Chapter Four
I stared at the fireplace. Along the mantle sits two flower vases, a picture of Nick and me, and a picture of my parents. All of those seem normal, but to the far left, sits his honorary flag. It sits in the same spot that our wedding picture was supposed to be in…
“Ma’am?” I jump at the sudden noise and turn around to see the General. “I’m sorry if I scared you, the door was open…” He adds, standing tall beside the door frame.
“Oh, I must have forgotten to shut it…”
He nods. “I just wanted to inform you that I will be heading to the airport as my flight will be taking off soon. It’s time for me to go back now that the funeral is over.”
“Of course.” I pause and stand. “General, I would like to thank you for all you’ve done. It wasn’t expected but greatly appreciated.”
“No, problem, Ms. Woods. Nick was a hero and he will always be remembered. Now, as part of the military’s duty to a fallen soldier’s family, one of us must stay behind for a few months until we feel our duty is complete. Lieutenant Logan Cook has volunteered for this position. You of course have the final say, but I thought he would be best as you know him on a personal level.”
At first, I thought that was kind of weird. Since when does a soldier stay behind to take care of someone’s family? “That’s fine, General.” He smiles as Logan walks in.
He turns to him. “Lieutenant, you know the rules.”
“Yes, sir.”
He turns back to me. “Ms. Woods, if at any time you have any questions or wish to speak with me, you have my number. I always return phone calls. Have a nice day, ma’am.” He adds and exits the house.
Once he’s gone, I look to Logan. “What rules?”
“Just army stuff… Procedures and what not.”
“For what?”
He sighs. “This position is honorary and you must meet certain criteria before they consider you then you have a set of rules to follow, which is what he was referring to.”
“So what do you do, exactly?” I ask, unsure of what the ‘position’ really was.
“The job description is relatively long but I’ll make it brief. I’ll be a grief counselor, an errand runner, sometimes a cop, and most importantly a friend.”
“A cop?” Was I in danger or something?
“You’d be surprised what I’ve run into.”
“Really? So, what’s the rules? If I don’t know them, how am I supposed to know if you break them?” I ask, smiling.
“You have point… I can’t stay overnight. I have to be out of here by eleven and I can’t be here any sooner than six AM unless you call me and it’s an emergency such as a breakdown, burglary, and all that good stuff. I cannot physically harm anyone unless we are threatened, then I have permission to use necessary force.”
“Can you… Kill someone?”
“If that it’s necessary, yes.”
“Bare-knuckle? I mean, I don’t know of anyone that would do that, but what if someone breaks in? They’ll probably have a gun.”
“Do you think I’m that stupid?” He says, reaching behind him. He pulls out a handgun. “Feel better?” I nod, nervously. “I have to ask this, its procedure… Do you know of anyone that hated Nick?”
I shake my head. “No.”
“Disliked Nick?”
“Nope.”
“Hated you, maybe? Although, I couldn’t see how that would be possible.”
“Aw, sucking up, I see. Nice try.” I chuckle. “Well, I don’t know about hate. But his mother and his aunt seemed to get into it a lot.”
“About?”
“Nick’s aunt loved me, his mother, on the other hand, was a different story. Didn’t you see her give me the evil eye at the funeral?”
“That was her?”
I nod. “Yep.”
“Why doesn’t she like you?”
I take a deep breath, trying to make a long story short. “Well, ever since I met Nick, he always spent more time with me than her. She didn’t want him to go to the army, she wanted him to become a successful businessman like his father and you and I both know, that was never Nick’s dream. She was upset with me when I let him join, but I wasn’t the boss of him. I mean, did I like the idea? No. But it was what he wanted. She also got upset when I was presented with the flag and not her.”
“Hmm. Well, when you enter the army, you have a lot of paperwork to fill out. In all that, you have to state who gets what if something were to go wrong. Your name was all he wrote. If she wants to see it, I have copies of it, I’d be glad to show her.”
“She won’t care what Nick wanted, it’s always been about her,” I add and walk into the kitchen. I pour myself a fresh cup of coffee. “Want some?”
“Actually, I don’t drink coffee.” He states.
I cock an eyebrow. “Really? Well, okay then.” I add and sit down at the bar. Logan stands in the doorway. “Ya know, if you’re going to be around me all the time, you need to lighten up.”
“What do you mean?”
“If you’re going to follow me around all day, you don’t need to stand in the corner all awkward like. I believe you said you were supposed to be a friend, so start acting like one.”
He laughs a bit and sits down next to me. “Bossing a soldier around, eh? That’s a good way to start off the day.” He laughs.
“I wasn’t being bossy, I was simply stating a fact.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah, really. Now, since you’re not supposed to stay the night here, where exactly do you go?” I was actually just curious but I figured he would be at the Hilton or something. Boy was I wrong…
“The General booked a room a couple blocks away at the Super 8.”
I scrunched my nose is disgust. “Ew! Dude, that place is nasty!”
He shakes his head. “No, it’s not. Trust me, once you’ve slept in mud, you’ll settle for anything and besides, they just remolded a couple weeks ago. It’s isn’t bad.”
The rest of the day was kind of lazy. I didn’t really do anything. I just caught up on the laundry and cleaned up the house a little… Then I sat down in the living room and stared at the flag. “You know, staring at that isn’t going to make life any easier for ya,” Logan says from the hallway.
“I know… But I have nothing better to do…”
“You should take up a hobby.”
“Like what?”
“Well, I used to go out to the gun range.”
“What do you mean, ‘used to’?” I ask.
He sighs before sitting down next to me. “You’ll find out sooner or later, so I’m just as well to tell you now. You know how I said I understand?”
I nod.
“Because I went through the same thing you are now… Nick and I were very much alike, I met my wife in high school, as did he, and I married her a week after graduation. I decided to go into the military and right before Nick joined, I got a letter that said she had passed away. She was in a car accident and a drunk driver drove her off the road. She was killed instantly and the worst part was, by the time I got back home, I was an hour late and the funeral was over. I didn’t get to see her one last time or say goodbye… She was already buried.”
In that very moment, I wasn’t sorry for myself. “Oh, I’m sorry, Logan. I had no idea… I’m sorry I yelled at you.” I couldn’t believe someone so strong had gone through something so terrible…
“You didn’t know and besides, you ain’t a very good soldier if you can’t take a little yelling ever now and then.” He glances at the clock. “It’s almost eleven, I’d better go. Call me if you need me.”
“Yes, sir. And just to let you know, I’m up at five AM every morning, so I’ll be waiting to let you in.”
“Really? Well, aren’t you an early bird?” He smiles and walks out the door.
“Have a good night, Caroline.” He adds.
I watch him leave before I lock up for the night. To be honest, it was nice having some
company, I didn’t feel all alone as I normally did…