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Merry Christmas, John
I hope you like it!
~ Emily
He hesitated and stared at the gleaming silver links on the keychain with the strange glass bead in the center of a bright circle that looked almost like the back of a shell casing. It was a circle within a circle… fascinated, he stared at it, trying to decipher what type of material it was, and hesitated.
Stunned, he held it up to the light and squinted… only to feel tears sting his eyes. Emily had a keychain made for him with his favorite photo.
There deep inside the tiny glass bead, was the picture of them that he had taken in the Cessna - kissing. Her hands were planted on the side of his face as he cradled her back, holding her close to him.
There was so much emotion in that single picture that it had taken him by storm. He looked at it daily where he had it stored on his phone… and now she’d given it to him, making it something simple and secretive that he could look at any time.
“What’d you get?” Vapor asked quietly – and John couldn’t answer.
Instead, he held out the tiny keychain that he’d just been looking into and saw the other pilot hold it up, before he whistled softly.
“I guess things are serious, aren’t they?”
“Very,” John choked out tightly, taking several deep breaths. “Or at least I hope so.”
“That looks serious.”
“She’s…” John grew quiet, because he couldn’t think of a word to explain how precious and wonderful Emily was… nor how terrified he felt if this all fell apart.
“You don’t have to explain,” Vapor said softly, smiling. “I understand, probably more than you know. Felt the earth move the first time she looked at you, didn’t you?”
John glanced at him and nodded.
“I’m happy for you both.”
“I’m not crazy?”
“Oh, we are both completely Looney Tunes, brother…” Vapor joked softly. “But I kinda like knowing there is someone out there in the world that is just as crazy as me, that understands me like no other. Am I scared? Yeah. Would I change any of it? No way… because I look forward to the chase with Jana, the falling in love, and getting to know her so much better as we find our way through this chaos together.”
“You should have been a poet,” John chuckled tearfully, looking into the keychain again.
“Heck no… I was terrible at English classes.”
“Thanks for checking on me,” he replied softly. “What did she send you?”
“Memories,” Vapor said, smiling softly. “She sent me a bunch of candy from home, things that are only found there in Boston. It’s just nice, you know?”
“To know someone is thinking of you enough to do something like this?”
“Precisely. What did you send her?”
“A bracelet from the exchange,” John admitted seeing Vapor nod.
“I sent Jana a coin charm… and promised to get her another when we go to Greece. We just decided on where we are going, and I’m so excited.”
“Still keeping it all a secret?”
“Oh yes… her brother would kill me.”
“Yeah, he would,” John smiled as Vapor sighed heavily. “It will be okay someday, remember? Navigating the chaos…?”
“I’m an idiot.”
