Retrouvailles Revisited

Chapter 1 - Reflections

"Good morning Momma" Captain Christopher Johnson says to his mother as he enters the kitchen.

"Oh Christopher how handsome you look in your uniform. Why do you have it on today?"

"I told Dr. Collins that I would be at school today to see the JRROTC rifle team off to their competition"

"So what would you like to eat?" Erin asked her son.

"How about some scrambled eggs"

"Honey, while you're waiting, would you go out on the porch and greet Papa LaSalle. I heard him and that old dog of his out in the yard. He hardly slept last night. I know he misses mother. Your uncle Dylan told him that he didn't have to be so tough before we left for the viewing. I think it really helped to have their old friend from New York here. Miss Tammy cried and that allowed him to cry with her. I'd only seen him cry two other times. One when my grandmother died and then when his old boss "King" died."

"Good morning Papa LaSalle" young Christopher says as the screen door slams behind him.

"Hey Marine, what are you up to? Are you too embarrassed to come give your grandfather a hug?"

"No Papa" he says as he embraces his grandfather as he slowly rises from his rocker.

"How are you doing Papa" he asks as he gazes at him intently?

"I'm all right" he says with resolve.

"Papa that's all right. I miss Nana too. I will miss her letters. She wrote me faithful while I was at boot camp and when I was stationed at the Embassy in France. I got a letter from her just last week. My girl was at the house when I opened it and she gave that 'WTH' look as she observed Nana's handwriting. She was one of the few people who still wrote handwritten letters and one of the few people that understood that 'mail call' was still important to GIs. I could put her letters in a pocket and pull them out when I was on a ship during a communications blackout. I still remember her coming to my short order drill competitions at MLK."

"She loved you boy. She's the one that insisted that your father name you after me."

"What do you have there Papa" young Christopher asks LaSalle?

"Oh it's an old photo of your grandmother on one of our assignments. She jumped into the river to save herself and a subject from getting shot. She looked and smelled like a wet dog. Triple PPP took this photo then told her to go home and get cleaned up 'cause she stunk!"

"Papa I remember you telling me about meeting Nana and working with her but you never said a whole lot about how you found her after she left New Orleans."

"Well, that's a long story Chris and I hear your mother calling. Remind me and I will tell you that one another day."

Alone once again, Christopher LaSalle stroked his unshaven face and thought about the first day he met Sonja Percy as well as the day that she left New Orleans and all the time in between. He once again realized how he almost lost being 'forever happy' because he was a knucklehead. He smiled to himself as his thoughts turned to that next time he saw her and the ensuing years that they spent loving each other.