Don't Cry

“You are so beautiful,” he told me before he boarded the train. He was off to join the army. And I was crying. The tears were streaming down my face and I couldn’t stop them. He wiped a tear away and handed me a package. “Don’t cry. Your eyes are one of the most beautiful things about you,”

“I’ll be back,” he whispered in my ear as he hugged me. “I promise I’ll be back.” Daniel kissed me and boarded the train. I ran alongside it as it pulled away and he blew me a kiss through the window.

When I got home, I opened the small brown box he’d handed me. Within it was a book. A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This was the only Shakespeare play I didn’t own. And Daniel had gotten it for me.

I spent the next few months reading and crying. When I got to a certain page in the book, I found a small card with a message.



And I knew I would do anything to find him. I checked everywhere. I looked all over town. I looked all over the house and anywhere else I could find.

And I finally gave up. I couldn’t do it any longer. I began to cry. And I was suddenly reminded of Daniel’s words.

Don’t cry. Your eyes are one of the most beautiful things about you.

My eyes. That was the answer. My eyes.

I ran to the only mirror in the house. It hung on a wall facing away from the front door. I looked into my own eyes. They were brown and rimmed red from crying.

I’ll find him. I’ll find him. How was I supposed to do that? Then I saw the small picture of him that was tucked into the mirror’s frame.

I picked it up and held it to my chest. Suddenly a silhouette formed in the mirror. I looked up, alarmed. I hadn’t even heard the front door open.

I grabbed the closest thing to me, a small pen, and whipped around. “I told you I’d be back,”

It was Daniel. I fell into his arms and began to sob. He was back.

“Don’t cry,” he said as a tear ran down his cheek as well. “Your eyes are almost as beautiful as you are.”