The War Angel

Points pt 2

"but if he's alive..." Winters started but stopped. Evangeline nodded.

"yeah but if he's dead, then that will be it. I'll have no family. I don't know how I would handle that. Especially him. Growing up, I felt like I could always talk to him. Ya know, he didn't have a wife or kids so he was always free to be my pal. I remember this one time, I must've been 9 or 10, and I had my first crush on this boy in the neighborhood- who by the way was way too old. So I learned the hard way why they call them crushes." Evangeline began her story, not entirely sure why she was even telling it to Winters in the first place. But he listened intently, genuinely curious about the story.

"Anyways I was so upset, and I just so happened to run into my Uncle Jimmy on the street. He asked me what was wrong and I told him. So he took me out for ice cream and he told me -and I'll never forget this- he asked me if I knew why he never got married. I said 'no, why?'. and he said 'because the day you were born and the very second that I met you, you stole my heart. I'm madly in love with you. So I really don't see why you're even worried about some dumb kid not liking you, because you know that you'll always be my girl.'" Evangeline was smiling with tears in her eyes remembering the story.

Winters was mesmerized by her, unable to take his eyes from her. His heart swelled at the sweetness of her voice. And he melted at the fact that she was sharing this with him.

"and you know, I knew that the real reason that he never got married is because he didn't want to sleep with the same woman for the rest of his life. But it didn't matter. For him to say that to me, someone whose love and attention I constantly craved and desired...I don't know. Ever since that day, I just didn't care about the boys in the neighborhood or what they thought of me." Evangeline finished the story smiling as she looked into the sky. Then she looked at Winters to see his reaction. His emerald eyes smiled back at her in admiration.

"What was his name? Your Uncle Jimmy?" Winters asked, curious if he could hatch a plan. Evangeline hadn't noticed anything suspicious about the question since she was trying to compose herself. She took a deep breath and dried her eyes.

"James Murphy O'Connell" she answered with pride. Winters only nodded, committing the name to memory. Evangeline looked as though she was about to open her mouth to speak but O'Keefe appeared and interrupted. He was out of breath.

"Major sir, sorry to interrupt but there's been an accident." He puffed out. Winters and Evangeline both sprang to their feet and followed him.

It was Janovec. Killed in a car accident on the road. Evangeline knelt by him and kissed his big lips gently before they covered him back up. The car drove away with him inside of it as Winters and Evangeline stood side by side watching it leave.

"Imagine that. Survive the war only to get killed in a car accident." She said breathlessly in disbelief. Winters winced slightly at the thought of it.

~~~

Evangeline slipped off her boots and rotated her ankle. 6 years of wearing those boots and she was ready to never wear them again. She thought longingly about her tennis shoes and the way they were always about to be scuffed up at this time of year. The kids in the neighborhood would be starting to play baseball. Evangeline always usually played third base.

"hey." Ron announced himself as he entered the room. He sat down on a chair in the room as Evangeline sat on the bed.

"...hey." Evangeline mocked his somber salutation. She looked at him and watched him biting the inside of his mouth. His leg began to bounce and it perturbed her to see him so anxious. "What's eating ya?" She asked taking down her hair to shake it out.

"well I don't know you tell me." He said. She furrowed her brow. He continued. "Today when I told everyone we would be training to go to war you looked like you saw a ghost." He stated slouching back in his seat. Evangeline put her hair back up and sighed.