A Soldier to Love

by HUNT, EA

  Joanna huffed as she turned and walked back into the house.

  “Where’s the wicked witch going?” Madge questioned

  “She’s leaving and unless you are here to give moral support I would appreciate if you would leave also” Elsie said as she headed back into her house

  “You’re not serious.”

  “I am,” she replied, she nodded to the officer sitting on her couch; she looked around Milcome was nowhere to be seen. She would inquire about him after she dealt with her mother.

  “You are my daughter, you need me.”

  Elsie headed to her kitchen what she needed was a glass of wine. Hell the whole bottle but she would refrain if any news came along about Eric she wanted to be clear headed “mother please don’t play the you need me card because right now I don’t. What I need is my husband and you being here is not helping me,” she finished as she reached for a glass in the dish drainer.

  “How can you say that to me?”

  Elsie closed her eyes, she breathed in and out she needed to get her temper under control, “how can I say that. Not five minutes after Joanna walked in the door you did,” she opened her eyes and looked at her mother “and instead of comfort from either of you. You and Joanna got into a verbal sparring match about the merits of my marriage something I don’t need right not.”

  “It’s not like I wasn’t telling the truth. If he hadn’t married you, then you would not have been here in this house wondering if he was dead or alive. You would have been with Raelyn’s, I still hate that name, father.”

  “You get that he relinquished his rights. That there is nothing on this Earth that will make that man come back to me or his daughter. He doesn’t want us Momma but Eric does.”

  “He only wants you because you are a novelty. You are something to do until a white woman comes along and-”

  “Get out”

  “El-”

  “GET OUT!” She screamed as she threw the glass against the wall.

  “Fine,” Madge licked her lips she turned and walked out of the house.

  Elsie leaned against the counter as her tears started to fall she wrapped her arms around herself oh how she wished Eric was here to hold her. She needed him so bad it hurt. She slid down the cabinet walls as the tears raked her body she needed her husband and she needed him now.

  ***

  “Hold on L.T. we got you.”

  Eric shook his head at the blurred images before him who had him? Where was he? The last thing he remembered was someone coming into the room where they were holding him and slicing his upper thigh it hurt so much he thought he was going to bleed to death. He hadn’t screamed though. Screaming only seemed to amuse them so he had given his name, rank and serial over and over.

  “His leg is pretty torn up; we need to get him help as soon as we land.”

  ‘Land? Land where? Where in the hell was he?’

  “Roger that. We’re thirty out”

  “See if we can move faster”

  ***

  Three days. For three days she had watched as her husband was on a twenty four hour news cycle. Elsie shook her head as Joanna and Julia appeared on another new program. They were the concerned mother and sister of Eric Reynolds, POW. They mentioned nothing about her, Elsie, or his daughters sitting at home waiting on his arrival. According to Joanna she was a single mother after his father died and Eric had joined the Army to help with the family. Ha. When Eric’s father had died Eric had been in his teens and had left trust funds for his children and his wife. The Reynolds had never been in desire straights. Not the way Joanna had made it sound.

  Elsie released a breath as she turned off her TV she couldn’t watch her husband’s battered body anymore.

  “Mom?”

  Elsie turned at the sound of her daughter’s voice. Mara had come home crying and pissed because she had found out from a Google alert that Eric had been captured and not her mother. This was the first time her daughter was speaking to her in three days. “Come here.”

  Mara rushed over to her mother, she wrapped her arms around her and started crying, “I can’t sleep.”

  “I know,” Elsie said as she placed a hand on the back of her daughter’s head, “I can’t sleep either” she pulled back and looked at her daughter.

  “I just.. I just want him home.”

  Elsie kissed her daughter’s forehead, “he’s going to come home. We just have to pray that he comes home soon.”

  “Ok”

  “Ok,” Elsie said as she rocked her daughter back and forth she needed her husband. Her daughters needed her husband and she would forever believe that her husband was coming home.

  ***

  “Elsie” he called out, “Elsie baby” he called again.

  “Calm down Reynolds.”

  Eric opened his eyes; he blinked a few times at the glaring sun coming through the window he tried to focus on the person standing by him “Jones”

  “Welcome back to the land of the living”

  “El-”

  “I wanted to wait until you woke to call her.”

  Eric released a breath, “she’s going to cry and be worried.”

  “According to Meghan she already has been. The Army went to Janelle’s since she was named next of kin. Once there she took them to Elsie. Meghan said Janelle was keeping her company but her and Mara are a wreck.”

  “I have to call them.” He coughed, “I have to tell them I’m all right and coming home” Eric tried to sit up but the room was spinning.

  “Whoa, I will get you a phone, just lie still.”

  He nodded, he needed to talk to him wife.

  ***

  She reached for the phone groggily Elsie swallowed and blinked as she looked at the caller ID; she didn’t recognize the number. She slide the screen to answer “hello”

  “Baby”

  “Eric!” She bolted upright in the bed she looked to her left to make sure her shouting hadn’t woken Mara or the baby. She scrambled out of the bed, “where are you? Are you back in the states when can I see you.”

