The year was 1938. The air in every corner of the world was filled with tension and anxiety. They were one year away.571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDxDvfYty3T
One year away and the couple on the beach seemed oblivious. As the sun set over the Swansea coast, the young woman sighed.571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjg0nD6QVVS
"Promise me that if you get called up-"571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbbMNImDSRN
He sighed, cutting her sentence short. This was a conversation they had had before.571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAD1ekpi1Mg
"Let's not talk of this now. Speaking of a war that will soon be upon us dampens the mood somewhat."571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYKSqPHEXQs
"But-" She began again. He pressed his index finger to her lips.571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0gtkf0WXYX
"Everywhere I go there is talk of an impending war. At home, in the papers, at work. I cannot escape it. Please, not you too."571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2NzEnwPk3T
"You will get called up. I can feel it." Her eyes were cast downward, fixated on her knees. She wrapped her arms around herself, as if trying to guard herself from the oncoming storm.571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5xmnjh0fj3
"If I do, I do. But I promise you this, when the war is over I will wait for you someplace. I'll wait, and I'll be holding a diamond ring and I'll ask you a question and you shall have to say yes for my soul should perish if you answered otherwise. I'll wait for an eternity." He said earnestly. She smiled and rested her head on his shoulder.571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2UdF5FBV4y
"Okay." Was all she said in reply.
The morning the envelope dropped onto his doormat, he knew. The form inside was stiff and formal. His mother cried. His father patted him on the back and said 'I wish I could fight for my country. Fight extra hard for me, son.'571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYGby7dQlsM
Telling Valerie was the hardest. She cried and begged him not to go. Then she was angry and ordered him to leave. Before he could, she was at the door again, asking him to run away with her to the country. A thousand thoughts and plans ran through her head as she searched for the best, most convenient one to keep him home. When she finally gave up, she cried and he held her until she fell asleep.571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhp4J7JOtse
He was at the train station two weeks later. Before he left, she gripped his hand tightly.571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4oaAlyhBOD
"Remember what you told me on the beach. That you'd wait someplace?" She asked. He nodded.571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz0GwgqwaPR
"I'll wait at a beach. A beach where the sea plants grow so thick you can hardly see the sand. Oh, the name escapes me, but I know where it is. It's a small beach, tucked away. You'll find it though, you were always so good at hide and seek so I know you'll find me. Just remember, sea plants." She said, looking into his eyes and begging him to be there.571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPOzY3LMX8M
"As soon as the war is over." He promised. "And besides, it's said to be over by Christmas." And with that he kissed her softly and hurried for the train. He gave her one last glance as it left the station and left behind the hundreds of women waving their handkerchiefs in the air as a way of farewell to their sons, brothers, fathers and husbands. 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTVT0w7Vxbi
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The war lasted through christmas. It lasted past Christmas, and past the Christmas after that. Max (for that was the name of our lovesick hero) grew weary of war. The hearing in his left ear was failing and no matter how much he scrubbed, he feared his skin would never lose the grit and dirt that seemed to be ingrained in it. He was weary of the persistent cold, and he was growing tiresome. He wrote to Valerie many times. He received letters back that he kept under his pillow at night. Until they stopped coming. Her last letter said that she was leaving for the country, she did not know when she would be back or if she would be able to get letters to him. But she implored him to remember the beach. The beach with the sea plants.571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8rfacdtDXZ
And so it was the sea plants that kept him going. When he lay bleeding in the mud, the sea plants healed his pain. When he was almost killed and ended up in the infirmary, the image of her waiting for him on a tucked away beach healed him better than any doctor could.
When the war finally ended, he went back to Wales. It was 1945, seven years after that day on the beach. He asked everyone he knew about a beach where the sea plants were so fertile that you could not see the sand at the bottom of the sea. Not a soul knew what beach he spoke of. He widened his search - he headed to the library (for this was long before the Internet) and yet still, there was no record of a beach infamous for it's sea plants.571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm2xHFrzD2x
He tried to find her parents, but they had long since passed away. They had been caught in a air raid, but did not reach shelter. He mourned their deaths, but not as much as he mourned the fact that they were his last chance of reaching Valerie. He had no clue where she could be and he mourned that he had failed her.
It took weeks but finally, finally, he found something. A small beach famous for it's amount of sea plants. I've found it, he thought triumphantly. He left without delay, without so much as a good bye. He travelled North for hours and finally found it. After years of waiting in trenches, after miles and miles of travelling, after spending countless nights hoping and dreaming and praying, he arrived.571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbD6ABCallY
But he was alone. The beach was quiet. No footprints were left in the sand; no one had been here.571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkwwkYBGZqR
He spied a life guard tower at the far end of the beach, with a solitary guard within it.571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI8dk5L11qP
"Hello there!" Max called. "This is the beach famous for it's sea plants, is it not?"571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnBBZajSahB
The life guard shook his head.571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXsKRzeP4sB
"No, this beach is famous for it's clear water. It is famous for it's lack of sea plants. I am afraid I have never heard of a beach famous for it's sea plants."571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFaf7H8pz8n
Max was silent for a moment. Then he fell to his knees and sobbed. She was not here, he was not at the right beach. When the headline said it was famous for it's amount of sea plants, not for a moment did he consider that it was famous for being the only beach in Wales with the least sea plants inhabiting the waters. He felt completely and utterly hopeless. He began to cry and he did not stop.
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