The Last Letter Ch. 02

Since it was almost the middle of the night here though, he had free reign of the lovely moving sidewalks. Walking at a brisk pace that would easily amount to sprinting if not for the aid of the moving floor he as using. Getting to the terminal where his plane was taking off he quickly exited the sidewalk stumbling into a flight attendant who was walking towards the counter as well.

As Joseph started to fall towards the carpeted ground he quickly found his feet dropping the bags in his hands to gain a better balance. Embracing the very thin but almost lithe woman in his arms keeping her from face planting into what would surely have been a very bad nose bleed. Making sure she had her footing, high heels could make even the slightest of disturbances a very hard task to do in them. He pulled his arms from around her waist as he quickly turned about and began to give him a cold glare.

"Sorry mam, I was not paying attention to my own feet I guess." Joseph quickly taking another step back from what he now saw was a very blond, very blue eyed, and slightly tan young woman. Her blue uniform of a stewardess, going very well with her hair up in a bun having two long strands left out from the bun to be tucked behind her almost pointed elf ears.

"I truly didn't mean to try running you over mam, honestly." he quickly added, as he grimaced at his thoughtlessness

"It's ok Sir." the young woman said to him as she saw the honesty of his expression on his face.

"Sergeant Blackmoore mam, Sir's are paper pushers." he smiled just slightly, knowing it would most likely be lost on the young woman.

"Yes, but non-comm are the gorillas." she quickly quipped back to the young man before her. "Or at least that is what my uncle would call them." she winked to him as his mouth slowly gaped open, the slammed shut as he nodded his head in submission.

"Yes mam, ooga ooga." he grunted back to her.

"I'm Joanne Wattley, Sergeant. Apology accepted, and don't worry I know you had to have some brains to get your rank." She smiled to take the sting out of the remark as she held out her hand.

"Joseph Blackmoore, it's a pleasure to run into you..." Joseph said as he tried out a pun that was just dying to be used. Taking his hand in her own and giving her a firm, but very tender handshake.

"Oh-god! For the love of airports, that was a bad one you know right?"

"Yeah, yeah I know. But I couldn't let it slip once it I knew it would stink up the building."

Joanne's lilting laughter was almost musical as what he thought an elf's would be. He quickly pondered as he chuckled if she was one. She was as he first noticed thin, but not in a way he would consider unattractive, but almost in an elegant way. Her face held a classic beauty that had a striking resemblance to the actress he had saw in some movie recently Scarlett Johansson.

"So are you on this flight, Joseph?"

"Yep, flying home to the states. Hopefully making it to a wedding in time."

"Wedding? So the dashing Sergeant has a woman waiting at the alter?"

"No, no." He quickly replied, "My childhood friend Joy's. In Louisville, Kentucky but going through Chicago for another flight to there."

Joanne nodded to him as she bent down and picked up her small traveling bag, while Joseph bent and picked his own bags up from the floor. He noticed though that she never took her eyes away from him as they moved. Standing she turned around and looked over her shoulder at him, giving a quick follow him a head tilt of her head for him to catch up.

"Your in luck then, I am on that flight as well. But in a working way." she smiled as he quick stepped to her side as they headed towards the departing gate.

They quickly made their way over to the woman checking in the passengers with tickets to the flight. Joanne smiled as she quickly helped the woman and Joseph through the process, then as they finished she led him away from the counter and over to the seats.

"You go ahead and wait for the boarding call, I will see ya on the plane." she smiled as Joseph nodded and sat down in one of the many vacant seats in their gates waiting area.

"Thanks for the help Joanne, I really appreciate it."

"You just make sure to get on when they call the first class of the tickets hun, and we will get ya a good seat." With that not even allowing him to respond she smiled turned and headed directly to the gate, and through the long hall connecting the building to the plane.

Just shaking his head, he smiled to her back as he watched her lithe form walking away from him. She may have been a small woman, but she still had some curves. And from behind, Joseph noticed they were in the right spots. With another head shake he leaned back and turned his eyes to the rest of the waiting area, and saw who else was sitting there with him. It was a really empty flight he though as he saw only a handful of people around him, perhaps eight in all including him. Maybe more would show up, but with about fifteen minutes to go he seriously doubted it would be that many.

