The last month had flown by and all of a sudden I had one night left with Donny by my side. I sat up in bed and just thought about how difficult the next two months would be with him gone. Donny soon woke up beside me. "One more day." I whispered. "I'm excited to sing with you again though. And I'm excited for the twins to watch us perform. They've never seen us perform together with the band. They've only ever heard us at the piano."
"Yeah. I hope they like it. But I don't want today to end. Because we both know what happens tomorrow."
"I know baby. Let's not think about tomorrow, let's enjoy today and make the most of it. We can head to the park with the twins, play games with them, just enjoy time with the lights of our lives. And make sure we have lots of cuddles." Flora and Michael walked in a few moments later and they each climbed onto the bed. As I was right next to Donny they crawled into our laps to give us cuddles. As usual Michael sat in Donny's lap and Flora sat in mine. "Did you kids have a good night sleep?"
"Yeah." Michael said softly as he put his arms around Donny. I watched as Donny cuddled with our son and I just sat cuddling our daughter.
"You two are the most amazing kids in the world. Daddy and I are so lucky to have the most wonderful twins. We love you both so much. And we know the next two months will be so difficult, but it will be worth it in the end. When daddy comes home and we can just spend all day giving him hugs and kisses and telling him stories about what happened while he was gone."
"I'm going miss you all so much. My incredible son, my amazing daughter and my beautiful and talented wife. The absolute love of my life. I'll be counting down the days to when I get to come see my favourite people again." Donny said holding all three of us close. I smiled a little. "So mommy and I are performing tonight and you're going to go and watch with Grandma and Uncle Oliver. But what do you kids want to do for the rest of the day?"
"I just wanna cuddle." Michael said softly.
"Do some baking." Flora added. "And maybe go to the park to play with you for the last time."
"It won't be the last time ever. I promise." Donny said softly.
"How about we go to the park, have lunch, do some baking and while they are cooking and cooling we have family cuddles. How does that sound?"
"Good." Michael said softly.
"Okay. Go get dressed and then we can go." I said rubbing Flora's back. The twins both left allowing Donny and I to kiss and then get ready ourselves.
"Tonight. For the gig. I was thinking of wearing my army jacket again. But I wanted to know your opinion on that."
"I think it's a great idea Donny."
"I'm glad none of the others got drafted. I think it's because they are all quite a bit older, and Jimmy is now a lawyer so can't really be drafted as he's too important."
"Me too. But I still wish you didn't have to leave at all. I don't know what I'm going to do without you. Every time I think about you leaving I just have lyrics swirling around my head from songs we started but never finished."
"Maybe that's something to keep you distracted. Write some new songs, write them knowing that I'll be coming home. Finish those songs we never finished." I nodded. "Let's get dressed and go get breakfast ready for the twins." I nodded and got dressed and then went down to the kitchen. Donny soon walked in and I just started crying. He immediately pulled me into a hug and held me close. "It's going to be okay. I promise."
"I know we will be okay. I'm just going to miss you so much. I don't know how I'm meant to comfort the kids when I miss you just as much."
"You'll figure it out Julia. Because you are strong and I know you can do this. I believe in you." The twins both appeared and both put their arms around me. I couched down and hugged them both tightly.
"We will figure it out." I said softly as I kissed both their cheeks. "I'll always be here." I smiled and stood up. Donny had already got all the cereal out so they both sat down to eat as he gave us ours and I made two mugs of coffee.
~~~~~
Before I knew it the day was coming to a close and we were in the car with the twins heading to Oliver's. Ma was already there and the twins were so excited to see her again. We arrived and the other boys were all there and they all immediately hugged Donny and I. "Flo, Mike, come say hi to all your uncles." They ran over. "You remember Jimmy, Davy, Johnny, Nick and Wayne."
"Yeah." Flora said.
"They are growing up so fast." Jimmy said ruffling Michaels hair. "How old are you kiddos now?"
"Four and a half." Michael answered before running over to Donny and wrapping his arms around him.
"They look so similar." Wayne pointed out.
"I know. My boys."
"And little Flo is a mirror image of you when you were her age." Ma said as she walked over. I picked up my daughter and kissed her cheek.
"And she's the most beautiful little girl I've ever known. Anyway. We should get you boys tuned up." Donny walked over to the piano with Michael and the boys all grabbed their instruments.
"Michael, can you press that key?" Donny said pointing. He pushed it down and giggled while the boys tuned to the note. "And again buddy." He did as told. "Nice one Mike. Flo, can you press that one for Nick, that's the B Flat." She pressed the key and smiled. "Good girl." Soon they were all tuned. "Give mommy and daddy hugs and kisses. You have to go sit with Grandma now."
