I missed writing with my Flash Fiction friends today, but decided to write a story from the prompt anyway. I didn't do it in five minutes, so I guess technically it doesn't fall within the parameters of FFF, but I'm posting it anyway.
Today's Prompt: She stood in the rain at the bus stop holding a suitcase and a newborn.
My Story: Letters
She stood in the rain at the bus stop holding a suitcase and a newborn. The letter from Thomas tucked securely in her pocket for quick reading in case she began to doubt her good fortune.
It had been six months since the heart-wrenching telegram had come:
Dated: Washington DC, 8/17/44
To: Mrs Abigail Wagoner
The Secretary of War desires me to express his deep regret that your husband, Capt. Thomas Wagoner has been reported missing in action since 2nd January in France. If further details or other information are received, you will be promptly notified.
Signed: Adjunct General – not even a name, just Adjunct General.
How ironic that it had come on the very day she had sent Thomas a letter to let him know that he was going to be a father.
She had taken to her bed for weeks after receiving the news, crying out to God, first in disbelief, then in despair and finally in anger. Her parents had tried to comfort her, to encourage her with the scriptures, praying and reassuring her that God would walk through this trial with her, but she had never felt so alone in her life…until the night she had the vision.
A voice had broken through her troubled sleep.
“Get up!”
She opened her eyes to see Thomas lying on the ground, two soldiers leaning over him.
“Get up!” they said again and Thomas began to stir.
She saw one of the soldiers take a letter from his pocket and hand it to Thomas. She recognized it as the letter she had written days ago.
Thomas glanced at the envelope, then seemed to look directly into Abby’s eyes.
“Habakkuk 2:3” he said, and then the vision faded away.
She sat bolt upright in the bed, switched on the lamp and picked up the Bible her mother had left on the night stand. A shiver ran through her when she read the verse…
“For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.”
She remembered the look of sympathy in her parents’ eyes when she had told them about the vision the next morning, but she didn’t let that deter her. Thomas was coming home and she must be ready.
Throughout her pregnancy she held tight to the hope that God had birthed in her that night and during the delivery of little Thomas Allen Wagoner, Jr. she had repeated the scripture over and over again.
Then, just two weeks after the baby was born, the letter came. Her husband had been found and was on his way back to the States.
In just eight hours, Abby would introduce Thomas to his new son and share with him the vision God had sent and the grace and peace He had given to sustain her through it all.
Tears of gratitude and joy mingled with rain drops on Abby’s face as she boarded the bus that night. She found a seat and hugged her baby close to her breast.
“You can always trust God, little one,” she said, snuggling her baby. Then she pulled the letter from her pocket and read Thomas’ words again.
“You won’t believe this Abby, but after I had been shot down, I had a vision. I saw a letter from you saying we were going to have a baby and I knew I had to live. The soldiers found me the next day.”
(Copyright © 2009 Jan Christiansen. All rights reserved.)
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