  Eric chuckled just like his wife to get down to business, “I’m on my way back to the States once I’m stable they are going to be shipping me to Virginia to the VA hospital there for a few days then I will be sent back to Clarksville.”

  Elsie swallowed her tears, he was alive and he was calling her “when’s all of this is supposed to happen. I need to get the girls ready to go.”

  “They’re working on that now. I will call you back with all of the details.”

  Elsie covered her mouth with her hand “I-”

  “I now baby I know. Don’t move to far from the phone I will call you soon.”

  “I love you.”

  “I love you too and I can’t wait to see you.”

  Elsie hung up the phone, she released a breath as she closed her eyes, he was alive and he was coming home.

  Chapter 7

  Elsie bounced on the balls of her feet as she waited for the elevator doors to open she was minutes away from seeing her husband and she couldn’t wait. She smiled at the people on the elevator getting off as she got on. The last two days had been the longest of her life talking to Eric but not be able to hold him had almost killed her. She released a breath as the elevator stopped and another person got on. When Eric had called her back after his first call she had cried because he was on the phone with her and not some Army officer telling her, her husband was dead. Elsie got of the elevator on the floor Eric designated he would be on. She walked over to the nurse’s station he had told her the floor but not the room number because he didn’t know. When they had first brought him in he had been on one of the lower floors for evaluation but he knew when she arrived in Norfolk he would be moved to another room after his eval.

  She smiled at the woman behind the desk, “Eric Reynolds”

  The woman nodded, “and you are?”

  “Elsie Reynolds his wife.”

  The woman looked at her in confusion, “
his wife just went to his room ten minutes ago.”

  Elsie shook her head, “that’s not possible.” She reached into her wallet and pulled her military ID from her pocket. Milcome had helped her get it after Janelle had explained the mix up. She showed it to the nurse.

  The nurse licked her lips, she released a breath “I’m sorry, Mrs. Reynolds another woman came in stating she was Lt Reynolds wife and she was let through.”

  “Where is my husband’s room?” Elsie said she would deal with these people later right now all she wanted to do was see her husband.

  “Yes ma’am,” she typed on her computer “room 512. Down this hall fourth door on your right.”

  Elsie nodded, placed her ID back in her pocket turned and headed towards her husband’s room. She swallowed as she wiped her sweaty palms Eric had told her about some of his injuries but she had a feeling he left some things out.

  “I can’t believe you’re here.”

  Elsie slowed her pace at Eric’s raised voice.

  “I just wanted to make sure you were ok.”

  Elsie squinted her eyes what was Maggie doing here? She questioned as she walked further down the hall. She stopped outside the room careful that no one could see her.

  “Now you see that I’m all right you can leave,” Eric told her. Elsie was due any minute and the last thing he wanted was for her to find Maggie here.

  “Eric, please. When I saw you on TV all I could think about was the last time we talked.”

  “When I told you I forgave you?”

  “You didn’t mean it,” Maggie wiped at her tears “you only wanted me to leave.”

  “Like now.”

  “Eric, I just want to be here for you”

  “I have a wife for that I don’t need or want you here Maggie. Listen, Elsie will be here soon and the last thing I want is for her to see you here. I almost lost her once because of you, I won’t do it again”

  “I didn’t mean to cause trouble then.”

  “And now,” he questioned as he rubbed a hand over his forehead he was tired and wanted to lie down but he didn’t want Elsie to see him in bed. No he wanted to be standing strong for her.

  “Now I want to make sure you’re ok. That you’re on your way to healing.”

  “That isn’t your responsibility.”

  “I feel like it is. I feel like I NEED to make sure you are ok. Coming back from something like this can cause so much pain.”

  Eric rubbed his leg, “yeah it can” he said “listen I gave you absolution in Tennessee. I’m done with this conversation and you,” he slowly walked over to her “if you think by helping me that I will give up my wife and children you are sadly mistaken.”

  “Those aren’t even your children.”

  “How-” Eric stopped “my mother”

  Maggie nodded, “yes she called me and told me how Elsie treated her when she came to your home and how the children aren’t yours.”

  “Did my mother tell you how to find me?”

  “Yes”

  He turned from her, “leave”

  “Eric, let me”

  He rounded on her “let you what help me? Why in the hell would I let you help me? You continue to take my mother’s lead. You continue to listen to whatever she says” Eric told her. He was positive whatever happened with Elsie was completely his mother’s fault.

  “Eric, I was with you for two years.”

  “And you left for money,” he raised his hand “I heard you the last time you explained everything and I get it. Helping your brother was important and I’m glad Carlos got the help he needed. You hurt me and Elsie healed me. She and our girls healed me and I will not give that up for anything. Now please leave before she comes. I need my wife right now Maggie not you.”

  “I-”

  “Believe he has asked you to leave several times,” Elsie said as she walked into the room she was done listening it was time she stepped in. She walked over to her husband and wrapped an arm around his waist, “are you supposed to be out of bed” she questioned as she saw the fatigue on his face.

  Eric looked at his wife, she had bags under her eyes, he placed a hand on her cheek “how long has it been since you slept.”

