If We Ever Meet Again

It started with a dance; after that one dance they were inseparable. They would spend as much time as they could with each other, whether it was at a dinner party with their parents or just taking a simple walk while holding hands, laughing and enjoying each other's company. Soon, they fell in love. She was sixteen, he was seventeen. Yet, their love seemed like one that was centuries old.

Their parents were pleased; not only that their children had found someone in the right social standing without having to force them together, but that their children had found love, true love. They were afraid that their daughter, their only daughter, would end up as a seamstress. With her picky attitude toward the opposite sex, it was possible. His parents were afraid that their son, their only son, would shy away from women and let his dreams of fighting in the Great War become a reality. Now, seeing the young lovers together, both sets of the parent's nightmares would never become a reality. They were happy for their children. That's what mattered the most.

Soon, he proposed. She said yes. Everyone was happy to see this couple get married, their love was so tangible you could almost taste it. Whilst in the middle of wedding plans, laughter and tears of what was to come, tragedy struck. Tragedy struck not only the two families, but it also plagued the entire city of Chicago.

The Spanish Influenza soon took the lives of the couples parents. Both bride and groom cried for their parents, wanting so desperately for them to be in good health again. The groom was suddenly hit with the plague also. The bride was left healthy, so she stayed there and sat by her love's side. She sat there night and day; she prayed and cried to see her family healthy and happy again. She watched as the doctor with the odd looking eyes tried to save her mother, her father, and her love's father - failing thrice. She watched and cared for him and his mother, the only people left of her slowly crumbling family. She ignored every doctor and nurse who had told her to go home and get some rest.

The doctor with the strange colored eyes never once told her to leave; he saw the love within her. This stubborn girl was not leaving.

The doctor had soon become smitten with this broken family, and was doing everything in his power to save them. Then, the mother of the boy in the next bed over pleaded and begged the doctor to do everything in his power to save her son. She knew he was special, how she knew will be a mystery forever. The doctor took a look at the boy and looked at the girl next to him, and promised the older woman. He soon ushered the stubborn girl out of the hospital, telling her that there was nothing left he could do. Those words were the hardest and cruelest words to ever come out of his mouth. Those words were the biggest lie the doctor had ever told.

The young girl took one last look at her love, she said her last goodbye, and she gave him one last "I love you." He looked at her and with all the strength he had left took her hand in his and said, "I love you too, forever. I promise, one day we'll meet again." With tears in her eyes she kissed his cheek, and walked out of the hospital.

This is where our story begins.