13. Whats To Come (1/2)

chapter xiii

dear julia,

i think i will never quite believe that today is the very first day of july 1941, can you? it seems so far away; the last christmas, you know. although people say that when the exams come and with them revising, the time goes as quickly as ever; well, certainly not for me. at least i'm finished with redmond now, and i actually don't know what to do with myself, with no you, gil, jake or merry around during the whole summer.

me and our family are so very proud of you. i can feel that i'm almost drinking up the pride whenever i think of you, and that happens very often, i assure you. i have no idea how much hope and faith you do have in you to still getting more experience in nursing while saving other poeple's lives as

avely as you do, every single day. you must lend me one of your recipes for "keeping faith", and i shall try ot out immediately.

i wish i was just half as

ave as you are, sheba. i think that i feel like uncle walter once did, twenty-five years ago. i am so scared of going to the front, so so scared. i can't imagine things that are happening on the front without getting shivers or goosebumps. but... i can feel that everyone expects me to go. i know that now you're probably saying that you don't want me to go and i'll believe you, sheba, but others i just know they want me to. whenever i hear my dad talking with your dad about merry and gil at the front, i feel as if i was the odd one, the one that stands out, in a bad way.

i know that i should go, i think i might go after all, but i'm so frightened to go there and kill other people who are as innocent as we all are. ironic, isn't it? poeple fighting against people, people killing people… i sometimes wonder if there really is a god. i said this to cornelia and she looked at me as if i was a traitor and said: "how can you question such a thing?". but i think that inside she is asking herself the same question, with her

other at the front as well.

i'm sorry, i shouldn't be talking about war for so long, especially to you who knows more about it than i do, or maybe ever will. you ask me if i wrote any new poems lately; the answer is yes i did and they will be published in the next "journal". by the way, i feel very proud that you still have my poems from before christmas and read them from time to time, becasue i actually wrote them mostly for you. i'm sending you my new ones today.

i'm really glad that the blitz is over for you, i've seen photos of london from about a month ago and i couldn't believe that this is the place you describe to me in such wonderful terms… there, i talk about war again! tell me, dear, what do you think about me enlisting? but be honest please.

mum calls from downstairs and so i'll have to go.

rose has some big news to tell you but i'll let her do the job.

i'm impatiently waiting for your next letter.

yours,

blythe ford

dear juliet,

i am the happiest person in the world! although my husband is at the front, i can feel nothing else but happiness! dearest bathsheba, i am pregnant! almost 16 weeks along! julia, i will be a mother! a mum, a mummy, or a mother-dear like you call auntie faith.

i must be selfish to think about such things when the war is going on around me and people, our own canadian boys are dying every single day, but i can't force myself to think of anything else. i think it will be a boy, you know, i can feel it, although if you would ask me how, i cannot tell. it's mother nature, i suppose. if it will be a boy, i'll call him jake for my

avest of all

other, or jerry for dad. however, if it will be a girl, i'll call her for you my darling, juliet or julia.

john is over the moon and he said to me in his last letter, when he was still on land, that he can't think of anything else as well now, even though he will be sent somewhere on the atlantic in three days. i told john's parents about the baby too, and they immediately invited me for a month long stay in medford in august and i accepted, they'll be grandparents after all.

my parents are delighted, especially mum. she even said to me after uncle jem, your dad i mean, examined me "gosh, this is the happiest thing that could ever happen during the war!" and i couldn't agree more.

anyway, you probably want to know what john and i plan to do after the war; when john will come back (and i know he will) he and i will probably move to montreal, where his uncle works as a maths proffessor, other than that, i think it's quite too early to think about what will happen in a one, two or maybe three years' time.

and with that i have to go to grandmother rosemary because she asked me to help her with preparing dinner (our whole clan is invited) for tonight.

write to me as often as you can, sweetie.

yours,

anna rosemary richardson

dear sister,

you probably know already how proud i am of you and your huge achievement. compared to you, my diploma from maths is really nothing to what you do every day.

this letter is short because i am very very busy because you see, i'm giving maths lessons to all the kids in our glen, four winds and at the weekends in charlottetown as well. i'm doing fine and the summer will go very quickly for me, although i don't really want to do this kind of job my whole life.

lily already declared that she will come to glen for the next christmas and i'm so happy i can feel how my feet are lifting up. i just hope that you will like her when you two will eventually meet! but i'm sure you will, you are quite simmilar in a way, you both love books, and nature and history. i'm almost positive that you will become friends.

i will be honest with you, dear sister, and i will tell you that i'm thinking of signing up. i'm not very scared, not as much as blythe seems to be at least. i'm actually alright with the thought because i really feel that this is my duty which i must follow. but don't worry, i won't follow the piper soon, maybe after new year's eve. but i'm still thinking and debating with myself about the idea of going overseas.

and you know mother, she doesn't want me to go but father said: "merry got my permission and so will you if you feel that you must go.".

i really have to go now, julia dear, or otherwise i will be late for my lesson in four winds which starts in half an hour!

love you always,

your

other and a friend,

walter blythe

julia sighed and sinked down in her bed with her hand holding the new arrived letters, resting on her forehead. the day-duty, to which she was signed in for the next three months has just finished and both she and olive had time to read their letters from their family while claire was taking a shower in the bathroom.

"i am too exhausted to go to sleep." julia said and put the letters on the side of her night-table, sighing.

olive looked at her friend and chuckled "i've never heard of anything like this before but i must say that i believe you." she said and sat next to julia, putting her hand on julia's arm.

"how's michael?" julia asked her.