Page 108 of We'll Meet Again

“You and I, I know,” she cut across him. “It was us…before. I probably should have told you sooner, but Betty told me you were having visions and dreams. Just like I have.”

He blanched, momentarily humiliated that Betty would reveal their private conversations, but then she said that last part. “You…you had them too?”

She nodded. “I told you about the one with the letter, but there were other things too. I saw them at a dance, making love, lying in field of -”

“Yellow flowers,” he finished.

A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. He’d seen it all too, the memories swam to the surface as she spoke. Because that’s what they were. Not visions or dreams. But that realization sent a chill down his spine. The snowy woods with the explosions…

“What -” he stopped and cleared his throat, dreading the answer he knew was coming. “What happened to them?”

She swallowed hard. “The letters tell the whole story, so if you want, we can sit and you can read through -”

“No,” he shook his head. “I mean, I will read them at some point, but I need to know how the story ends first.”

“Well, they were quite passionate, these two. They planned for a whole life together after the war, with children and a home of their own. Unfortunately…” She paused to take a breath. “On the first of January, 1945, there was a shelling by the Germans in the Battle of the Bulge. And Henry didn’t survive.”

Ethan squeezed his eyes shut as the memory rushed over him. His lungs stinging from battling the cold air as he ran, his voice hoarse as he shouted frantically to his comrades - “Find a foxhole! Get some cover! Find a foxhole!” Slivers of trees rained down around him. He could hear the tinkling sound they made as they struck his helmet. He spotted a young private on the ground, cowering in the snow. He yanked the young man to his feet. “Get yourself to a fox-”

Nothing.

Gasping for breath, Ethan opened his eyes. He was back on the beach and Billie was before him, gazing steadily at his face.

“You remembered, didn’t you?” she asked.

He nodded slowly, still not quite believing it. “I…yeah.”

“Maggie lived the rest of her life alone,” she told him. “She never loved anyone else, and she kept writing to Henry about her life. Until she passed away. The year I was born.”

“I gotta sit down,” he blurted out, and didn’t wait for her to answer before taking a seat in the sand, facing the ocean.

She sat beside him, crossing her legs underneath her body. He wanted to ask for her hand, but refrained. He wasn’t sure he was there yet. He wasn’t sure of anything, really. Only that he was still hopelessly in love with her. Perhaps even more so now.

He had never given much thought to the idea of soulmates or past lives. Not that he was a skeptic - he always figured just about anything was possible. And it did make the things he’d experienced make more sense. But this was almost too good to be true. Or too tragic. He hated the idea that he’d abandoned Billie, whether he intended to or not. He shook his head again.

“This is…it’s just…”

“Mad, I know,” she said. “But it explains everything, doesn’t it? The dreams, the feelings, and…why I was so afraid of losing you. I’d done it before and it was…a horribly lonely existence. I can’t do it again, Ethan. Please, please forgive me so I don’t have to.”

He turned wide eyes on her. A tear made its way slowly down her cheek.

“We finally found each other again,” she choked out. “But now…there’s nothing to take you away from me and I’m so sorry I didn’t realize it sooner.”

He looked out at the ocean again. Try as he might, he couldn’t stop the tornado of thoughts and questions in his mind. One moment, he was just Ethan Knight, and the next, he realized he was somebody else - this Henry Owens guy - at one point. He held up the photo again, studying their faces, still stunned at how alike they were. How was this sort of thing possible? The evidence couldn’t be denied. Especially because the happiness in the picture was exactly how he felt when he and Billie were together. It was why he felt the way he did when he first laid eyes on her. In his soul, he had recognized her.

“I’m sorry too,” he finally said. “I shouldn’t have pressured you to -”

“No, I was wrong,” she said. “You had every right to ask me to be there for you. I was just hoping that now that we know this, we could move forward. Together.”

She said the last word almost like a question. He met her gaze once more.

“I gotta know something,” he said.

“Anything, I’ll tell you.”

“Take Henry and Maggie out of it for a minute and be honest. How do you feel about me? Just Ethan.”

Her expression softened, warmth coming into her eyes and a hint of a smile on her lips. “I love you, Ethan. I love your courage and your compassion. I love your weird sayings and your laughter. I love how you learn the name of every person you meet. I love the man that you are now. And I have been waiting for you all my life.”

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