Soon

As is it with most long goodbyes, they grew more sentimental as the travel date approached. It didn't help that they were leaving just when the snow was finally gone for good, and the trees were finally undressing into their pretty green skivvies (no more the scratchy white longjohns of Winter!). It didn't help that the few friends they made seemed to glow brighter and warmer in the quickly passing weeks, either. They tried to remember the long drives home, the expensive rent, the tiresome distance from oak trees. Even the willows were different in Alaska; they didn't weep but stood upright and defiant, emotions weren't allowed in a place as tough as this. Oh, Theresa's sure that she's getting way too Tennessee Williams for her own good, and no one is really listening to her lyrical soliloquies anymore. She simply thought too much, and that type of behavior was no good in a place where you always had to be on your guard.