Here it is. “Clear?” asked a voice from down the hall. I looked towards the darkness opposite of the voice and listened. Nothing shifted or budged. “Clear.” I called in a heavy whisper. Five men moved up to my position, my squad. “McCauley, move up.” A man with Remington shotgun took point. He snapped to the left room’s entry, then to the right room’s entry. “Clear, Sir.” After a few steps forward, something caught my eye, a gleam in the rooftop to our right. “Halt. I see something…” The Captain stopped in his tracks. “What do you see, Private?” I shifted my eyes to the right. “Don’t look on the rooftop. Go prone; I think it’s a sniper.” A shot rang out and I could feel the heat come off the bullet as it whizzed past my face into the concrete wall. “Get down!” yelled the Captain. Daylight filled the room. The smell of Momma’s home-made French toast and bacon filled the house. The family cat has strewn it’s self out on my bed, obviously happy to have me home. She greets me ask I sit up in my bed. I pop my neck and get up, my knees popping on the way down. I open the curtains my sister knocks on the door frame. “It snowed hard last night, didn’t it?” I looked at her and smiled. “Yeah, it’s a nice welcome home gift. It’s great that we can have a white Christmas again. The last time we had one was when you were….about five.” She giggled. “So twelve years ago. Snow this heavy doesn’t come often in North Carolina, especially in Greensboro.” I looked out the window once more and saw that the roads had been cleared early in the morning, and the grey salt scattered all over the black top. Christmas lights dawned almost every home’s porch. The cold radiated off the window and onto my hands, sending a cold chill up my arms and down my body. “Quit gawking at the snow and come down to eat, Momma made breakfast.” I looked at her with an eyebrow raised. “Is that an order, Ma’am?” She quickly replied “Mess in 5, maggot.” She quickly marched down stairs. I chuckled and followed. “Good morning David!” My girlfriend called as I walk into the kitchen. “Hey beautiful! I wasn’t expecting you to be here, but I’m glad you are.” I smiled and held her tight. We shared a kiss and I held her hand as we journeyed to the table. Everyone sat in their usual seat. I sat across from my dad, my momma sat next to him, my sister sat across from my momma, and my girlfriend, Lauren; Sat next to me. Momma had made French toast, bacon, biscuits with gravy, scrambled eggs, and hash browns. I took one bit of the toast and instantaneous bliss filled my mouth. “Damn Momma, now I know why I missed home so much!” I winked at my girlfriend and she raised an eyebrow. “Oh, so I guess you won’t mind sleeping alone tonight” She winked back at me, mockingly. “Slow down now, I meant this home. I thought about you every day.” My family couldn’t help but giggle and chuckle. “Nice save, son.” My dad was quite the sarcastic one, and I’m just like him. “So, what’s the schedule for today?” My mom looked up. “Well, after breakfast and presents, Lauren’s is going to take you to therapy, then after that you’re going to spend some time with Lauren’s family, then after thaaaat, we’re going to Raleigh to see the rest of the family.” She looked down and continued eating. “23 years of scheduling and prioritizing made this easy for her. You were a very uncoordinated kid.” My dad chuckled as he said this. “Hardy harr harr. Ugh, I hate therapy.” My girlfriend looked at my funny. “You also hate your P.T.S.D. I walked in your room to wake you up and I could tell you were having a flashback by the muscle twitching and the sweating. I knew it would be a bad idea to wake you.” I looked down, knowing what she said was true. If she woke me during my flashback, I might have hurt her. When you’re awoken during a flashback, you’re still in the combat mentality, and suprises aren’t welcome. “Hey, baby, don’t worry. We’re here for you, and we all love and support you. We’ll help you get through this.” She put her hand on top of mine, and held it. “We love you, I love you. Don’t forget that.” She smiled at me and I couldn’t help but smile back. “I love ya’ll too.” After we exchanged gifts Lauren took me to therapy. “Do you want me to go in with you or should I go do something else?” She looked concerned. “Go have fun babe, I’ll be fine. It’s just therapy.” She smiled lightly and kissed me. We parted ways as I opened the door, and a burly man looked up at me. “David Black?” He looked as though he could be my drill sargent. “Yes Sir.” I shook his hand and sat down. “So, you’ve got a pretty nasty case of P.T.S.D. I’m here to help you pull through it. I can’t make it go away, I can’t make it disappear, but what I can do is empower you to overcome this. If you don’t believe me, or you don’t think that’s enough, go ahead and leave.” I looked at him and smiled. “No bullshit; I like that. So where do we start Sir?” He put his clipboard down and looked at me. “We start with names, I never really liked the ‘Sir’ while I was a Marine. My name is Paul Kingston. I became a therapist because I was inspired by a therapist that helped me overcome my own P.T.S.D. In my sixty-two years on this earth, I had never expected to see what I saw in Nam.” I raised an eyebrow. “Paul, would you mind telling me what you saw?” He cleared his throat and steeled his face. “My squad consisted of three men. I led that day, for my first time. We were ordered to evacuate a small village to a save D.Z. When we got there, I ordered my squad member up the hill with a sniper to be our lookout, because the village was silent. Not a voice, not a mutter. I go through each hut-like home, and there’s no one. All the items and belongings are there, but the owners aren’t. Even the pets are awaiting their owner’s return. I have my gun readied and so did my third squad mate. Every single house was empty. Then a sour smell comes across my face; The smell of rotting flesh. My squad mate starts heaving. I was lucky enough to not have eaten anything that day. I put my weapon down and plugged my nose. I walked and walked, till finally I came up the crest of a hill. There is was, a pit, and in that pit were the villagers. They had been massacured. Each villager shot execution style. I throw up the acid in my stomach and crawl away from it. I get to my feet and run out to the street, and my teammate is nowhere to be found. I think ‘He must’ve left.’ How wrong I was. I book it to the entrance of the village to run smack dab into my teammate. Except he wasn’t standing, he was Tranquil Ty
Posted on: Mon, 19 Aug 2013 23:42:56 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015