Hearts Afar

...2...

Chapter 2

 

Two weeks after the news about my father, Duncan officially asked me out. To say that people were surprised when we came to school together was an understatement. People didn’t even know that we knew each other. It’s been six months now and other than dad, it has been great to have someone to distract me sometimes and make me think of something other than the whereabouts of dad.

 

Today was Wednesday and I had to wait on Duncan to get finished with the soccer team meeting. They didn’t have practice today but the coach still had them meet. When he finally walked out, we went to his car, hand in hand and headed home.

 

He parked the car in his driveway and instead of grabbing his backpack; he left it in the backseat. He only got it out if he had homework. He grabbed mine and walked to the back, waiting on me. We walked across the street to my house and sat down on the swing. I didn’t have any homework, so I just wanted to enjoy the weather. I closed my eyes and leaned against his shoulder.

 

I didn’t realize I had drifted off until I was opening my eyes after feeling his grip on my shoulders tighten. I looked up at him and wondered what was going on. He was paying attention to something down the road. I turned my attention to where he was gazing. I saw the sleek black sedan driving ever so slowly down my street. My breath automatically hitched and I felt like I was on the verge of hyperventilation.

 

When the car stopped just before getting to my house, it made me wonder. I wanted to hope that there was good news and that daddy had been found but when neither door opened, the tears came flooding. Duncan leaned over and kissed my temple.

 

          “I’ll go see what they want,” he said, standing and walking to the car. I felt myself shaking and I just wanted Duncan’s arms around me again. When I saw him stand straight back up, he pulled his cell phone out of his back pocket. He said something into the phone quickly and started walking back to the porch. I couldn’t read his face and that all I wanted, answers.

 

          “It’s the same two as before.”

           “Did they say anything? I asked in a whisper.

           “Only to call your mom home,” he said, taking his seat next to me again.

           “Could you tell anything from their faces?”

           “Not a thing, Claire-bear, they kept a very neutral expression,” he told me honestly, wrapping his arms around me tightly.

 

Mom must not have been far away because it took exactly seven minutes for her and the twins to pull into the driveway. She grabbed her purse and told the girls to get the bags out of the trunk. I couldn’t read mom’s face but she already had tear tracks down her cheeks. She smiled weakly at the men and ushered everyone in for the news.

There was complete silence as everyone took a seat. General Major Hatfield took a seat closest to my mom. Cassie and Lacey sat in the two other chairs and Duncan and I sat on the bench. He wrapped his arms around me tightly as if to support me. He really was a great boyfriend and I was thankful that he was here now.


        
          “Mrs. Henderson, we have found your husband’s platoon. Out of the eighteen men that inculded your husband, five were dead,” he said, taking a deep breath. I already knew what he was going to say next and I figure everyone else did also. Although we knew, it still seemed like foreign words entering our ears. “Your husband was among the deceased.”



That’s when everything came crashing down. I saw Cassie nd Lacey grip each other like the whole world was crumbling to pieces. Mom screamed out and fell to the floor. I couldn’t see anything from the tears in my eyes and I slowly felt myself fading everything out.

* * * *

I wasn’t sure where I was when I opened my eyes. The only thing I could feel was someone’s arms around me and the steady rise and fall of their chest. When I was awake enough to know what was going on, I realized I was laying across Duncan’s chest. I blinked a few times, trying to make the awful truth disappear.

I couldn’t accept the fact that I’ll never see my dad again, at least I didn’t want to. The thoughts of never hearing his laughter in the house just about unnerved me. Than I thought about the future.

How he wouldn’t be here to see me graduate high school or to help me move to my dorm for college. How he wouldn’t be here to lecture Duncan about treating me right. What hurt the most was the fact that I wouldn’t have my daddy walk me down the aisle when I got married. He would never be able to hold his grandchildren. Those thoughts alone made the waterworks return.


        
          “It’s ok, Claire,” Duncan said, trying to reassure me.

          “No it’s not, Duncan. My dad is dead, he’ll never walk back in the house. How is it going to be ok,” I cried into his chest. His arms tightened once again and even though I felt as broken as a shattered glass, I felt safe.



