Elora's point of view:

I wake up alone. I sleep alone. I do it all alone. It only took one night with Flynn asleep by my side for me to want him there every minute of every second of every day. Now it had been two weeks since he had gone, my mother and sister were leaving today, and I was in the midst of a crises I didn't understand. Now that they were going to be leaving, I felt more alone than ever.

"Elora, must you sit here and wallow? There has to be something you want to do!" Emmaleigh said to me as she sat in my bedroom. I was lying in bed and I had been awake for nearly an hour. On a regular basis I didn't do this. I would wake up and then I'd be out of bed. But now, something was gluing me to the sheets, keeping me in my haven.

"I want to sleep, so I'm fulfilling that goal," I replied. She sighed and shook her head, moving from the chair and sitting on the foot of the bed.

"Why are you acting like this? I'm really worried. Now that mom and Lorelei are going it's just me, dad and Jacob. Do you have any idea how overbearing that is? I'm unable to tolerate men! Carina knows all about that," she replied. Right, Carina and Emmaleigh were in an easy conflict about the fact that Emmaleigh was twenty-six and she still wasn't married nor did she have a man in her life. No one else cared except her, which was why we all blocked her out most of the time.

"It doesn't matter. I just want to be by myself for a while," I replied. I didn't know how to tell her. She didn't know about how I felt about Flynn. No one in my family did. I kept quiet this whole time, since there really wasn't that much to say about it.

"Obviously there's a reason. So, tell me what's happening and I'll leave you be to drown in your sorrows," she replied. I sighed and dug my face into the pillow. I didn't want to talk about anything right now, but if it got her to leave me alone, then I would lower my standards a little.

"Flynn," I replied. Her eyes widened a little as she probably concocted many different scenarios in which he was the main topic.

"You mean, you and him?" She asked. I sat up in bed and shook my head.

"No, but there is something I feel. Do you ever get that? This feeling that the only thing I need to survive is him? It's like, everything gets thrown out the window except him. Now I don't know how to function because he's gone and I'm here. What if he doesn't come back? What if he ends up dying in battle? I don't know what I'll do," I explained. I didn't know there was so much built up within me when it came to Flynn. I didn't know I felt this much about him, but now that it was out in the open, all of it could be explained.

"No, I've never felt that before. But I'm sure if you feel it, then it exists. You know what? We're going to go out and do something tonight. You and I, that's it. We'll go dancing or have dinner," she said to me. I really didn't want to go out. I just wanted to have Flynn burst through the door and tell me he can't go back to Vietnam, that he has to stay here with me for some reason. I'd be perfectly fine if he were come and tell me I was the only thing he cared about. I hated knowing that wasn't true.

"I don't know if I'm feeling up to it," I replied. She shook her head and took my arm, holding it gently to get me out of bed.

"Elora, please. I'm so tired of everyone here basing their lives on the men they meet. Seriously, it's all of you. Mom did it, even though it worked out in the end. Carina did it, Lorelei did it and now you're doing it! Am I so alone here to think I don't need a man to be happy with myself?" She asked, frantically. I turned my head to her and glared. My life was not based on what Flynn did with his. Not a chance in hell would I let that happen!

"That's not true. I'm independent from Flynn as anyone else," I replied. She shook her head and sighed.

"No, you aren't. Look at you. You're in bed, weeping and sleeping because he's not here. What do you think that is? If you don't base your life on him, then I suggest you go out with me," she said to me. I sighed and thought about her reasoning. Maybe she was right, maybe I needed to go do something to distract myself from Flynn. He wasn't mine to mourn over, I was on my own. Maybe it wasn't all that bad to be alone? Maybe it allowed me more leeway when it came to going out and socializing? I was basing my life on Flynn, and that needed to stop.

"Where do you want to go?" I asked. I caught Emmaleigh smiling when she found she had convinced me to go out with her.

"Just put on a dress. I'll figure out the details. Meet outside at seven," she said and quickly left the room. I laughed and shook my head as I lay on the bed, covered in the warm sheets. For the first time in weeks, I laughed and smiled. I would have to thank Emmaleigh for that.

