24. Oh, Love (1/2)

chapter xxiii

"walt got a job as a maths professor in redmond!" julia exclaimed while holding the unfolded letter in her hands.

it was the middle of march, and spring was slowly coming through the fields and woods to the military camp near rouen. it was a regular friday afternoon, and julia, olive and amelia's day-duty was over. they were switched again to the "newly arrived" ward and after working almost four years as a nurse, julia could hardly mind seeing all of the fresh and new wounds on the newly arrived soldiers.

after the memorable bombing in december, the days seemed to calm down a little bit, as the most of the important fights were now happening in italy and asia and not in france, therefore julia and her girls didn't have as much work as they once did.

the three girls were sitting on the bench outside with niall, who just finished helping out with the new packages of blankets and food that arrived that afternoon. julia was getting letters from every member of her family on regular basis,

inging her news about the glen's life, which julia was always reading out to her friends each afternoon.

"in this college, you mean?" olive asked her curiously.

"yes, in kingsport." julia replied with a smile "i'm so happy for him, he always wanted to work there. but…" she sighed wistfully "kingsport is so far away from glen!"

"but it's still in canada." niall said "and what about me? half of my family lives all the way across the atlantic!"

julia nodded and smiled at him warmly "you're quite right about that. but you see it seems as if everyone from my family is just moving away from me, as soon as they get married." she said the last bit reluctantly.

"and maybe when you'll marry, you will move out of glen as well?" amelia suggested and grinned knowingly at olive and niall.

julia smiled at her, feeling how her cheeks turned red with hearing the word "marry", "i hope not." she said slowly "cilia is in charlottetown, rose says that when her john will come back from the front, they will move to montreal, and now walt is going to kingsport. i wonder where i will go?" she asked.

"i'll tell you what you'll do." olive said with shining eyes "you and i will rent out a beautiful apartment in kensington together, and will become nurses famous all over london, and we will never marry and live happily ever after." she laughed and so did the others.

"that's a wonderful proposition, but i'm afraid i have to refuse it." julia chuckled and squeezed olive's hand "whether you like it or not, i want to get married, one day." she said and caused niall to look at her meaningfully although she didn't see it.

"i do as well!" olive sighed theatrically and hid her head in her arms, making her friends laugh even louder than they did before.

"well, this thing is sorted then!" niall concluded joyfully and turned to julia "did you get any other letters?" he asked her.

"yes…" she replied

iskly and took out the bunch of letters from the pocket of her coat and put them on her knees "aunt rilla wrote to me, so did gilly, rose, mother, and uncle carl." she said.

"that's not so many then." olive said suddenly "you always get like ten every week."

"yes, i don't mind though, i wouldn't have the time to answer them all anyway, in such detail as everyone expects me to." she looked over to amelia "did you get a letter from your sister?" she asked her curiously.

"yes, but just a short one." amelia answered quickly "mollie is thinking about joining up too." she smiled shyly.

"oh, that's splendid!" olive exclaimed "do you think that she really will, though?"

"i don't know." amelia replied honestly "i don't think our parents will allow her to. she just turned eighteen after all."

"gosh, i was eighteen ten years ago!" niall sighed "am i really this old, do you think girls?" he asked, looking at each of them with hopeful eyes.

the girls looked at each other and giggled. "yes!" the three of them said in the same moment causing niall to laugh light heartedly.

"oh!" olive gasped suddenly and reached for something in her pocket "i forgot to tell you, bath, i got a letter from claire." she said and unfolded the small envelope.

"what did she write to you?" julia said in an excited tone.

"she said that her husband is coming back home, as he got wounded in the eye and can't see properly." olive responded, her eyes twinkling.

"that's what happened to my uncle carl in the first war." julia added "is claire happy or devasteted? she can't be somewhere in the middle, knowing her." she chuckled and so did olive.

"she is very happy." olive replied, smiling "especially becasue she wants to quit nursing 'as soon as possible'."

"why?" julia asked in a suprised tone.

"becasue she is so exhausted that "she can hardly stand on her legs"." olive read out and rolled her eyes "anyway, she says that lewis is coming back in april and they are going to settle down in birmingham, near her grandma."

"that's good." julia grinned "i'm really happy for her, but then…" she gasped "she will leave my poor leslie all alone!"

"i'm sure she'll be fine, julia." olive replied and patted her friend's arm "you don't think that your leslie won't make a new friend, do you?" she raised her

ows.

"no, i don't." julia replied "especially when it comes to my leslie." she grinned.

julia and olive were right. in april, julia got two letters, one from claire informing her that she just moved to a new house with lewis, and the second one from leslie telling her that she has been moved to a room with a girl who was called jane lucas, and "she is a real gem, i'm telling you." as she wrote to julia.

accidentally at the same time, blythe made a new friend too. "edmondo buccharei is my new pilot-friend." he wrote to julia "he is from milan, and always dreamed of becoming a pilot. his mother is english and that's why he and i can communicate really.

"he teaches me a little bit of italian, and in my opinion it is the most wonderful language on the earth. it's so rich in pronounciation, and all of the italian words sound as if they were so… important and meaningful. when i learn new words or hear edmondo speaking italian, i feel as if i was hearing the language of the gladiators's home and roman history. don't you think that it would be wonderful if one day, i would go to italy and could talk and laugh with real italians?