“Good for you. So how can I thank you? You saved Medea.”
“Yeah, the kid is going to be all right. She’s with people that will help her go on. You don’t owe me anything, Richard. You died fighting for this country, and for a bum like me. I owe you.”
“You’re quite a guy, Blake.”
“I’ve been called that, along with other things not too complimentary.”
“Be careful, Blake. Live a long life. I’ve got to go now. I hear a bugle in the distance and that means I have to answer the muster call with the others. Soldiers from the American Revolution and to all the wars we’ve had are gathering to stand duty, to guard this country.”
“Do you know when it will end, Richard—when there will finally be peace on Earth? Is there somebody, where you’re at, that might know, and they’ve told you?”
“No. If there is, I haven’t met him, yet. Not even the Prussian Soldier who helped train our Revolutionary Army, Baron von Friedrich Wilhelm Steuben, knows. Blake, starting with the American Revolution the United States has been in constant wars, and that is just horribly mind boggling. It leads me to believe that peace will only happen when there are no more humans on this planet. Now, isn’t that my pleasant thought for the day? I’ll keep trying to get through to my wife, to where she can hear me. So it’s goodbye, for now, Blake. Who knows, I might check up on you, once in a while, and help you with your detective work. How does that sound to you?”
“I’ll look forward to it. Believe me, most of the time, I need help. So, until we meet again, so long, Richard.”
I worked hard at finishing what was left in the rye bottle. I looked at the only picture I have of Dru and mumbled at it.
“I love you, Dru. I don’t want anybody to take your place. Once in a lifetime, a man will meet the one lady he wants to walk through life with. You were that lady.”
I finished the rye. Before I passed out, I heard a voice whispering, “I love you, Thanet.” I answered back, “I love you, Dru.”
And how was your Memorial Day?
About the Author
During the Korean War Wayne Greenough served on the Aircraft Carrier, CVA 37. In civilian life he lived next door to a Pearl Harbor Survivor. When the man passed on he was given a military burial. The bugler played taps and Wayne Greenough wept.
Memorial Day Page 5