Hope is everywhere.
There was a girl. She had blonde hair, and green eyes, and she smiled every day. She was married to a marine. He had completed his training and would be going into war in a month. But his wife tried to pretend like it would be ages before he ever left. Years. She loved him. They would sit on the porch in the morning and laugh and celebrate the fact that they were together. But the day came. January. The ground was glazed over with ice and the wind chilled you to the bone. He had to leave. The marine did his duty and left for Iraq. The woman sobbed, her cries echoing down her street while she clung to him. His face full of despair, he finally unlatches himself from her. Bids her a sweet farewell and he gives her hope that life will go on. Every morning though she smiled at the mailman, waved to the neighbors. She tried to keep a steady outlook on life, because she had hope that nothing would happen to her marine. She had hope that he would come home in August, well and alive. Hope that everything would go back to being the same. But things can only last so long right? April arrives too fast. The neighbors watch as they come to the door. As they knock and she answers. As the officers tell her, her world ends. Her face is hard as stone, a waterfall pouring down porcelain cheeks. The officers bow their heads, roughly wiping their tears away. They tell her they knew how much he loved her. Because they knew how much they loved each other. She leans against the red door her and husband painted together before he left. Her brave marine, is gone. But the officers left her his hat. They said it resembled hope. That everything would be okay, that life would go on. The girl looks up at the sky, her face streaked with the sorrow of the loss of the one she loved. She sucks in a shaky breath, and thanks the officers. They hug her, let her rest her head on their shoulders as her tears barely become audible. She sits on her porch steps for hours after that, her head in her knees. Hope will find her and lift her up. For now, she is gone to herself, to the world. But hope is always there when it feels like your world is crashing down around you. When it feels like your just, lost.