Coming Home? (Part 2)

A Story by Closed Account

Finalllyyyy! (: <3

The letters started coming in about a month after he left. I’d lost track of time, honestly. I’d been so busy with school, homework, after-school stuff. I didn’t forget about him, though. I was constantly worried about him, praying that he was okay, but I just really couldn’t keep track of how long he was gone. It hurt too much.

Checking the mail one day after school reminded me of his promise though. There was a package, addressed to me. Upon opening it, I found about 30 or so letters, from Nate to me. Wow, he really meant it when he promised that he’d write every day, I though. I started opening them, one by one, taking my time to read every word he’d written. Most of the first letters was about how he was, and how he missed me. He told me about who he shared a cabin-like-thing, and how he’d have to get used to getting up so early. Most of the letters were happy, or about as happy as you could be, writing to the girl you love who is on a different continent than you.

It took an hour or so to read all the letters. Finally, I got to the last one, but something looked different about the envelope on this one. It looked…dirtier and…just plain different. I opened it up, worrying. What if something happened to him already? What if he’s missing? A million thoughts raced through my head. The paper the letter was on looked different too, but I instantly recognized his handwriting.

“Dear Sammi,

“Don’t worry about me. I can’t write for a while, though. Trust me, I’ll be fine. We’re going to be moving around, and I’ll be super busy. I wish I didn’t have to do this, but I do. I’m gonna miss writing to you. Even though I know you might not get this for a while after I write this, I just want you to know that I love you so much, and I miss you. I miss seeing you almost every day. I miss the sound of your laugh. I miss your smile. When I was finishing packing the night before I left, the last thing I packed was some pictures of you. My favorite one was of the two of us, at the beach during our last week together. We both looked so happy, and you looked beautiful. I’ve never seen a more beautiful girl in my life. When I start missing you, I pull out my bag of pictures and look through them all. Even though it makes me sad, it reminds me that it’s all real and that I wasn’t dreaming the last week or making it up. So, baby, never forget that I love you. I promise I’ll write as soon as I can. I miss you so much, Samantha.

“I love you with all my heart,

“Nathaniel”

I could take it anymore. Reading all the letters before this one made me want to cry. This just pushed me over the edge. I could keep the tears in anymore. I just sat there, letting the tears flow down my cheeks. He really missed me. I really missed him too, and I could write that to him as many times as I wanted, but it probably wouldn’t get to him. I could always ask his mom, but she might not even know. A horrible thought crossed my mind. What if something happened to him, and I never got to tell him that I loved him again? What if when I told him right before he left was the last time I’d ever tell him?

Thinking like this only made the tears flow harder. I tried to push it out my mind and work on my homework. I had a ton of it, but no matter what I did, I couldn’t get Nate out of my mind. Those same thoughts and the last part of his letter circled in my mind. Calculus problems and clauses didn’t seem so important anymore. I pulled a sheet of paper out of one of my binders and started my letter to him.

“Dear Nathaniel,

“I got home today, and was excited to see this package of letters. I miss you so much. It seems so different to be at school without you and all your friends. My friends and I all noticed it. Lunch is a lot quieter without you all, but we still have Sarah and Jen’s boyfriends to keep us company unfortunately. Seeing them all happy together makes me miss you even more, and kind of jealous that I can’t be that happy with you, especially when we’re so far apart. I love you so much, though, and I’m so proud and lucky to have you as my boyfriend.

“Everyone at schools asks about you. The talked about you on announcements, on the first day of school, and now random people come up to me every day, asking how you are and if you were still okay. I can finally tell them for sure that you’re okay (Thankfully). I really hope that doesn’t change.

“I miss you Nate. I wish you were home. I still have a picture of the two of us in 5^th grade, hanging out in my backyard. I look at it every night, before I go to sleep. It makes the pain worse, but it reminds me of you, so the pain doesn’t matter.

“I love you Nate, never forget that.

“Sammi<3”

Writing that all down made the tears fall harder. I knew this would be hard from the start, but I’d never imagined it being this painful. Not knowing where he is, or how he is. Not being able to know for a fact whether he’s hurt or sick. To be honest, it sucked. But I wouldn’t give up on him. I’d gotten him, even if we weren’t together.

The next day, I talked to his mom to see if maybe she knew where to send the letter. I’d put it in an envelope and filled out the front, and even put a stamp on it the night before, just in case. She took it and put on a smile, that I could tell was fake.