Before I had to get ready, we had to say goodbye to my mother and sister. We were all in the den, saying our farewells. I noticed my father in his wheelchair, looking sullen and upset. I knew this would do a number on him. He never went anywhere without my mother, and now he had to stay here while she fought in a dangerous war. I could only imagine how heartbreaking that was, to see your significant other going off to kill people while you stayed home with a single limb. I wanted to comfort him, but he was so persistent when it came to my mother that it was futile.

"We will be back in a few months. Don't worry. Everything will be fine and we will write every chance we get," my mother said as they finished packing all their luggage in the trunk of the car. My mother was always positive about everything, that was just the way she was and there was no stopping it no matter what happened. I was pretty sure her spirits were invincible, seeing as she had seen things in World War Two that Hell didn't even contain.

"We'll miss you," Carina said as she held Kamila in her arms. Emmaleigh and Carina were hugging Lorelei and my mother close. I was in the background, my arms crossed around my chest as I stood next to my father in the wheelchair. I was never really good with goodbyes.

"Goodbye, Elora," Mihn said as he came to my side. He was the first one to come to me to say goodbye. I hugged him tightly, and he hugged back.

"Please take care of my sister, and my mother. For me," I said to him. Mihn left my embrace and nodded, telling me he promised to make sure they were alright.

I said goodbye to Lorelei and my mother after that. I would miss them so much, and I would dream about what they were doing in Vietnam while I sat here and waited. I was just happy that they would be seeing Flynn while there. I knew there wasn't much they could do, but at least they could tell me that he was alright. I didn't want to think of him right now, but I cared about him so much that I had to know he was okay.

The worst part of the goodbyes was to see my mother and father part ways. I watched as my father carefully stepped out of his wheelchair and used his crutch to walk over to her. All of us were silent as my mother came to him, holding his arms gently as they looked at each other. Both of them looked so longing, so heartbroken that they had to leave each other. We grew up seeing that love every day, and we came to believe that it existed. It was because of my parents and their affection that I was in love with love. Now I was sitting here, seeing them leave each other. It tore my heart to pieces and it barely affected me.

"We haven't left each other since when Emmaleigh was born," he said to her. My mother nodded and tried not cry, but it was easy to see they were in her forest green eyes, brimming and almost pouring out.

"At least you won't be getting tortured this time," she said with a tiny laugh. It wasn't funny, but my parents laughed because it reminded them of when they were young. When all they had to worry about was each other. When their love was fresh and fantastical and painful. It was easier now, the years had gone by and things had become a little more bearable. They didn't have to worry about being captured by Nazis or thrown into concentration camps. I didn't know much of the story of what happened, they were rather secret about it with us. I just know that now it was easier for them because it had been so long and they were still together.

"Yes, let's not repeat that day. Wasn't a whole lot of fun. But hey, I don't wish to go back on it, because everything that happened led me to you," he said. I felt my spine tingle when he said this to her. This was the kind of love that we all wanted, everyone in humanity with a conscious wanted this. To have this one person that loves you so much that they would gladly be tortured because of it.

"I'll be thinking of you while I'm there," my mother said to him as they held each other as close as possible without my father losing his balance. He was getting better, luckily for them.

"I'll be thinking of you twice as much up here. Please write to me. I need to know that you're alright," he said to her. She nodded and stood on her toes to kiss his lips. He craned his neck down to reach hers, and after their kiss they lingered for a while as their foreheads touched.

"I have to go, I love you," she said. My father shook his head as she began to walk away. He grabbed her hand as he kept desperately shaking his head for her to stay.

"Don't leave. Just stay here, Hilda," he begged. She walked back to him and placed her hand on his cheek, making her fingers look small.

"I have to do my job, darling. I'll be back as soon as I can. Remember that I will always love you, no matter what," she replied. She kissed his lips one more time, before she started to walk away to the car where Lorelei and Mihn were waiting.

"I love you, Hilda," he replied as he saw her wave to him one last time before she left for the base.

•••

Emmaleigh and I were getting ready to leave for the night to go wherever she had planned. I had put on a floral and white dress that went to my knees, put my hair up in a loose bun and wore some earrings Lorelei gave me for my birthday last year. Emmaleigh wore a green romper with some black heels, her black hair hanging loose around her shoulders and back, her almond-shaped brown eyes accentuated with smokey make up.

