle in this dark room. I cannot even sum up my love for you, but with a heavy heart, I say always respect and help your mother out. She may seem strange at times but trust me, it’s all for your own sake. Should I return I wish to receive an enormous hug, I may even bring you a present.
I pray that you never lose sight of the importance of love and family. I can assure you now that someday you too will feel the happiness brought to you just as your mother had brought it to me. I lov-"

The rest of the letter had not been completed. Before Steve could finish it, the whistle was blown and war was on again. As men had fallen beside him, he continued. Shot wound through the lung, he pushed forward. Shot through the leg, he soldiered on. Shot through the throat, he had finally fallen. As the drops of his blood had fallen, he used the last bit of strength he had to reach into his pocket, pull out his photo of his family and kissing it. Placing the photo above his heart he looked up into the night sky and smiled, for the very last time.

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