I needed to go talk to mom and the girls because if they were as broken as I was, I knew what kind of shape they were in. While I had Duncan comforting me, mom and the girls had no one. I started to get up and Duncan walked with me. I first looked in the girls rooms and noticed that they weren’t in there so I headed to mom’s room. When I opened the door, the first thing I noticed was the twins laying haphazardly across mom’s bed. I looked around the dimly lit for mom and saw that she was sitting in the corner, knees to chest, head in hands.

I walked up to her quietly and dropped down beside her. She looked at me and it looked as though all the tears had finally run there course, however, it has left her eyes red and puffy. There was absolutely no color in her face and her whole body started shaking when I wrapped my arms around her.

I looked around for Duncan and realized that he was still standing outside of the room, giving us a little bit of privacy. I couldn’t tell you how long I sat there with mom but I soon realized that she had finally fallen asleep. I didn’t want to take the chance of waking her up so I tried to make myself more comfortable against the wall and just held my mom.

* * * *

When I woke up, I was on something soft. I knew that I shouldn’t be the least bit comfortable because I fell asleep on the floor, against the floor and with mom laying across me. Imagine my surprise that I was actually in my bed when I came to completely. When I could actually make sense of my surroundings, I smelled food cooking.

I got up and instantly pulled my hair back. After stretching, I got up and walked downstairs. I half expected mom to be standing at the stove cooking up breakfast. When I walked into the dining area, I saw mom, Cassie and Lacey sitting at the table.



          “Where’s Duncan” I asked, not looking over at the stove.

          “Over here, babe,” his voice came from behind me.



I walked over to him and he gave me a quick one armed hug and kissed my forehead. I looked at what he was cooking. He had scrambled eggs going in one skillet, sausage links in another and currently he was pouring batter into the waffle maker. I really did luck up in being able to call him mine.



          “Your cooking?” I asked unbelievable.

          “Don’t sound so surprised,” he said, offering me a small smile.

          “I am.”

          “I wasn’t going to let you all go hungry, not after everything,” he looked me in the eye.

          “Your amazing, you know that?”

          “I try,” he smiled and kissed me again.



After we all ate, Duncan and I went outside and just sat with each other. The twins went back to their room and mom wanted some privacy. She was going to start making the dreaded calls letting them know about dad. I wanted to stay with her but after telling me that she would be ok, Duncan talked me into coming outside.



          “What do you think will happen now?” I asked him out of the blue.

           “What do you mean?”

          “I mean, I know there will be a service but where’s that going to leave my family?”

           “Claire, your mom will be ok. Yeah, it might take some time, but she’s strong and so are you. It will eat at you for awhile but you’ll recover faster because you’ll want to be strong for your mom and the girls. You won’t let anyone know much it bothers you and you’ll sit on your own and handle it your way but you’ll know you’ll be ok,” he told me.

           “How did I luck up with you” I asked, leaning into his arms. I didn’t want him to let go.

           “I’m the lucky one,” he said.



It practically took mom all day to make the phone calls, between her family and dad’s, there where a lot of people. When she called dad’s parents, Nanny and Papa wanted to speak to us girls to. Nanny told us that if we wanted to, we could come to Hartford, Connecticut and they would pay for the airline tickets there and back to North Carolina. I told her that we would think about it and talk to mom about it but we would let her know.

She also told me that she already had a feeling daddy was gone. She and dad had always been close, just like all of her kids and she said that she always knew when one of her kids were hurt, sad or happy. She said that she couldn’t feel a connection with her second oldest son when we were first told about his platoon being missing. 

I knew that I had to accept the fact that daddy was gone, but I still didn’t want to believe it. I just wanted to be able to hear his laugh again, see the brown eyes that I had gotten from him. I knew that it was true but it would take awhile to accept it.

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Hey everyone.... sorry for the delays in updates but I have been EXTREMELY busy.

I am actually doing really good this semester except with Accounting and that's because I just don't understand so I'm going to end up dropping the class all together.

On another note... I have had a really bad toothache for the past 3 days and it's really had me down but it's getting better.

If you are a reader of STOLEN INNOCENSE.. I had to put it on hold until further notice because I just can't find the time to work on it. The only reason I can post this one is because I've already had it typed up.

Anyway... hope you enjoy.