A Gentle Whisper and a Promise

“I whisper goodbye, I swear it’s not for the last time.” Bill said to Adeline. Adeline was trying to hold back her tears, she didn’t want to let him go. The two were inseparable, from the day they met they were each other’s world, and know that very thing is separating them. “I don’t want you to go, it’s not far” Adeline said to Bill. “I know, I don’t want to leave you either, but my country needs me. When I’m fighting over seas, I’ll always be protecting you, even from miles away keeping you safe.” Bill explained to her. “Promise me that you’ll write me every day, and remember to stay safe and, and…” before Adeline could finish, she was consumed by tears. Bill gave her a big hug and kissed her on the cheek and then whispered in her ear “I love you.” Then as he pulled away, he said again “No matter what happens to me, I’ll always love you…always.” Adeline looked at him with her teary glistening eyes, then down at her feet, then back up at him in the eyes again and said, “I love you too, and I’ll always love you too, no matter what happens.”  The hugged once more, until they heard the train rolling into the station. As rolled in, they both let go of each other, and said their goodbyes, and right as Bill was heading toward the steps of the train, he turned back to Adeline, grabbed her hand and said “I’m going to make you a promise to you… when I get back from this war, we’re going to be married, and we’ll be married for as long as we both live.” Adeline without any hesitation, ran up to Bill and kissed him, then before anything she nodded her head and said “Yes” to his promise, a promise that she had always hoped for. They finally said their last goodbyes, and then Bill was off.                                                                                                                                           

 Almost a year had gone by since Bill left for war. He and Adeline wrote each other almost every day. For a while the letters were coming less, and less, Adeline wondered what was going on. “Did something happen to my precious Bill?” she asked herself. On one shining and beautiful Sunday, Adeline happened to be gardening outside when, she say this man in a uniform walking towards her. She couldn’t quite she him clearly because the sun was in her eyes, then as he came closer, she realized that the man in the uniform was her Bill. Her bill had come back for her, and before she could say anything, Bill knelt to the ground and grabbed Adeline’s hand and said “I told you I’d come back for you, I kept my promise to you, and I never for a single second forgot about you. So… Adeline, will you do me the honor and marry me?” Within a split second Adeline said yes, and in less than a month or two, they were married. They were going to be together forever, or so they thought. Soon after their wedding, Bill was drafted again and was sent back to war. Just like the first time he went away, they wrote letters to each other almost every day. But this time was different, Bill was gone much longer this time, and the letters didn’t come as often as before. Then one day Adeline was outside gardening again, when a black car pulled up to her house. And instead of Bill coming out of the car, there were two men instead. These two men were dressed in formal army clothes. As they came up to Adeline to talk to her, she new in the back of her mind that something wasn’t right. The first began to say “Mrs. Andrews, we regret to inform you, but you’re husband Bill…” and before he could finish, Adeline dropped to the ground and started sobbing. All she could manage to say was “He’s dead...he’s dead isn’t he?! My Bill is dead”, one of the officers crouched down and tried to console her. The other officer gave her an envelope, and said “Yes, ma’am, unfortunately, yes. I very sorry for your loss.” Then, just as fast as they had come they had left, but before they reached the car, the officer that tried to console Adeline ran back to her and said “I’m sorry but I almost forgot, before your husband died he told one of the other men to tell his wife this ‘I whisper goodbye, I swear it’s not for the last time’”.  Adeline thanked the officer for telling her that. As the years went on, and when time was at its end for Adeline, she knew that she would be with her beloved Bill once again.                                                                                 By Haleigh