The Dreams of Youth

Maggie took a stroll around her front garden at the end of day. A light breeze ruffled her nearly-white hair and caused the first leaves of autumn to scatter around her. She pulled her sweater close as she looked up at the billowy clouds in the western sky. It promised to be a beautiful sunset.

Across the way, a car pulled in the driveway and Maggie saw that her neighbor’s father, Harry, was over for a visit. A fellow veteran like herself, Maggie always saluted him whenever she saw him.

Maggie watched him struggle out of the car, and as he looked over, she snapped him a salute.

Harry raised his hand to his forehead and stood a little straighter. He chuckled as he walked into the house, arm in arm with his daughter, his oxygen tank trailing behind him.

Maggie remembered with a smile how Frank had always been both proud and amused that, militarily, she outranked him. She briefly wondered what Frank would be like now, had he lived longer. The response came immediately: crotchety and difficult, only older. Ah well, there had been good times, along with the bad. And despite everything, the love had always been there.