Arch Rivals

How It All Began

It was 1927, just 9 years after the first war, I got news that Norman who was a friend of mine died of the influenza pandemic in China. He suffered terribly, I heard he fought.. but that wasn't the Norman I knew, I always thought he gave up too easily; at least I wanted to believe that. He wanted to be one with sea, and one with the sea he was, finally.

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I was walking down an archaic memory, laying on the grass outside my lawn. I was calm, comfortable, remembering my past glories and.. one special person I met during the war.
Jean was that kind of woman every boy grew up dreaming about. She was smart, she had the looks, she had everything. Way before the war started, Norman and I would usually hang out on the docks, we were young prospects without  jobs, we never even believed in ourselves but we were smart I assure you. Jean's grandfather had a boat,  so we (my friend Norman and I) would talk, joke and have fun all day near a liner and just stare at the other side of the dock where Jean usually sits and look straight up at the sea. We dared each other everyday to go over and start a conversation but we would always chicken out at the very last minute, she had some kind of hold on us; we couldn't explain why that was but we attempted to spark a conversation for 3 years to no avail until her family moved. 

One thought stuck with me through out, it wasn't even of Jean, but it was on the reason why she always gazed out into the blue. I couldn't fathom her thoughts.
Norman's family  moved eventually but Norman came back after he got a job. Of course, I still had no job, I never even wanted one especially when I had my family. Norman rented an apartment close by and we hung out as we used to until it all came to shit. 

The war came calling.