Leaning back into the seat he closes his eyes as he slowly goes over the last few days. His thoughts run lazily through a last night as he remembers all the guys trying to get him to drink more than was humanly possible. They were good men, every single one of them. He was sure of it, every one of them he would trust his very life with. His smile slowly fell from his face though as his mind began to turn to times further back into his memory, to the dud land mine, then to seeing a man he had known since boot camp die as a mortar took his body and made it into something unrecognizable and almost pulpy.

"First Class passengers for flight 234 are boarding now. Please make your way to the gate with your ticket." came over the intercom.

Joseph quickly standing up and walking towards the gate looked around as he saw only one other following him towards the gate.

"Small flight indeed." he said quietly to himself, before getting into earshot of the woman waiting to take tickets.

"Your ticket sir?" the woman asked as he stood in front of her.

Giving it over to her he smiled a grin as she looked at his ticket, and then back up. "Joanne said you would be upgrading sir. Thank you and have a nice flight."

"Thank you."

Joseph walked quickly down the long enclosed walk way towards the plane. The white painted walls going by him as he took a left and was suddenly facing the planes main door, and a the young woman with an impish smile winking at him.

"Ah so we meet again dear Joseph, it has been really far to long."

"Like an eternity of rain, without thy fair beauty."

"Fair beauty?!" She mockingly chided Joseph "I'll have you know I am notFair in any sense of the word."

"Ah, my lips seem to be moving without my brain in accordance with them. I meant to say thy ravishing beauty."

"Oh... Is that so. Well flattery will get you everywhere with me."

Joseph could not help but smile at Joanne as they spoke, it was just too hard he thought with her charm to do anything but. Joanne for her own part could not help but return his wide grin.

Taking his elbow with her tiny hand she waved over one of the other flight attendants to take over as she turned right and pulled him along to the nicer section of the plane.

"I switched with another one of the attendants so I am up here with you. Although looking at the flight papers, its you and me here. I am guessing this flight will be costing more to the company than anything else. We have I think a total of nine passengers tonight and now only one first class." she mused quietly to him. Stopping at a row in the middle of the aisles she points to the doubles on the left and nudges him into the window seat.

"You know you didn't have to do this Joanne, I kinda feel bad now with running into you and then taking advantage of your oh so generous ravishing, dazzling charms and beauty." he said quietly with a warm and almost mischievous smile on his face.

"Like I said, flattery will get you everywhere. Now you just sit and relax while I get everything settled for the flight." With a warm smile again, Joanne turns away from Joseph leaving him to his settling into the very big and luxurious chair.

Looking out the window into the dark night sky he opens his bag and pulls the framed picture of four of the Terrible Five from it. Then looking down at the picture he smiles to himself, just seeing the wide grins and shakes his head in wonder.'What was it we were smiling about so much for that simple picture.' Not knowing what it was, nor if he would ever again remember it he sighed. So much easier Joseph thought as he felt lost in his own head.

Joseph slowly began to slip back further into his memories again tonight as he pondered if those smiles would ever be as easy to give or have so much innocence to them. Joseph tuned out the captains voice as it came over the intercom giving the usually speech of thanking the passengers and telling them their flight schedules.

"Lost smiles." Joseph whispered. It was one of the things he talked about with Emily. Lost smiles an growing up. On many of the nights he would take her out they always found themselves talking about how their youths were, and the differences from being an army brat, and an engineers son. So many lost smiles, he could remember. It was growing up Joseph always thought that made smiles so much more hard to read, and infinitely to trust.

The jarring of the plane only served to push Joseph deeper into his thoughts as he slid from memory to memory. Some being from his childhood, but the predominant number of them being to the men and women her served with as and had come to know them as a family all of their own.

Almost fifteen minutes had passed by as Joseph held the picture in his hand but did not truly look at it. More of staring into the background as his thoughts wondered about. Joanne quietly walking down the aisle stopped next to his saying something to him, but Joseph was not truly there. His body sitting, but his mind thousands of miles away.

"Joseph." Joanne said quietly as he lightly shook his shoulder.

Coming to Joseph shook his head slightly clearing the thoughts away.