“I’ll try to get it to him as best I can. I know where to send it, but when I sent him a letter, they told me that he might not get his mail anytime soon, and that there’s a possibility that he might never get it. Luckily, he got my letter, and wrote back. Let’s just hope you’re that lucky,” she said, and I could tell she didn’t have much hope. It was obvious why he couldn’t write very much anymore, and why he might not get it. It was all over the news stations on T.V. and in the newspapers. The war was getting harder and harder to fight. The U.S. was giving it’s all, but they still needed to work harder if we were going to win.

I thanked his mom, and left, with barely any hope of him getting my letter.

Months passed. I tried to keep what little hope I had, but it was hard. I desperately checked the mail every day after school, and on the weekends, I found myself sitting by the window, reading or checking my email, keeping watch for the mailman. But every day, I was disappointed to find that there wasn’t a package of letters, or even one letter.

More months passed, and still no word. I was starting to lose all hope that he was even alive. Then, one day snowy day in December, my cell phone rang as I was getting home from school. It was his mom.

“Hi? Samantha? Yes, this is Ms. Matthews. We got a letter today. If you have the time, we were wondering if…maybe you could come over to read it? I want you to read it for yourself.” There was something different in her voice. I couldn’t place what was wrong with it though. I tried and tried to think of what she could want me to read on my way over

When I got there, the driveway was full of other cars. Party time or something? I started thinking of why they might have all these people over, but I could only think of two things, and one of them wasn’t something I wanted to think about. I tried to push the sad and the happy thoughts out of my head, not wanting to get my hopes up.

I knocked on the door, and only seconds passed before the screen door flew open, and I knew that something was wrong. Lilly, Nate’s sister, had opened the door. This wouldn’t be unusual during the summer, except during the year, she attended college in San Francisco, all the way across the country. Besides that fact that she was there, I could hear crying and Lil’s eyes were red and puffy.

I stood there for a while, outside looking at Lilly through the screen door. She seemed like she was in a trance, and she didn’t look like she was in the mood for talking, but I tried anyways.

“Lilly? Lil, is…is everything okay? What happened? Is Nate okay? What’s wrong?” I started moving a little closer to the door, and she started to move so I could get into the house. For a second, she lost he balance, and it looked like she might either pass out or puke, but she didn’t fall, and she seemed to stay up right, still in the trance.

“Sammi…oh, Sam!” She sorta collapsed into and we hugged for a second. I was still unaware of what was happening. Then Ms. Matthews came up behind us, and she hugged us both. Sort of like a sad group hug.

“Sam…Nate…” Lil started, but she couldn’t finish the sentence herself. She turned to her mom, and she finished the sentence for her.

“Sam, Nate’s missing. He went missing during combat. They’ve been….they’ve been searching for weeks, and we just got the letter today. They’re pretty sure…that there’s no way he can still be…alive. They say that if he’s been out there for that long, without food or water, and possibly injured…the odds are against him. I mean, for all we know, they could’ve found him, and the next letter might be in the mail as we speak. But we’re not sure of anything…” she stopped, and burst into tears again. I could feel my chest tightening and my eyes starting to sting.

Nate…Nate’s MIA? That’s not possible. He promised…He promised he’d be okay. I know he shouldn’t have gone! He’s gone…maybe for good, and I didn’t even try to stop him from going. The same tears that had poured from my eyes when I’d gotten his letters stung my eyes, and started rolling down my cheeks, one by one. I’d never gotten to go on a real first date with him, and I might never get to. How could this have happened??

A million more thoughts raced around in my head while we stood there, still hugging. I tried my best to take it all in, and convince myself that he might not be dead. It was hard, though, not knowing whether I’d ever see him again or not. Still, I did my best to think positive in a negative situation.

© 2010 Closed Account

Author's Note

So, this has officially taken me over a month to write. And, the funny thing is that part 1 only took me a day and a half.
But anyways, I started part 3 already. There wasnt supposed to be more than Part 1 & 2, but I couldn't fit everything into 2 parts, so there are going to be 3, and then maybe a fourth, depending on how everything goes. So thanks for reading and pleaseee review? Thankies!!<3

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M Garcia

How SAD! I would use a different color. It was a little hard to read, had to highlight it to read. Also, in the beginning you put 'could' when you meant 'couldn't'