  “That Mr. Reynolds was not the question,” Elsie said as she reached her hand out and ran her fingers lightly over her husband’s bruised cheek.

  “I hate”

  “Shh,” she placed a single finger over his lips. “I’m fine you’re not. I can see the sweat on your brow we are getting you back to bed.”

  “Bossy,” he said as he kissed her finger.

  “Really?” Elsie said with a smile as she removed her finger, “come on” she said as she turned them towards the bed. The bandage on his leg looked as if it was seeping blood. Once she had him settled, she would get a nurse to come in and change it.

  Eric sat on her bed, he looked at his wife; she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. He placed a hand on her cheek her image, her smell had been what kept him going. Determining him to get back to her and their children, “Come lie down with me.”

  “I’m not sure that is allowed.”

  “I got an extra large bed so it could be. That was the reason I wanted you to come by yourself,” he told her. Mara hadn’t been happy when he’d told her she could not come to the hospital to see him. He knew she wanted to make sure he was all right with her own eyes but he just wanted a few hours alone with his wife.

  Elsie gave him a half smile, “an half an hour. I will lie with you for an half an hour.”

  Eric nodded he would take it because he knew once he had his wife in his arms her half an hour time table would disappear. And all would be right in his world and they both would sleep longer than either thought they could. He removed his hand swung his legs on the bed. He scooted over patting the bed beside him.

  Elsie smiled, she slide into the bed. She placed her head on his chest and her hand over his heart it was beating rapidly “Eric?”

  “Shh,” he rubbed his hand up her side “close your eyes. I’m here now.”

  Elsie nodded, she closed her eyes snuggling into her husband more he was here and she had her arms wrapped around him.

  “I think I should leave.”

  Both looked at the end of the bed they had forgotten Maggie was there. “You should have never come,” Elsie told her.

  “I just wanted to make sure Eric was all right.”

  “That is not your concern.”

  “Listen Elsie, I was almost married to the man.”

  “Key word there almost. You were not married to him and I need you to leave and if you ever pull a stunt like the one you pulled to get in here. I will not be responsible for my actions.”

  Maggie huffed turned and walked from the room.

  “What did she do?”

  “Nothing. Now let’s get some sleep. Your Aunt will be here with the girls tomorrow. Mara was not happy to be left in Georgia.”

  “I can only imagine what was said.”

  “Some huffing and puffing like she was going to blow the house down, but nothing I couldn’t handle.”

  Eric chuckled he kissed his wife’s forehead that was his girl.

  ***

  Eric bolted upright in the bed as his dreamed finally released him. He tried to even out his breathing he was home. He had to remember he was home and not back in that hell hole being beaten for information he didn’t have.

  “Eric?”

  He looked to his right Elsie was standing in the bathroom doorway with Raelyn in her arms. She had been his rock the last few weeks. Kicking his butt when he needed it and standing her ground when the Army wanted to give them a hard time about his healing time. The Army had wanted to him back to Post two weeks after his was released from the hospital. Elsie had wanted a month they had agreed on three weeks. Which was up Monday? “I’m ok.”

  Elsie walked over to her husband she placed the baby on the bed then faced him. He wasn’t ok she knew he wasn’t ok but he wasn�
�t going to tell her and she wished he would. She wished he would talk to her but he wouldn’t. He had confessed he didn’t want to taint the happiness they had around them. She placed a hand on his cheek “are you sure?”

  Eric nodded as he looked into her concerned eyes. He covered her hand with his “I promise you I’m ok. Go get the baby ready” he told her. Once he was released from the hospital in Norfolk Elsie had moved them all to Janelle’s so he could recuperate and readjust to being home with her and the kids. His doctors hadn’t been happy but Elsie hadn’t cared all she had cared about getting him better.

  Elsie nodded as she removed her hand, “I’m going to head down and help Janelle with breakfast and the final prep for the party,” she replied as she picked up the baby turned and headed out of the room.

  Eric watched her go they were going to have a welcome home party for him and a memorial service for those they had lost. Eric released a breath as he slung his legs over the side of the bed stood and headed towards the bathroom time to put on a show.

  ***

  He was smiling and laughing with friends but she could still see the haunting in his eyes. This was not the same man who’d left her almost a month ago. No that man was gone and in his place was a man with nightmares and secrets he wouldn’t talk to her about. Elsie smiled at another guest as she headed towards the house she needed to check on the baby. She looked once more in Eric’s direction they had decided to have a homecoming/ memorial at Janelle’s and had invited the families of his fallen brothers and those they knew would wish them well. Meaning not a lot of family for either of them was there. She released a breath Eric had greeted everyone in the same manner slight indifference. He wasn’t rude but she could tell this was the last place he wanted to be.

  Elsie turned back towards the house and headed inside Raelyn was sleeping in the bassinet in the living room. She walked into the room on her right she stilled when she saw Meghan Jones, “Meghan”

  Meghan wiped at her tears, “sorry. I didn’t mean.”

  Elsie shook her head as she walked over to the woman, “figure this would be the only place in the house no one would see you cry.”