This is the forty-fourth of 87 letters exchanged during World War II between Nicholas Salvatore and Elizabeth Galloway. For more see Nicholas and Elizabeth.

Still from The Plastic Age

September 1, 1944
These same four walls, Arizona

Dear Nicholas,

Are you okay? I’m worried about you. I’m sorry for dumping my problems on you in previous letters – they’re nothing like what you’re going through but then again I can’t imagine what you’re going through. I see the newsreels and I read the newspapers and hear all these first-hand accounts but I still can’t believe it’s real. Yet I know you’re going through it every day. How you’ve kept going for this long I don’t know. I need you to hold on longer. Now that we’ve got Paris it can’t be much longer. Do you hear me? I love you and I need you back here. I’m so afraid Nick. I’m so afraid that I don’t know what to do. Sometimes I’m so afraid that I sit here motionless for hours and other times I’m so afraid that all I can do is keep running to try to outrun my thoughts, outrun the world. For so long I’ve wanted to escape but there’s nowhere to escape to. There’s only people to escape with and I want that to be you for me and me for you. Come back here alive and we’ll escape from all of this I promise. It doesn’t matter where we go, we’ll escape, we’ll get out of this. We didn’t make this mess and we shouldn’t have to live in it. I love you Nicholas, I love you. I love you. I love you. It doesn’t matter where you are just don’t give up. Just don’t give up.

Your girl,

Elizabeth

Next letter – September 11, 1944