The Dangerous Gentleman

Chapter XXXVI | Underwood's History

It was one day, both Elizabeth and Amethyst were going through the attic because they were looking for something that was important to the family. However during the search, they came across old albums filled with family pictures from different generations. Amethyst said "I thought these were destroyed in the fire". Elizabeth had replied "Nah, our father keeps the albums safe underground due to that concern".

Elizabeth said "They may destroy our house but our heritage will live on forever, no matter what our enemies will do, our photos tell our family for generations". Amethyst only asked "So what's the history behind your family, where does it all begin". Elizabeth replied "Well it begins back in sixteen eighteen, when our descendants came from Britain". She added "Our name wasn't always underwood, it became that in Eighteen seventy two".

Amethyst had gone through the photos and she said "My family goes back centuries, back to the Aztec Empire" as she went through the albums. She said "It seems like the ones we know the most were the victims of the acts of war". Elizabeth only nodded before she said "one of our descendants lost her husband in the Battle of Gettysburg". She stated "he was fighting under General Grant at the time, killed by a cannon".

Amethyst nodded before she stopped at a photo and she said "So what's this story" and she showed one photo of Romeo back when he was younger. Elizabeth replied "Ah well back in middle, Rome was a part of the school football team". Elizabeth added "He was good but his grades were an issue so he ended up just leaving the team". She added "then he became a volunteer at the age of seventeen, that was when his grades picked up".

Amethyst nodded as she continued to look around, however she peered out of the window, Romeo and Blake were working on his truck. Elizabeth said "What are you looking at?" as she came over to see and she said "Ah I see then". Amethyst rolled her eyes and she went to look around the room before she picked up a folded flag. It soon became two folded flags actually, which she asked "What are these then".

Elizabeth said "Ah the flags, well" she cleared off an area and she unfolded them, one of the flags was the Imperial Japanese Flag. She unfolded the other flag to reveal a swastika which she said "Family fought in the second world war". She added "First flag was taken after the battle of Peleliu Island in 44, by my grandfather's company". She looked at the other flag and it seemed like she was dead quiet for a brief moment.

Elizabeth only said "This one was gifted by a fellow member in the other guys platoon" and Amethyst asked "What is the story behind this one?". Elizabeth replied "It's actually a hard one because he was killed in action, for the meaning of this story". She said "He was killed in Forty Five, during the assault on Remagen". She added "he was killed in combat, it was the Volkstrum and the seventh army against the First Army".

Elizabeth added "They never mentioned that the twelfth panzer grenadier division took part in the battle, SS took part in the final defense". Elizabeth only folded up the flags now, and she said "He was buried in the cemetery nearby". Before she had gone and opened up a box, within the box there was some stuff that their grandfathers had. Amethyst had picked up something and she looked at the portrait and she said "Huh".

Elizabeth asked, "What is it?" Amethyst replied "He looks a lot like Romeo" and she showed the photo to Elizabeth, only Elizabeth got a chuckle out of it. Elizabeth stated "He sure does, I wouldn't be surprised if his looks got passed down to my brother". Amethyst chuckled and she said "All of my portraits are back in New York". Elizabeth nodded before she said "Nah, but honestly our family has seen a lot of conflicts, the Civil war to Vietnam".

Elizabeth grabbed a photo of her own father and showed it to her, and Amethyst looked at it before she said "Huh, what's with the constant beret then?". Elizabeth replied "Fifth Special Forces Group" only then her father said "What are you two doing". Elizabeth almost dropped the photo, her father had come over to them and looked. He says "I see you're going through our family history, Elizabeth?".

Elizabeth nodded, she said "She was curious about learning about our history, so I was going through the interesting parts". Elizabeth asked "So what's Romeo doing" to which her father replied "Fixing the engine, I guess a part broke". Elizabeth nodded before she went through and grabbed a medal and she said "Oh I haven't found this". When she opened it, it was a medal of honor which her father immediately took from them.

Her father said "You both shouldn't have seen that" which he placed in his pocket, he had hidden his medal because he didn't want to talk about it. Not because he didn't want to but because it didn't matter in the end. He was secretive about his time in the Green Berets, and he didn't like telling his stories of his time in Nam. That Medal of honor horrified him, it gave him nightmares and that was why he hated it and the reason he had it.

Elizabeth had always questioned why he always hid his story, even with Blake and Romeo, neither of them could get him to bulge on his story. Their father did not want to speak about his story in Vietnam, and he'll continue to not speak it either. He was determined to keep this to himself until the day he dies, he doesn't want to relive that day. The very same day that despite him saving their lives, they ended up dying later that day.

Their father had sat in his room, and he only thought about those moments and the sounds of helicopter rotors and bullets whizzing all around. The sound then got more intense by the radio chatter and then the sounds of the F-4's dropping Napalm onto the forest. He snapped out of it when his wife had placed her hand on his shoulder. He said "Oh it's you" and his wife only asked "Another moment" which he nodded.

These moments were more frequent in the past few days, which was a concern for some of the family because they didn't know what to do now. The Andersons breathing on their neck, it seemed like the stress was causing him to go back into those moments. It was destroying him as a person and personally for Romeo and Elizabeth it was a concern. They did not want to see their father end up in some home because of it.

Mainly because their father wanted to live his last days on the ranch, then to sit in home being surrounded by strangers, isolation and peace that was his way to go. It would also do him certainly better to go in peace then to have the nurses deal with his flashbacks. Their parents had been together for many years. Despite the incidents, their mother hasn't turned her back on their father and she has stayed by him even through these moments.