Chapter 15

The next afternoon Fern came by the little cottage by the lake to check on her friend Leon. The sky was full of grey clouds that were sure to bring a downpour and she had been in town to do some post birthday party shopping and thought she could just wait out the coming storm at the cottage with Leon and find out how everything went with his beloved Violet. When she went to pull the door open she was surprised to find it locked, which was odd, it was never locked. "Leon? Sweetie? The door is locked. Let me in!" She sings the words with her usual charm and lightheartedness.

When she there was no reply she started to get worried, he was prone to napping, what with his body still healing, but never with all the doors and windows shut in this heat. Fern tried to peer through the window of the door but all she could see of the living room, where he could almost always be found were a bunch of pieces of papers that had spilled into the hallway. Fern went and found the key that her family keeps hidden in the ground near a large tree next to the water and returned, her new dress a bit dirty from the digging. "Leon, sweetie, I'm coming in now." She yells as she turns the key and pushes the door open. The house is hot, way too hot and it smells like sweat and paper.

As she walked forward and the little living room came into view she saw her friend passed out on top of a pile of papers that all have his handwriting. She picked one up and started to read his shaky handwritten notes.

"Dear Ms. Evergarden,

This will be my last letter to you, please don't write back. "

A second letter:

"Dear Ms. Evergarden,

I wish I had forgotten you when I was in my coma."

She set it down and picked up another one that his hardly legible thanks to all the water marks.

"Dear Violet,

Please come back."

Fern let out a sad "oh sweetie." As she dropped it to the ground and noticed he's hold one of the papers in his newly un-cast right hand.

She bent down beside him. His face has ink smudges, his closed eyelids look red, and he is breathing heavily. She puts the back of her hand to his face and he stirs a little and mumbles in his heat induced slumber. "Stay — please— don't leave me." Fern's throat tightened as she watched tears spill from his clenched sleeping eyes.

She waits for him to relax a bit back into sleep before pulling the letter from his hand and takes a deep breath, trying to prepare herself, not really knowing how to prepare herself.

"Dear Violet Evergarden,

I hope this letter finds you well.

From the moment our eyes met the first time I felt something tug at my heart. It reminded me of the warm feelings from my childhood, before my parents left. The more I got to know you at the observatory the more that those feelings grew. I admired your efficiency while we worked, but more than that I appreciated your commitment to your work and how much you treasured the trust people gave you…

As we exchanged letters over the last year that feeling never went away, it kept growing and before I knew it I was desperate to see you again and watch the stars with you again. After the mountain I was planning to find you, to make that dream come true, but you already know what happened before we even reached the top…

The whole time you were here with me this last time I never told you the whole truth. I never told you that when I awoke from my coma it took at least a day and a half to regain any memories, all of them except one: You. I remembered you. I'm told that I whispered your name in my sleep before I woke up, and for awhile that was the only name I could remember, along with your face, your voice and the way your eyes betray that stoic look on your face as they search for meaning in everything.

All this being said, I realize now that love has indeed made me a fool, and that my mother may not have been as foolish as I believed for refusing to let love slip away like I have.

With all of my love,

Leon Stephanotis."

The rain begins to sprinkle outside and quickly begins to build as Fern carefully folds Leon's letter, slides it into an envelop and puts it inside of one of the books on the coffee table. She carefully collects every peice of paper into a basket and before she is finished he stirs, his eyes opening as Violet's name spill from his lips in question.

"No sweetie, it's me. It's Fern." She peeks under her arm to see as he rises up to a sit. When she is finished collecting all of the papers she begins opening up the windows and doors of the house to let the cooler air in.

"She's gone." He mumbles.

Fern sits down next to her friend and cups his cheek, which he sleepily leans into as she asks. "What happened Leon?"

His soft blue eyes darken. "He came back from the dead. The man she loves came back from the dead."

Fern's thumb strokes his cheek as she speaks. "Who? I don't understand."

His eyes slowly come up to hers. "Gilbert Bougainvillea, the man she's been in love with since before her and I ever met, the man she thought was either dead or missing in action."

Fern got up. "Come on, you need to cool down, Let's wrap that leg up and get you in a shower." He nods in response before turning to the window to watch the rain and wind outside.