The year was 1938. The air in every corner of the world was filled with tension and anxiety. They were one year away.647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRtR6WEs8Ww
One year away and the couple on the beach seemed oblivious. As the sun set over the Swansea coast, the young woman sighed.647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL38XC9GRgf
"Promise me that if you get called up-"647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdWh26JYMna
He sighed, cutting her sentence short. This was a conversation they had had before.647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6Qg3vnJtxV
"Let's not talk of this now. Speaking of a war that will soon be upon us dampens the mood somewhat."647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIL38xsnYqI
"But-" She began again. He pressed his index finger to her lips.647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOyw8jsGr14
"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."647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkwqHLoOeGl
"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.647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr3naCMD9n8
"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.647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzgrBmrKlIq
"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.'647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmHPPaAz3Bg
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.647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡin5SJWecjl
He was at the train station two weeks later. Before he left, she gripped his hand tightly.647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdJvs9UohVB
"Remember what you told me on the beach. That you'd wait someplace?" She asked. He nodded.647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOQN2A3auz8
"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.647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF4Pm6gu0VZ
"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. 647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcM2nBcu6oo
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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.647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEKfO5i2S04
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.647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡymaLdFmq3g
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.647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3O02ZwN6Fx
But he was alone. The beach was quiet. No footprints were left in the sand; no one had been here.647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeDaDyeB1Bu
He spied a life guard tower at the far end of the beach, with a solitary guard within it.647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPW2UA9qgz1
"Hello there!" Max called. "This is the beach famous for it's sea plants, is it not?"647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeL2Eus6ezZ
The life guard shook his head.647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoWp7gCoprf
"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."647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwMQdIfJNxp
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.
