She sat in the station.
There were many others around her, mothers, sisters, wives, daughters. All waiting for the same thing.
When’s daddy going to get here, mama?
When’s the train going to arrive?
Hush now, I’m sure he’ll be here soon.
The first should be here soon, but there will be others throughout the day.
Tension filled the air.
The wooden deck started to tremble as the first train came closer.
Is daddy on this one?
He’d better be on that train.
Shhh, maybe.
Calm down, he’ll be here, and if he’s not on this one there will be others!
She watched as people started to step through the train doors.
Most of them were young, but the shadow of the deaths they had seen hung over them.
Relief flooded the faces of some, and they rushed forwards to meet their sons, brothers, husbands, and fathers.
I missed you so much!
I thought you were dead!
I knew you’d come back!
Darkness clouded the faces of those who had not seen the one they were waiting for as thoughts they did not want to think entered their minds.
Thoughts of darkness, death, and blood.
Daddy is coming back, isn’t he mama, isn’t he!?
He’s coming back, I know he is!
Hush little one, he’ll be here.
He promised us. He’ll be back.
Many trains arrived throughout that day.
Many young men stepped out to try and continue the lives they had had before the war.
But not all endings held the semblance of happiness.
Daddy’s gonna be on this one, right?
This is the last train, he’ll be on it.
Hush! He’s coming back.
He’ll be here.
The last train came, dumping another load of solders back into lives that seemed so alien after the war.
She sat in the station.
Few other people still stood on the once crowded deck.
…. Daddy isn’t coming back is he mama…..
He’ll be here, I know he will, he promised…..
…. No little one, it doesn’t seem he is….
We have to go home, we have our lives ahead of us. He wouldn’t want us to linger over the past. Lets just go home and keep living our lives.
But if he’s not coming back, where is he?
But I don’t want too, not without him.
Someplace nice. We’ll all go there sometime, and we’ll see him then.
We have too.
Tears slid down the cheeks of the people left. The thoughts they had tried so hard not to think had come true.
But I don’t want too, not without him…..
They went on the live their lives.
I don‘t want too, not without him…..
The tried not to think back to that time.
Not without him….
She sat in the station.
Without him……
And as she sat she cried.
Him….