The Clara RingClara was nineteen when Thomas kissed her by the railway bridge and promised to write every week. The war had just begun. He left for France the next morning with trembling hands and a photograph of her tucked into his breast pocket. She stayed behindworking the post office during the day, reading his letters under blankets at night. He wrote her 42 letters. Each one folded in perfect halves. In one, he asked if she still wore his ring on a chain