Seven Letter Words #Wattys2016

Part 42

Juliet

We drove straight through the following morning. By the time the sun was starting to drift lower in the sky, we pulled into the cemetery I'd only visited a few times in my life. My mother had wanted him to be near his parents, so we had him buried beneath a beautiful tree a few steps off the winding road right next to my grandparents.

"Do you want me to go with you?" Liam asked and I nodded my head. My hands were already shaking; the emotions created by what I was about to do were causing my whole body to feel uneasy and spent. We met at the front of the truck and he took my free hand. I held Ken's tags so tightly I could feel the bite of them against my soft skin.

"It's really nice here," he said as we walked towards the tree that had grown so much since the last time I'd been here. I stopped when I reached the stone that read my father's name and the dates between which he lived. The grounds there were so well taken care of that deep green grass grew all around the gravestone, but none covered it.

There were a few other people standing or sitting near other graves, but no one was looking at us. We were just two kids visiting an unknown person and they all had more important things to do than pay us any attention. I found a sliver of dirt just beyond the back of the marble stone and tried to free some of it so I could leave the tags. It was packed hard and was unforgiving beneath my fingertip. I used my arm to wipe a tear that was sailing down my cheek and then tried to continue my quest to make a space for what I was leaving.

I strong hand touched my back, smoothing circles against the fabric of my dress. I'd put on something pretty for the boys I was saying goodbye to again today. "I've got it," Liam said gently. He dressed in his Blues for me and I loved him a little more for it. Yes, loved him. I realized last night as he held me that I'd already fallen for him. It didn't matter how many seven letter words he would cause me to write on my list, I'd let him in too far. All I could do now was watch him leave and try to survive it.

Liam pulled a small pocketknife out and stabbed it into the dirt with ease. He moved it back and forth until a small space was opened. His white gloves shown bright in the rays of the setting sun, but I couldn't keep my eyes off his face. It didn't matter how many wonderful things the world presented for me to look at over the past few days, my heart only had eyes for him.

"Thank you,' I said as he worked.

He paused for a minute so he could look me in the eyes. "You're welcome." He moved to continue his task, but I reached out and stopped his arm.

"No. Thank you for everything. For being here, for taking me, for helping it not hurt as bad." I smiled as another tear slid down my cheek. "I'm going to remember you for this. I'm going to remember the sadness too, but not without the laughs we had. They're going to help."

"You're welcome. It's been an honor, beautiful." He smiled a sad smile and leaned in to kiss my lips. It was chaste, but soft and then he pulled his knife from the ground and stood up to his full height. He was really something to look at. Proud and strong in his dress uniform. "Take your time." He took a step back so that he was still with me, but I could have a moment alone with the man I had waited so many times for and the tags of the one that broke what was left of the pieces of my heart.

I let Ken's tags dangle from my finger and watched the sunlight glint off the metal. "Dad, Ken made you proud. He served his country—our country. He didn't come home, but you already know that. Guard that kingdom together and be at the gates when Mom and I come home." I slipped the tags into the dirt and pressed them in as far as the hole had been dug. I moved the dirt back with my hand and covered the metal in a way that made it appear that nothing was beneath the earth. When I was done, I stood and wiped my hands together to brush off what was left of the soil. I blew them both a kiss and then turned and headed for the arms of the only man left that would understand what this little task had meant to me.

His big arms were around me and he rocked us slowly as the sun finally tucked itself behind the hill above us. "Let's get you to your prom," he said, kissing my head and stepping back so that we could walk to the truck. We'd be staying in a hotel near the cemetery, the same one I'd stayed at the week we laid my father to rest. Liam planned on waking up early and driving us back to Texas as quickly as he could.

That night I tried to convince him that prom wasn't important in the big picture of life, but he told me it's the little things that make life worth living. He believed I deserved it even if my grief felt like it was just bellow the surface waiting for the chance to spill out. I fell asleep that night finally resting my head on a pillow not weighed down by the responsibilities I'd carried on my shoulders since the day those tags were put in my hand. I was asleep quickly and deeply, my body and mind exhausted from the long journey.

And in the morning, Liam took me home...