See You Again

Chapter Four

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Dina got woken up when she heard a loud banging on the front door of the small house she and Joseph shared. She looked over to her fiancé to find him still being fast asleep. He was very exhausted when he came back from fighting in civil war only three days ago so the two young lovers spent almost the whole time in bed. And this was the day she was finally going to tell him that she was carrying his baby inside of her.

It all happened when Joseph got a letter telling him that he had to be inducted to war together with his two younger brothers who were barely old enough to go. Dina cried when she heard the news and even Joseph had tears in his eyes as he told her that he only had one more day before he had to leave. They were both so afraid of never seeing each other again but there was no other option. And so the two of them decided to spend the time they still had together and the result of that last evening before he had to leave was a baby.

Dina freaked out when she realized that and she was scared that Joseph would never be able to meet their child and see it grow up. So when he returned after almost three months Dina was happier than never before although he told her that his brothers were coming home a few days after him.

She wanted to tell him today once he wasn't feeling so extremely tired anymore so that they could celebrate together but now she first had to go to the door to see who it was. So she very quickly put on some clothes that were lying around and walked towards the main entrance, thinking that maybe it was Joseph's brothers who wanted to surprise him.

But when she opened the door she saw two policemen standing on the other side of it so she asked them to come in. They sat down as Dina offered to make them some coffee but they declined and went straight to the point.

"We're really sorry to inform you that both brothers of your husband were killed." One of the men told her.

Dina immediately felt tears welling up in her eyes as she looked at the two men in disbelief. This couldn't be real, it just couldn't. But the men were really serious about what they said.

"Their Confederate muskets were no match for the Winchester rifles of the Union Army, we're really sorry." They told her.

Dina couldn't get a word out as the thought of how he would tell Joseph came to her mind. How should she possibly tell the man she loved that his younger brothers – the youngest only fourteen – both got killed? This was all way too much for her and on top of the bad news she also felt her morning sickness coming back.

So she led the policemen outside again and as soon as the door was closed she ran into the bathroom and vomited. She just sat on the floor and cried, thinking about how she should possibly face Joseph now.

But then she didn't have time to think about that anymore as he suddenly appeared behind her in the bathroom. He seemed to be happy when he entered but as soon as he noticed that something was wrong with Dina he immediately started to worry and ask her what was wrong. But she couldn't answer, she just had no idea how to tell him. But he demanded that she did since he just wanted to know why she was feeling the way she was and so she told him to sit down in the living room.

So he sat down at the sofa, frowning as he did so. Dina sat down next to him and took a deep breath before she began to talk.

"Listen..." She started. "I got woken up by someone knocking on the door this morning... so I opened and..." She couldn't continue and Joseph seemed to notice that it was really hard for her to talk at that point so he didn't pressure her but instead but his hand on her thigh and started stroking it comfortingly.