"I love you daddy." Michael said hugging Donny. "I love you too mommy." He said as he hugged me.
"I love you as well Michael." He gave us both little kisses and then the same happened with Flora. We had a family hug with all four of us after and i kissed all three of them before the twins went and sat at a table with Ma. The room began to fill, lots of familiar faces came and I just stood holding Donny's hand as he sat at the piano.
"Ladies and Gentlemen. Please welcome back to the stage again, the Donny Nova Band, Featuring Julia Trojan!" There was a huge cheer and I just watched the twins clapping.
I smiled and walked over to the microphone. "Thank you so much for all coming tonight. I know it's been a few months since we last played together publicly but we wanted to perform once more before tomorrow. For those of you who don't know, as a county we have joined the allied forces with South Vietnam in the war over there and..." I took a deep breath. "Donny was drafted to go over and fight. With two young kids at home I couldn't risk losing him in the same way I lost my first love Private Michael Trojan. We are fortunate enough that he's no longer going to Vietnam but tomorrow he leaves us to go to New York State to help train new soldiers and then is being stationed in California to do the same thing. So we decided to perform one last time before he leaves. This is also the first time that our twins Flora and Michael are getting to watch us perform with the band. So to kick things off we're going to perform Love Will Come and Find Me Again." I started to sing and I didn't expect it would be so difficult to perform. We did the whole set including a few audience favourites such as You deserve it, Nobody, The nice version of Welcome Home, First steps first, as it has become timeless for us. We ended with 'worth it' a song we had yet to perform publicly. I held Donny's hand as we sang and it made me realise that him going away would be worth it when he came home and I just got to kiss him again. I was lucky at least that he was going to be home for a week in between the two months of being away. As we reached the end I looked at the twins. "Come here you two." I said into the microphone. They both ran over to us and Donny and I stood side by side, the kids stood in front of us, each with a hand on one of their shoulders. The song ended and I gave Donny a kiss before we couched down and hugged the twins.
"What did you guys think?" Donny asked.
"Mommy sounded amazing. And daddy, you sounded good too." Michael said softly. "Mommy also looks beautiful."
"Thanks buddy. What about you Flo."
"I loved it too. Especially the last song." I nodded and kissed her temple. I stood up and spoke again.
"Thanks again for coming everyone. I'm sure while Donny is away I'll spend a lot of time writing poems and lyrics to help me pass the time." I looked over at my husband. "Donny. I love you so much. And I want you to know that I'll be thinking of you every single day while you are gone. You are my whole world and I feel like a lot of the things we sang about this evening I'll be doing over the next two months. Crossing off the days until you return, writing letters every day, staring at your picture. I'll be doing all of that and more. Thank you for being the most incredible husband, and the best father our twins could have asked for. We will miss you so much." I put the microphone to the side and couched down with him as we had a family hug all together. I tried not to cry again but it was difficult. We left and stood outside as the whole band gave Donny hugs and wished him well. All too soon we went home, Donny put both kids to bed as it would be the last time for a month and then he came and joined me in our room.
"Well that was emotional." Donny said as he sat beside me. "Poor Michael didn't want to let go of me. But I promised I'd give him the biggest hug ever tomorrow."
"I'm glad he's talking to me a little more now than he used to. But I'm still worried that he's going to really struggle the most while you're gone. You're his rock."
"Leaving him behind will be the hardest. I don't want to leave any of you. But I think Flo has the maturity to understand and she will be upset but will be okay. And I know you can be strong and push though the difficulty. But Michael, he's so worried, and he struggles at home when I am here and will only struggle more with me gone."
"Yeah. Tomorrow is going to be incredibly difficult. I might see if Ma and Oliver can come over to help me. Obviously Oliver will need to go back to the club in the evening, but the kids love him and he could be a nice distraction for immediately after you're gone."
"Yeah. Anyway, I'm going to enjoy this evening. One last night beside the love of my life."
"I don't want to go to sleep because I don't want this day to be over. I just was to hold you and kiss you over and over and over again."
"Well I'm more than happy to just lie here and kiss my beautiful wife." I nodded and straddled him before I took his face into my hands and kissed him. "I love you Julia."
"I love you even more Donny." I said back, pulling away a little to just gaze at his face and take it all in. We then kissed again. Eventually after maybe an hour of cuddles and kisses, both fast and heated and also slow and romantic. We eventually decided to actually try to get some sleep. "Goodnight Donny. I love you more than anything. You're my world."
"I love you too Julia. You're the light of my life and seeing you just puts a smile on my face. Goodnight my love, my beautiful wife."
"My handsome husband." I said before resting my head on his chest and closing my eyes in attempt to fall asleep.