14. Keep Hope (1/2)

chapter xiv

dear julia,

i'm so glad that your cold is almost over and that you don't have to stay in bed anymore. aunt faith and grandmother blythe prepared lots of cake for you to send but uncle jem gave them his speech to remind them that you're not actually dying and they left the cake for cee, nancy, cordelia and tom instead.

the summer is over and i started teaching at our old but still good glen school. it's quite an interesting experience i must confess, to teach in the classroom where we as children always had our english lessons, which only you and me understood and actually liked. i sometimes smile at the memories which flow through my mind whenever i sit down in my chair and look around the classroom, seconds before the lesson starts. it's then when i can almost hear your quiet gasps you always made whenever our teacher, miss hemington read a poem by tennyson or keats. from my first impressions i come to a conclusion that the children aren't very interested in poetry or english generally but i just have to cope with it somehow. jenny penhallow asked me today who jane austen is! can you believe this?

sheba, it is because of you and your long but wonderful letter which convinced me not to enlist now, or anytime in the future. i promise you that i won't sign up and you know that when i promise you something, i really mean it. i am definitely too scared to go and just… shoot someone who might be a son, a husband, a

other, a cousin, a friend or a sweetheart to someone else… that's just not me at all.

but enough of me, i'll tell you all about our lovely family, although you are probably more informed about all the events that happened more than i am. i will at least tell you how's everyone doing from my point of view. leslie, luna and cilia are working for the red cross to the loss of their

eath. leslie is even thinking of signing up as a vad like "her sweet and

ave julia" did. i'm really pleased with this idea and i think that our parents don't mind as well.

owen is at the top of every class at queen's and i know that he will become a well-known businessman one day. gil, you probably know yourself, is now in italy and he thinks that he will stay there for a while but father doesn't think so at all, and to be honest i don't either. gil is so lucky, you know! to see england, greece, italy, germany and finland through the eyes of a bird is just overwhelming. but then... his job as a pilot is not an easy one as well.

you won't believe it and i myself think it to be quite funny, but your little eleven-year-old sister cee is making sheep's eyes at my own

other owen! and he is five years older than her! i have no idea how to think about that. however talking about cee, i really hope that she will become a well-known artist one day, she really has a gift of noticing things people don't usually notice and she's not afraid to use this gift.

nancy is all over the place, as always, along with the small cordelia and tom who are becoming more and more talkative with ever year passing. rose is six months pregnant and she has everything ready for her new "delivery". she is positive that it's going to be a boy and i really hope it will be a girl so to prove her wrong for once in her life.

cornelia

oke her ankle and she orders me to see her every single day which becomes quite annoying as she can't leave her bed and it is such a nice weather outside. it seems that rainbow valley calls me to explore its magical treasures all over again. cornelia told me that marshall got wounded in his right arm but is recovering quickly with the positive thought of going back to the front in a month.

i'm sending you my newest published poems from "the journal" with hope to see a mailman crossing our road and putting your next letter into our mailbox very soon, telling me whether or not you liked them printed out on a page of "the journal".

tell me, how are olive and claire? are you sure that you're not working yourself to death? and do you think you could get a leave for christmas and come back to prince edward island?

i'm sending you lots and lots of warm kisses and hugs,

your faithful friend,

blythe ford

"rose is due in the last week of november." julia announced on one warm evening in october just before the start of her night-duty.

the sunset was creeping outside the hospital walls and julia felt on that evening that it couldn't look more enchanting, even though she could see all of the damaged houses and streets on which the magical spell of sunset was shining.

"how wonderful!" olive gasped and touched julia's hand "she must be so happy!"

"she is almost paralyzed with happiness, i would say." julia chuckled and so did olive while playing with her hair.

"is rose this girl with long

own hair and slender nose, right… there?" claire asked and pointed at the frame standing on julia's table.

julia nodded, looking at the picture of rose standing outside the redmond college with her

other jake by her side, smiling from ear to ear, outshining everything around her as always "it is. she is the most beautiful of our whole family, they say."

"do you know what?" olive said and lay down on julia's bed, watching the ceiling closely "i always wanted to know who's 'they'?" she asked in a mysterious kind of voice.

julia humphed and looked at her friend with twinkling eyes "that's quite a good question, olive!" she laughed.

"i know it is and that's why i wonder if anyone can ever answer it for me." she replied with a grin crossing her lips.

"i suppose you will have to wait for them to explain it to you." julia answered and the three girls started giggling toegther but they stopped when mrs ashby opened the door of their room rapidly, without any knocking first.

"you'll be late for your duty if you won't get up!" she shouted and as quickly as she came in, she came out.

"let's go then, girls." claire said and the three of them got into their uniforms hurriedly and left their room, starting the new day of their usual work of saving other people's lives.

"how many letters did you get this time, julia?" claire asked while ripping off the envelope from her grandmother.

it was the middle of november and the girls just finished their night-duty which was under the very curious eye of mrs ashby who happened to be especially intolerable on that day. all three of them were sitting on their beds, looking through their letters, as they always did, every week.

julia grinned at the letters she was holding in her hands "there's one from mother and father, grandmother rosemary, aunt nan, another from walt, one from blythe, merry and jake wrote a short letter and there's also one from cilia." she finished and started opening the letter from blythe first.

claire sighed again "so many!"

"i know. do you want to read them too?" julia suggested knowing that claire was feeling very lonley whenever julia was reading out the millions of letters she was getting from her family each week while claire was getting only one. claire grinned happily and sat down by julia quickly, with smile covering her face.

"oh, god! no! no!" olive gasped and put her hands on her mouth in despair.

julia and claire looked at their friend with worry and saw how olive's cheeks turned red because of the waterfall of tears flowing on them. but although her cheeks were red, her hands were very pale and shaking, shaking so terribly that she dropped the letter she was holding on the floor.

julia jumped from her bed immediately and threw her arms around olive's shoulders "what happened olive?!" she asked and put her hand on olive's hair and started stroking it gently.