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‘For Terra’
“Hey Merric, can I ask you a question?” Koty asked softly, her voice more like a caress than anything else. Merric loved that about her though, that she could inflect so much feeling into the air around her like that with just her voice. She only did it when she was with him, not that he was aware.
“Go right ahead darling.” He grinned, taking a long drag from the half-smoked cigarette he’d shown up holding when they’d met that evening. His companion watched him silently, trying not to condemn him with her judgment, but it was hard. Merric noticed what her gaze was fixed upon and tactfully stamped it out at once, smudging the end hurriedly into the sand. Koty was the only one he would ever think of giving up the habit for.
“Have you ever worried really hard about something, and then just when you’re about to give up hope, something happens and you know everything’s going to be just fine?” Her voice was perfectly measured against the stillness of the air and chirping of the quiet crickets in the darkness of the trees before them. Their bare feet touched softly in the white grainy filling of the children’s sandbox, both of them shifting slightly where they sat perched on its high wooden edge. It was here, to the community playground, that they always came to spend time together during the lonely hours of the night whenever they could sneak away to be alone together.
“Yeah, I know the feeling.” He spoke slowly, his unspoken words hanging before his eyes as she sat unknowing of them at his side. Merric felt that way every single time she looked at him and smile, though he never would have told her so aloud.
“I didn’t know I could feel that way before tonight.” Koty admitted in a low voice, both of them aware of the tears that had sprung up in her eyes. Turning her chin so that he could see her face, Merric brushed them away with gentle fingertips and smiled brightly, trying to cheer her up. It worked instantly, as it always had. “They... they all told me it was time to give up... to give you up... for dead. When I showed up to the airport and didn’t find you waiting for me I thought your flight must have been delayed, or that someone else had already come to get you. But then, when your commanding officer walked over to me carrying your duffle bag I didn’t want to believe it. I’ve been in black for nearly a month now... and then you showed up on my doorstep tonight out of nowhere, almost like you’d never left at all. At first I thought I must have been dreaming... it’s almost too good to be true seeing you again, being able to touch you and know you’re really here with me after all this time.”
“I know what you mean, and I’m so sorry for all the pain I’ve caused you. Believe me, I never meant to hurt you. It was all so chaotic. One thing led to another, and in the end I missed my flight. After the plane I was supposed to be on crashed, it was hard to find transportation. My commanding officer had sent my things on the airline ahead of me which is why they assumed I’d been on the plane... I’m so sorry I put you through all of this.” He pulled her to him softly, cradling her much more petite frame against his as though only the warmth of her skin could save him from the nightmare that had almost claimed his life. “On my way home I stopped to get you something. Would you like to see it now?”
“You didn’t have to get me anything, really. It’s more than enough having my life-long best friend back from the dead.” Koty smiled weakly, her voice cracking on the last word slightly as though the very utterance of it might strike him down where he now sat beside her. Merric noticed but didn’t say anything on the subject as he slowly pulled the small, worn velvet box from the inside pocket of his army uniform. “...Merric...”
“Now that I’ve finished my tour of duty, I think it’s passed time you knew exactly what I was fighting for so hard during all of the last year we’ve been apart, what it was that kept me alive, that made me want to survive.” As he spoke he opened the box, a small grin tugging at the corners of his lips as he did so. The small diamond caught the glow of the porch lamp and the moonlight alike, both dazzling back at him in the reflection of her eyes as she stared down at the engagement ring cradled in his hands as gently as if it had been his own heart. “It was all for you, to make sure you’d be safe and happy here in our childhood home away from all the fighting. Now that I’m back, I want the real thing instead of just a wish. I might be a little late in saying so, and maybe you’ve suspected it, but I love you. Koty Lynn Jenson, will you marry me?”
“I never would have guessed...” Merric’s heart sank, as sure as he was that she meant to refuse and reject him. Her hands closed gently over his face making him meet her stare. Koty’s eyes were as bright as any diamond, and twice as precious to that drowning lover in her grasp. “Wait, please, just let me finish. I never would have guessed... that you felt the same way I do. Didn’t you ever realize I’ve loved you all these years?”
Now, they both knew for sure.
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