Back to Yesterday (28 page)

It had worked too. When they left, I let the sadness that I was feeling take over. I only cried when I was alone these days. And only at night. I gave my days to the world. The nights belonged to me, wanting to reclaim them.

When I heard the snap of a twig again, I didn’t even bother to turn around. “Elizabeth, I promise, I’m fine,” I said, wiping my eyes. “I’ll go home in a few minutes.”

“Sophie.”

I spun around in surprise and what came next would stop my entire world.

I
knocked on the front door and then adjusted my tie. I counted to thirty and then knocked again.

Come on come on come on!

Twenty seconds later, her mother came to the door. “Oh my God!” she gasped. “Richard!” she yelled, without taking her eyes off me. “Charlie is here!”

It was only a matter of seconds before Sophie’s father appeared. “Charlie?” he said, stepping out on the porch. He tugged on my shoulder and pulled me towards him, embracing me like a parent would a child. “It’s so good to have you back, son.” I detected a quiver in his voice.

“Thank you, sir. It’s good to be back. Is Sophie here?”

“She’s at work,” her mother said, wiping her tears. “I can’t believe you’re home.”

“This was my first stop once they let me off base. I need to find Sophie.”

“Okay. Yes, go…go find her. When you bring her back, intend on staying. We’re not letting you leave again.”

I ran the whole way to the café, and when I got there, the lights were out and the door was locked.
Damn it.
I looked up one side of the street and down the other. No sign of her.
Where would she go?

I stepped off the curb and sprinted across the street towards the park, nearly getting myself run over.

“Hey! Watch where you’re going!” the angry driver hollered.

“Sorry!” I called, still running.

When I saw her standing by the edge of the pond, my feet stopped moving. I knew it was her before she ever turned around, even though it was dark. I had memorized every line, every curve of her small frame. Silhouetted only by the light of the moon, I knew it was her.

While I had hoped she would be here, I was willing to walk all over town until I found her.

After all this time, she and I were standing on the same continent, in the same town, on the same patch of land.

I halfway expected to wake up on Levi’s farm, dreaming the whole thing.

But I wasn’t.

She was really and truly only steps away.

I straightened my tie, fixed my hat in place, smoothed out my jacket, and dusted off my sleeves, wanting to look my best. I wanted her to be proud of me.

Noticing her shoulders trembling, I knew she was crying. I moved towards her. When I stepped on a broken stick, I paused, not wanting to scare her.

“Sophie,” I said with a tremor in my voice, unable to wait another second for her to know I was home.

Everything that happened after was like a motion-picture movie with no sound. She turned around and her eyes landed on mine. Like before, she captured me and pulled me under with the wave of tears that fell from the deepest, bluest eyes I’d ever seen. And also like before, I was a man drowning, with no life preserver to save me.

Holding her hand over her mouth, she could only shake her head as though she couldn’t believe I was standing in front of her.

I know it was only seconds, although, it felt like a lifetime that we stood staring at each other. Finally, her hand came down, her eyes still wide and unbelieving, the sounds of the world coming back in perfect clarity. “Ch-Charlie?!”

When she said my name, I could barely keep it together. “I’m home.”

Her beautiful face crumpled. “You’re…you’re really here?”

“I promised you, didn’t I?”

She flew into my arms and I caught her like our very lives depended on it.

Because they did.

Oh my God. I was holding Sophie in my arms again.

I was holding Sophie in my arms
.

“I have to look at you!” she exclaimed. “I have to see you.” She pulled back and held my face in her hands. Her eyes bounced around from my chin to my nose, eyes and forehead. She traced her fingers over my eyebrows, outlined the contours of my ears. “It’s you, it’s really you! I love you so much. I love you so much, Charlie.” She wrapped herself around me again and all I did was hold on.

I never wanted to let go of her again.

Never ever again.

“I love you. I love you I love you I love you,” I chanted in the curve of her neck.

“You’re home!” she cried.

“I’m home, baby. I’m home.”

“They said you were missing,” she said, touching my hair, my face, and rubbing her fingers over my lips. “I was so scared. I was afraid…”

I kissed her fingers and pulled her in, still needing to hold her. “I know, sweetheart. I’m so sorry.”

“I don’t know what I would have done if I had lost you.”

I know I couldn’t live if I ever lost Sophie. I hated so much that I had put her through that.

“I worked like hell to get home to you, baby. You have no idea.”

“Tell me what happened. Where were you? Tell me everything.”

I did tell her everything, but after I’d walked her home and spoken with her parents. I’d promised them I would come back as soon as I found her.

I had already explained how I had come under enemy fire and had crashed on Levi’s farm. I told them how he and his son had helped get my plane fixed and back in the air. When I spoke about Levi, I choked up.

Sophie and I were sitting on the sofa, her head on my shoulder, my arm securely and protectively around her.

“They said an updraft saved me that day,” I went on. “All I remember thinking was that if I didn’t throttle up I would crash nose first into those cliffs.”

“I remember those cliffs,” Mr. McCormick said, his forehead creased, deep in thought. He took a sip of his coffee. “Sorry, son, go on.”

“I waited until the last possible second, pushed the throttle forward and the plane – she shook violently. I do remember feeling a lift, though, and I cleared the top of the cliffs. After that things get a little fuzzy. I remember the plane shaking, shaking, shaking, and then the engine – fell apart. Smoke billowed out so thick I couldn’t see anything in front of me. And then I…” I paused, remembering something. “Tank.”

Sophie lifted her head off my shoulder. “What did you say?”

“Tank. He…he was there.” I shook my head. I hadn’t remembered that, but he had been there. “I’m not crazy,” I said. “He was there. After I crashed…the plane was on fire.”

I had been asked a million times during my debriefing what had happened from the time I left the base that day until I made it back to England and not once had I remembered Tank being with me at the end. I had told them I didn’t remember what had happened after the crash. And it was true, I hadn’t. The British spotters on the ground had filled in the gaps. According to them, I cleared the cliffs and then crashed about a quarter of a mile from there.

“I blacked out.”

“Wake up, buddy. Your plane is on fire.”

I blinked a few times trying to bring everything into focus. Familiar brown eyes were looking right at me.

“Tank?” I mumbled. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m gonna get you out. Okay? You’re gonna be fine.”

“By the time the spotters got to me, they said I was lying on the ground several feet away from the wreckage.”

I ran my hands through my hair and scrubbed my face. “Why didn’t I remember that?” I dropped my hands and looked at Sophie, and then at her parents. “You would think I would remember my dead best friend saving me.” I stood up. “I need to get some air.”

I walked onto their front porch, closing the door behind me, and sitting down on the top step. They probably thought I was nuts. Certifiably insane. I wouldn’t have blamed them for thinking it.

Sophie came out shortly after and sat down next me. She looped her arm through mine and leaned against me. For a time, we said nothing. I was busy flipping through my memory bank.

“The canopy wouldn’t open,” I said. “It was jammed. I thought I was going to burn up inside that plane.”

Sophie stroked her delicate fingertips up and down my arm. It felt good. Calming.

“Do you remember anything else?”

I looked up into the sky wondering if Tank was still watching over me. “Yes.”

“Tell me.”

I took a deep breath and kissed the top of her head. “He said…
Tell Sophie I kept my promise
.”