Goodbye may Seem Forever

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Hey guys I don't normally like doing little snip-it's at the top before a chapter but I did add music to this chapter so go ahead and swipe the image of the train and listen as you read.
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Three days later, I was standing on a train station platform. Otto stood in front of me, expressionless. No, not quite; he was apologetic. He did look rather lovely in the green, grey, not quite blue uniform. I reached up and adjusted the two pointed hat from its jaunty angle. Otto smiled, tried to at least, but his eyes were full of sorrow.
"What time is your train, again?" Ha! Like I didn't know. I'd memorized that ticket: three o'clock, platform 2, car 4, et cetera, et cetera. Scenes like those you paid to see at the cinema were being enacted by those around us: soldiers smiling and laughing with comrades, kissing lovers and wives, children. I briefly allowed myself the idea of getting a ticket for the cinema, but I knew I wouldn't be able to stand the images like these being played out on the screen. Besides, I reasoned, prices for candy have gone up and what good is a movie without candy or popcorn?
"What are you thinking about?" Otto's voice surmised me so much it made me jump.
"Maybe seeing a movie sometime." I mentally kicked myself for being brutally honest. Thinking of a movie at a time like this!
"Prices for butter, salt, and sugar have gone up. I doubt Mama would allow you to borrow a ration stamp...plus you won't go unless you can get popcorn. You love popcorn." Otto smiled. He smiled. I had to remember, everything. The freckles that danced across his face. The blue eyes that were sometimes green, how they crinkled at the corners when he smiled. His eyes always smiled with him. And how he squinted when he was thinking, but just with the bottom eye lids. Would he have to run at training? His shins would hurt if he did. He always double knotted his shoe laces before he ran and-
"Alina?" Otto took my chin in his hand and tilted it upwards. Long, slender fingers with lots of lines on them...I became aware that I was crying.
"You're leaving. And I'll never see you again." He hugged me so hard my nose squished into his chest. Hugging Otto was normally strange: you hugged him, and he just kind of patted you for the lack of a better idea, sort of like a trained bear might. But this was different: he hugged me like he knew he wasn't coming back, and kissed the top of my head.
"Goodbye...seems like forever. Try not saying goodbye. Say that we'll see each other again, because we will. Regardless of what happens, we will see each other again." I smelled the smoke, heard the whistle. No! my mind screamed, Not yet! Just a minute more!
"I love you." I said into his coat. His chest heaved slightly, like he was coughing. I turned my face up and saw tears in his eyes; not a cough, but a small, controlled sob had escaped him. "I love you," I said again, louder.
"I love you too. And I'll always be with you, right here." He tapped my heart. "No distance can take away memories." Otto kissed and hugged me one last time, then climbed the metal steps of car number 4. He took a seat by the window, waving with the others at those left stranded on the platform. "And if you ever get lost-" he called out and pointed to the sky. I knew what he meant, the stars. I nodded, and began waving wildly. The last thing I saw of him was the blonde colic of hair pulling itself back into the window, and settling in for the journey ahead.

God only knew how long it would be.

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