Chapter 16

A week passes, Fern had decided to move into the little bedroom that Violet had slept in so she could keep an eye on Leon. He's been quiet the past week, hardly even cracks a smile at Fern's teasing or corny jokes. He doesn't read either. He just keeps staring  out over the lake.

The day for his leg cast to come off came. Fern drove him and said she would wait for him out front. He suddenly hated this doctors office. The nurses noticed the change in him, he wasn't the friendly young man half of them had developed slight crushes on anymore, he was a grey storm cloud sitting in the waiting room, staring ahead.

When he exited the hospital he still had to use the crutch, but was already experimenting with putting pressure on the leg. Fern smiled big for him. "Look at you! We should celebrate!"

"By going back to the house, sure." He scowls as he walks past her towards the car.

"No way! We've been cooped up there for too long! Come on! There's a big flower garden at the center of town. You'll love it. It's what the town is basically known for!" She tugged on his shirt with a pout.

He raised an eyebrow. "I'm pretty sure this place is know for it's medical break through a, but what do I know. I'm not from here."

Fern grins big before speaking. "That's right! You're not! So come on! We leave this place in two weeks! I bet you'll be there every day!"

Leon took a deep breath when they got to the flower gardens. She was right. This place was beautiful, and calming. They walked through the roses, surprised by all the different colors a rose could actually be. They walked by a large field of tulips, each row seemed like a stripe on a flag to Leon. Fern knew the garden well I made sure to avoid the violets.

On their way out they passed by some flowers that truly caught Leon's eye. "What are these?" He asked as he stopped and cataloged the bright purple flowers with their yellow center.

"It looks like a type of aster, let's check, there's usually a tag someone where." She knelt down to find the tag. "Yes! Alpine asters." She clapped her hands and brushed the little bit of dirt off on her pants as she stood up.

"They kind of look like stars." He mused.

Fern looked thoughtful as she spoke. "My mother says that asters represent patience."

Every day for the next two weeks Leon asked Fern to drop him off at the flower garden so he could walk and so when he needed a break "I will be somewhere beautiful and full of life, so you don't have to worry about me." She had rolled her eyes at his flowery words when he first said them, but after a couple of days, watching his mood improve.

One day she snuck out to see what he did all day in the gardens. He walked, a lot, experimenting with how much pressure and how long he could use his recovered leg. And when he needed to rest, he would stop and sit in the shade by the aster flowers. Every day he did this until the day they left for their expedition.

The day they were to depart Fern told Leon she needed to run one last errand in town before they were off. "And we should probably close the mailbox you've got in town too since we will be gone so long."

Before walking in to the building Fern stopped him and pulled a book out of her satchel. "There's something you need to do sweetie, before we leave this continent for the next who knows how long," she pulls an envelope with Violet Evergarden's name and the address for the CH Postal Company on it, "you need to send this to her."

Leon's eyes go wide before settling into a reserved and saddened state. "What good would it do? She's with him. It would only hurt her."

Fern shakes her head. "You've already admitted, several hundred times by now, that you're an idiot for not telling her. She deserves to know, and you deserve this to."

"I said I was a fool, not an idiot." He murmurs. "What do I deserve exactly? I'm going to be gone, for a long time and she has someone to hold on to right now."

Fern pushes the letter into his hands. "You deserve to have someone in this world know how much you love them."

It took a little more convincing, and she had to pull him back to the mail slot, each time he tried to run away, but he did eventual push the letter and let it go.

Fern grips Leon's arm and shakes him a little as she talks. "See! It will always feel right to go after love!" He gently laughs, only encouraging her belief. He felt an odd sense of relief as he thought, at least now she will know, now he doesn't have to carry that secret in his heart.

They clear out his mailbox, only a couple letters anyway that he decided he would read on the boat so he put them in the book Fern had brought from the house and closed his account for the mailbox before heading to the boat.

He watched from the back of the ship as the city got further and further away, the salty ocean air blowing some of his slightly longer hair into his face. The further they got from that place, the closer he got to his next expedition, the more he could feel his sense of adventure begin to cover over the depression he had sunk into after Violet.

Once they are out to sea and the city has disappeared he decided to go to his cabin to relax before their first meal, which was always a bit of a gamble for Leon and his stomach.

When he got to his room he pulled out the book with his mail in it and read the letter from Kyle.

"Dear Leon,

I won't admit this to anyone else, when I got your letter I cried. I thought you might have died.

Iberis and I met up. I'm completely in love with her, I hope she knows. I told her like half way through the meal when we first met up, and in every letter I've sent her since, and when she came and visited the observatory. I can neither confirm or deny wether or not I snuck her into the dorms...

I'm still shocked that you and Violet came back into each other's life like that, especially since you were going to try and meet up with her anyway! I want to hear everything about your time together.

How is your healing going? Are you planning on any expeditions for once you've healed?

I hope to hear back from you soon.

Your friend,

Kyle Zoenig"

For the most part Leon smiles as he read the letter, at least until he read the parts about Violet. That section of the letter made his heart ache a bit.

The next letter came from his cousin, Fey.

"Dear Leon,

I'm so relieved that you survived the avalanche. I worried that the worst had happened and that I would never get the chance to share with you what I learned.

I did a lot of digging around and interviewed family members and was able to put together a small picture of what happened to your father.

I wish I was writing something happier.

It seems that when he left you and your mother it was to fight in the war. He fought admirably in his first battle, he received a metal of valor and was promoted. Unfortunately he was fatally wounded during his first battle as a major. I hope this new information helps you find some more closure Leon.

I'm lookingForward to hearing from you again to hear about your adventures. Please be safe.

Sincerely,

Fay Stephanotis"

Leon took a moment after reading to let the information sink in. It wasn't the ending he'd imagined for his father. For the first time in his life he felt somewhat proud to be a Stephanotis.

He moves Fay's letter to the back. The sound of the letters fill his ears for a moment. When he holds the last piece of mail over he notices it feels different than the letters, thicker, more rigid. As he flips it over his heart starts to race as he recognizes Violet's handwriting.

He stares for a while at his name, handwritten. She hadn't ever handwritten his name on any of the previous letters.

His heart was beating so fast, so hard, and he was so enamored by the handwritten name, that his mind didn't register the sound of Fern running down the hall yelling his name.

Fern was breathing hard as she shoved his door open to find him sitting on the edge of the bed with his head in his hands. On the floor in front of her is the same invitation she had just opened. The invitation to the wedding of Violet Evergarden to Gilbert Bougainvillea in a week from this day.