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Mike walked into the diner in his fatigues. Sliding his old brown suitcase under a table by the window, he took a seat. A pretty, young waitress with a yellow ribbon tied around her ponytail soon came over to take his order.
      Sarah guessed he was not much older than her. As he stared out the window, his expression made her think that he was a thousand miles away. She even startled him a little when she asked, “What can I get you to drink?”
      “Oh, I guess I’ll have Coke,” replied the handsome fellow as he removed his green cap.
      When Sarah returned with his soda, she couldn't help but notice the man had a somewhat different expression on his face.
     “My name is Mike. And you’re Sarah?”
      “That’s what my name tag says,” she said, giving him a smile.
      After taking his order and walking away, Mike couldn’t take his eyes off Sarah. The stare continued, even after she came back with his food. With a slight giggle, followed by an ensuing blush she asked, “What are you thinking about?”
      “I was wondering if you could sit down and talk a while,” Mike replied hopefully.
      “I get off in an hour, will you still be here?”
      “My bus doesn’t leave until midnight, so all I have is time,” he said.
      The two sat outside the Greyhound station on Fourth Street and talked for what seemed to be an eternity. They both seemed quite surprised of how much they had in common. As the summer sun began to set, Sarah knew she needed to get home to prevent her father from worrying. As she stood, Mike rose to his feet and took her hand in his.
      “Sarah, I don’t have anyone to write home to. Would you mind if I sent you a letter once in a while?”
      Without a word, she pulled her ordering pad from her uniform pocket and began to scribble. Looking up with that big smile, she handed him the paper and placed her index finger on her puckered lips. She then touched Mike’s cheek gently with the moistened finger. Turning quickly, as to not let him see her blush once more, Sarah yelled as she ran, “I’ll wait to hear from you Mike.”

      The first letter came in less than a week. Mike sent three pages along with a photo of him at boot camp in California. Sarah read the words over and over, while the picture rested on her lap. She savored every line as the sweet words satisfied her teenage heart. With pen in hand, Sarah wrote back to her soldier-in-training with the same loving tone.
      The two conversed by mail for the remainder of the summer. Sarah was beginning her senior year of high school as Mike was contemplating his next destination, Vietnam. She could tell by the tone of his letters, that Mike was understandably concerned. The nightly news was inundated with horrific stories of the conflict, a world away. In her final letter to him before he deployed, Sarah decided to share her feelings for him, hoping to give him some comfort.
It was a long, two week wait until she received a response. Mike had been stationed with a unit in Saigon and sent a new photo of him and some buddies along with the letter. He too, had developed feelings for Sarah and shared them with her. Sarah’s favorite lines were those when Mike told how he was feeling alone or worried. It was those times he would close his eyes and remember her smile and the way her hair looked in that yellow ribbon. After that, she seldom left home without either of them. She also enjoyed reading of how it comforted him, knowing someone back home was thinking of him.
      Time passed and Sarah tried to concentrate on the things in her little world. She filled her days with school, marching band practice and sorting out which college she wanted to attend. But try as she may, her thoughts were often filled with the soldier she had grown to love. Sometimes it would seem like pure insanity that she could feel this way about a man she had only met once. Even her closest friends told her that there was no way a long distance romance such as this would work, but she never listened to the naysayers. Sarah had decided to wait for Mike and vowed as much in her last letter to him.
      Friday night rolled around and Sarah headed off to the first football game of the season. Meeting up with the other band members, they went about setting up the instruments. Just as the group finished their last tunings, a voice from the loudspeaker began to blare to the audience, “Welcome everyone to Bulldog Stadium. Before our national anthem, we would like to remember this week’s local Vietnam dead. Please rise as we recite the list and have a time of invocation.”
      As the list was read, everyone in the bleachers were attending to their last minute concession needs or searching for that perfect vantage point to view the game. Everyone that is, except a pretty young girl with a yellow ribbon tied around her pony tail. Under the stands, weeping uncontrollably, Sarah heard the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ as it played in its entirety. One name stood out on that list and it had brought her world crashing down around her.

*********

Now, almost twelve years later standing in front of the wall, her long journey was over. Seeing Mike’s name engraved on the marble memorial, it was all she could do to hold back the tears once again. Though she had moved on with her life, the brief summer relationship had an enduring effect on her. And for that, she was ever indebted to Mike. After placing some items at the foot of the wall, Sarah etched over his name, rolled the paper memento and gently placed it in her purse.

Impressum

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