"Are you ready to go?" She asked.

"Yes, just one second. I think I forgot my purse in the living room," I replied. She nodded and said she would be waiting in the car for me. I smiled as I opened the door to the living room and found my little purse sitting on the armchair. Just when I was about to go, I noticed my father sitting on the sofa and watching the fireplace crackle in the dark.

"Dad, are you alright?" I asked. He was not paying much attention to my being in there. When I spoke up he turned his head and nodded.

"Yeah, baby girl, I was just thinking," he replied. I nodded and sat down on the sofa beside the chair he was sitting in.

"What were you thinking about?" I said with my purse held to my chest.

"Aren't you and Emmaleigh going out? You should go," he replied. I nodded but stayed in my seat.

"She can wait. What's wrong?" I asked. He chuckled and let out a soft sigh.

"Back in the forties, I was a soldier. A sergeant for the American army to be exact. The Germans were killing Jews like me by the thousands and for the life of me, I couldn't understand why. Why did they blame us? What did we ever do to them? It was everyone's fault in politics that the German economy had gone to shit. Yet they blamed us so the people didn't think the government was corrupted. I didn't know that back then, back then I just wanted to kill all the Germans I could. I didn't trust any of them. All Germans wanted to kill all Jews, that was my philosophy. Then I met your mother," he explained. I sat in that seat, listening. Maybe I would finally get to know what happened to him during the war.

"She brought this new hope. There she was, standing in her room in her robe. She was a German, but she was just an innocent teenager that wanted to be a hero, she just didn't know how. I saw a beautiful, painfully beautiful, girl who helped me feel better. Who restored my faith in humanity, who changed me to be a better man, and I'm not talking about all the killing," he explained to me.

"What else did she restore?" I asked.

"My faith in women. Before I met her, I was either fighting German soldiers or sleeping with their women. I was the same in America, just scratch out the fighting. Women were temporary sorts of havens that took me away from the persecution of my people. All I cared about was getting a woman, spending the night with her, and then leaving the next morning. Your mother, well, she didn't have to do anything. She looked at me and smiled, then I was convinced.

"That right there is how you know you've met your soulmate. That's how you know you've found the person you should stay with the rest of your life. If all it takes to become a different person is to look at them, then they're perfect for you. It's a dangerous game to play, but it'll be worth it in the end. I endured torture, desertion, starvation, the whole nine yards for your mother. Now, we have all of you, we've been married since your mother was seventeen. Twenty six years of being married and I still love her to death. I need you to watch for that, Elora, you have to make sure you find that person," he finished.

I was speechless. How could he love a person that much? How was a human capable of feeling such a strong and inexhaustible emotion? He almost died for my mother more than once, and he was there the whole time. My father was the embodiment of what a real man should be like. He was an example every man should aspire to be like. He didn't know it, he was modest and he always thought he could've done more for my mother or for us. He didn't know how much of a hero he really was.

"I need to tell you something before I go with Emmaleigh, two things actually," I said to him. He nodded and listened for me to tell him what was on my mind.

"You're my hero, dad. You've always been that. I've admired you since I knew how," I explained. He let out a small smile and took my hand in his.

"What's the second thing?" He asked. I took a breathe and shrugged, hoping I would be saying this correctly for him to understand.

"I have a feeling that, at some point, I'll be experiencing the same thing you did. I have a feeling that...that I may be enduring torture for someone at some point in time," I replied. He sighed and nodded slowly, drinking this in.

"Then you never let that person go. It doesn't matter what happens, just don't ever let them get away from you. If you think you're going to be doing what I did for your mother, then make sure it's worth it," he replied, "and always know that I'll be there to help you." I nodded my head and gave him a tight smile.

"Thank you. Well, I should get going," I replied. He nodded and told me to be safe while we were out. I nodded and said goodbye as I slowly walked to the car. Everything seemed to be in slow motion as I walked, thinking about the things I just said to my father. What he didn't know was the person that I would be sacrificing a lot for. I didn't know why I felt this way, but I had this sense that something would happen. I just hoped he would stay with me this whole time I worked through whatever trouble I had to go through.

My darling Flynn Nash.