Figment of Her Imagination--Emma

She sat waiting in anticipation just to experience this day. All she had gone through while she was alone, would be forgotten when her eyes would rest upon his face. Eighteen months ago, her husband was deployed across seas to fight a war facing the chances of never making it back alive. In such a short span of eighteen months he missed a lifetime of first occurrences back home. He missed his wife giving birth to a little girl, he missed his little girl's first Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween and a birthday, all filled with her toothless smiles he had yet to witness. Today however, a family would be reunited and introductions would occur. She awoke with glee and ache to see her husband, calmly getting dressed in her best outfit, fit for such a glorious occasion, while dressing her daughter as well. After months of only seeing pictures and trying to recall his voice while reading his letters, which took months to receive, her hungry touch for him would be satisfied. The feel of his stubble brushing against her cheek, his fingers brushing the back of her neck, tangling his fingers in her auburn hair as they learned in to kiss one another were only images swelling in her head as she drove along the highway. Upon arriving to the base, she was shaking from the anticipation of what was to come. She waited along with other families, who waited for their family member’s heads to poke out around the corner. One after another, men and women appeared but none seemed familiar to her eyes. The anticipation started to grow into dread as the line started to dwindle and all hope she had, slowly started to escape her body. As one tear stray down her cheek she saw him, one of the lasts. Body frozen, except for the shaking of her hands, he appeared at her side in seconds, taking in her body as fast as he could, grasping his child with tears streaming down his face. A family not only reunited, but together for the first time. They encompassed their child holding on to one another like they could drift apart at any moment. He looked at her, as if considering her soul. He brushed the back of her neck, allowing his stubble to brush her cheek, and in eighteen months kissed her with a fiery passion. It was the best thing she had experienced, the kiss was magical, almost too magical. Her feelings felt almost dreamlike, too perfect for reality. As she opened her eyes from the unimaginable kiss, blackness encompassed her. It seemed like this was routine to her. She would fall into a deep slumber only to dream such fantastic dreams of being reunited with her deceased husband finally introducing their only daughter to her father. All she experienced were dreams, a figment of her imagination. Three months these horrid dreams plagued her mind, three months since she last saw him being placed in his coffin.