This Lifetime. | Edward Heffron

VII.

"Nana," Amelia exclaimed, once again moving too brashly that she messed up the braids her grandmother had once again formed on her head. "You can't skip over all the juicy parts!" Her grandmother laughed in response, finally giving up on braiding her granddaughters hair. She watched as Amelia scooted closer to her, leaning her chin on her grandmother's knee. "How did the two of you get together?"

Eleanor was lying on her stomach, Hank Williams playing from the radio. She had just finished her homework and helped clean up after dinner. This was the rare moment she had time alone to write. Despite having a notebook open and a pen in her hand, no ideas came to her head.

It was the December of 1941, and the Japanese had just bombed Pearl Harbor. A day after the attack, the United States declared war against Japan. Four days after the attack, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.

It was an odd feeling. Though the announcement had just come out, Eleanor had felt the ripples of war ebbing in her small town. Discussions of prom had become talks of enlisting and the drafts, and boys no longer worried about asking girls out, but instead of the possibility of fighting in the Pacific.

The thought of Babe leaving for the Pacific came so suddenly, her chest hurt. It filled her with such sadness that she hadn't noticed pebbles hitting her windowpane.

One, two, three. She counted the pebbles until she was sure someone was down there throwing them. Eleanor rushed to her window and poked her head out. Babe stood in her backyard, his back to her. He crouched down and picked up another, slightly bigger pebble and raise his arm to throw it when he saw her. "Oh," he smiled, tossing the rock on the ground and wiping his dusty hands on his shirt, "I thought you didn't hear me the first three times."

"Sorry," Eleanor began, looking back into her room, "I was busy doing something." Her mother had long gone to bed, along with her siblings, and she worried she would wake them up if they continued speaking like this. "Do you wanna come inside?"

Babe nodded fervently in response, and she pointed in the direction of the back door. "Wait for me," she whispered, before hurrying downstairs as quietly as she could.

Locking the backdoor behind her, the two made their way past the fence and towards the fields they've only ever spent time in during the day. They walked the familiar route, his shoulder occasionally bumping her arm. Eleanor looked up at the taller young man and smiled. He looked different under the moonlight. She blinked twice to take a mental photograph.

They once again found themselves by the lake. Their lake.

"I kind of wanted to talk," Babe said, settling himself down on a dry rock. "About enlisting." Eleanor nodded, settling herself right down beside him. The air was colder that night, much different from the warmth of summer. The whole world felt a lot colder.

"My brothers," he continued, tossing pebbles upon the surface of the water, "They got drafted, so have our neighbours. Ma' won't let me go, though." Eleanor looked at the redhead questioningly, and he just lifted his hands in response. "Ya know, the hand thing."

Quiet, she bit her lip. "I kind of agree," she whispered, looking down at her lap. A flash of anger crossed his face, but quickly disappeared when he looked at her. Instead, he took out a cigarette and a lighter from his pocket, lighting it up and taking a long drag.

"I didn't know you smoked," she mumbled, watching him.

Babe shrugged and puffed a cloud of smoke,"Only sometimes when I got things on my mind." Eleanor wasn't sure if she liked it. She blinked twice again. 

The two sat there, watching the surface of the water ebb and flow, the sound of crickets chirping drowning out the thudding in Eleanor's ears. They continued to sit in silence until she mustered the courage to ask him, "Are you mad at me?"

Babe chuckled and took another drag from his cigarette, "I wish. I think its physically impossible for me to be mad at you."

"Then what is it?" Eleanor replied, a frown forming on her face, "You can tell me anything."

He stayed quiet for awhile, finding the right words to say, and then finally chose to settle with the truth, "I'm scared." Eleanor turned away, for she was scared too. "I asked you here because if I wanted anyone to know, I wanted it to be you."

Eleanor chided herself in her head for never knowing what to say, and never having the right words.

"If," he continued, turning to her, "If I go, I want you to know something." She nodded, turning to face him as well. "Wherever I go, I promise you, it'll be you I'm thinking about. You in these fields, you reading your books with your nose scrunched, you right now, under the moon. That's what I'll be thinking about."

"What are you talking about?" she furrowed her eyebrows, confusion painted on her face.

Babe shook his head and released a dry laugh,"For someone who reads so much romance novels, you sure are dense." Eleanor frowned at this, and nudged him with her shoulder. "I'm telling you I'm in love with you, Eleanor Robinson."

Her mouth fell agape, and the two watched each other. Suddenly, Eleanor snatched the cigarette from his mouth, took a drag, and violently coughed out smoke.

"What the hell was that?" Babe exclaimed, holding back a laugh.

"I have to be daring for once, right?" Eleanor took a deep breath, her hands shaking from the cold, "I'm in love with you too."

Babe exhaled, tilted her chin with his fingers, and pressed his lips onto hers. Eleanor's eyes widened, before closing and leaning into the redheaded boy who captured her heart.

They sat there in the dark, the sound of water, crickets, and their heartbeats filling their ears.