“I’m leaving, Up. I’ve been discharged.”
He sat on the edge of the bed, and didn’t say anything.
Rosie’s words echoed in his brain. ‘I offered to discharge
her, and she wouldn’t take it.’
“I’m going to the Bright Eye, to help with the clean-up
effort. They gave me a promotion, I’m a Lieutenant-
Commander now. Commander Li said she never thought
she’d see the day when you picked me up all those years
ago.”
“Congratulations,” he said dully.
“Up, I-”
He looked up.
Her eyes were big, and dark, and guilt-ridden. “I just
can’t-”
“Just go,” he said.
Her face scrunched up, and she crossed the space
between them in two swift strides. He closed his eyes as he
felt her warm lips press softly to the top of his head.
“Good luck,” she whispered, and her voiced cracked a
little.
Then she was gone, and Up was left alone, in the
starlight, with nothing left of her but the book she had left
behind.
The wedding of Don Martin and his Beatriz was one of
the most sensational anyone in the village had ever seen.
Don Luís spent his fortune to give his daughter the wedding
of her dreams, and no one had ever seen a happier
bridegroom. Beatriz wore a white veil, and took her
husband’s hand, and knew that she had finally found the
other part of her soul, and that nothing would ever tear
them apart.
Some dreams stay with us as we grow, others die within
us, some we die chasing.