"Sorry, was just thinking a bit."

"No worries, I figured that when my lets see what did you call it? Ravishing dazzling, all to pure of heart looks did not break into your reverie." She smiled to take any sting that could have been incurred with her comment out.

"Yep, although you forgot Mother Theresa like qualities of patience and empathy." he chuckled as his words brought a light pink shade to her cheeks. Not able to stop there though he finished with, "So the elf does have some vanity?" quirking his eyebrows in a silly fashion as he grinned warmly to her.

"So thats what you have been thinking I see? Elf? I am not sure if I would qualify for that. But thank you for your very sweet words." Her hand lightly rests on his right hand as she gives it a gentle squeeze. "So do you want to tell me where you were just now or talk about why you were there?"

With a shake of his head he smiles in return and gives her a gentle squeeze of the hand. "I'm not really sure where I was actually. Kinda all over the place with my thoughts, I just finished my term with the Army at midnight. So now I am kinda in a haze of thoughts and memories."

"Oh how long were you in for?"

"Eight years pretty much."

"Ah ok, so pretty long then huh? So who's in the picture your holding?"

Looking down at the picture, that was being held in his right hand he smiles at how he forgot he even still held it.

"That's four of the Terrible Five, or so called by our parents." he says, pointing to each one of them he tells Joanne their names. "Joy, Luke, Alissa, and... Isabelle." he smiles as he looks almost sad as he says the last girls name. Then giving Joanne a brief detailed account of who was who and who was related to who.

"Ah so who is Isabelle?" she asks staring into his eyes when he looks back up at her.

"She was my first crush, from the first time I knew her to the very last time I saw her I was in love with her. Pretty much someone I considered my unicorn." with the understanding nod of his head, he smiles thankful someone understands what he means.

"So, is she going to be at the wedding?" Joanne asks.

"Yeah, although I haven't seen her for a couple of years. When I left for boot camp it was kinda strange. I spent the day with my family and the Mackenzie's as well as Isabelle. But she never really said much. She just was there, you know? But when I left she wouldn't say anything she ran into the house crying. I wanted to say something but then I was just some skinny kid who had no clue how to handle anything like I was in."

"So you didn't kiss her goodbye?" Joanne asks quietly, seeming to have more insight that Joseph into what had happened.

"Not a chance, I didn't kiss a girl till I was nineteen and a year fully into the army. I mean I wasn't naive in that kind of way, well maybe I was. But my life experiences with the fairer species was a bit limited till after I joined and met other women."

"That poor girl Joseph, I mean jeez you could have kissed her and made it so romantic like that poster of those soldiers from world war two kissing the girls in the middle of the huge parade. Though I guess not everything is like the movies though." Joanne leaned back into he seat sighing quietly as she watched Joseph nod his head in sadness.

"Would go back and do a thousand things differently if I could... But I can't so I guess it just has to be."

"Yeah I guess so. So tell me, what are you going to do when you see her at the wedding? Are you going to be all military man when you go to the church?"

Nodding his head, Joseph explains. "Yeah I will be in exactly what I am wearing now. I am not exactly sure though what I will do when I see her, she is a part of the bridal party. Not sure how lucky I am though, because to me it is awfully strange how Joy's wedding day is the day after somewhat with the time changes and all I get out of the Army. But knowing that little minx it was cooked up eight years ago."

"Well with your uniform she will probably be drooling anyways, I know I am..." she smirks with a mocking grin as she noticeably licks her lips, then continues "All women love a man in uniform."

"You just remember Joseph, how well us women plan things... This Joy woman sounds like one after my own heart. If you even suspect that she was planning her wedding like this, I bet your right."

"But planning it for what? I had originally thought it was some grand scheme she was cooking up to get Isabelle and I together, but since it has been I think five years since I last saw her... I mean I know I have dated, and through the grapevine I know she has... but..." Joseph shrugs his shoulders as he looks thoughtfully down at their hands still holding together, he looks back up and smiles to Joanne not pulling his hand away. She smiles as well but does not make a comment either.

"All I know is things have a way of working out, they always do. Now whether they are for good, bad or just in between..." She trails off as she gives a slight shrug of her shoulders.