Seven Nothing Days Part 2

I spent most of that day like I did the night before, mouth deep in every bottle in the house. I was passed out when the call came, the phone waking me despite it never having done so previously when my mother, sister, and soon to be ex brother in law had all called. Yet another sick damn twist in some master game. It was around three a clock in the afternoon, I was still too drunk too talk straight, the cop probably thought I was an alcoholic when I slurred a "yeah, this is him", at my name. When he said my wife was in a bad wreck on State 129 I'm ashamed to say my first drunken thought was relief. "I hope the bitch is dead", I yelled before slamming the phone down before falling back asleep mumbling about no alimony and not worrying about child support.

It was well past six when the near incessant pounding on my door woke me up. My mother and sister had came to get me, to see if I was even still breathing. They made me get dressed in at least some clean sweatpants and a t-shirt before stuffing me into the car. Apparently her eldest brother had been in a car wreck of his own two states away and she had flown out of work trying to meet her other siblings at the hospital. A semi's brake lines weren't working and when she blindly tried to merge lanes, it was painless I was later told. It wasn't until they got some coffee in me that I sobered up enough to realize what all this was. It wouldn't have mattered what I did the day before, today she had an important meeting, today she would have been in her office and gotten the call about her brother at the same time, today she would have drove onto highway 129 at the exact same time and that exact same truck would have been in the exact same place. I think my crazy laughter until we got to the hospital was part of the reason my mother and sister never treated me the same way ever again.

Nancy's parents had died three years ago, cancer and a heart attack barely a month apart. Her other brother and sister were too busy trying to get there remaining siblings medical needs squared away. It fell to me to ID the body. When the nurse pulled back the blanket and I looked down at the lifeless face that was my wife, that was the mother of my future child, that was up until the day before the most important person in my life, I should have broken, like a paper swan in the rain I should have melted then and there. No one would have blamed me, in fact it was expected in spite of the circumstances. But I was quiet, I'd already had six days to say good bye. "Yep, that's Nancy" is all I said before turning and calmly walking away.

For a long time I thought that day stretched into seven was just for me. I thought that god had decided to let me say goodbye on my own terms and in my own sweet time. I knew what I would have done if he hadn't, the pain of losing a wife and child so suddenly, the hurt and what ifs of a perfect future suddenly thrown to hell. If I hadn't gone for one of my pistols or the rope in the garage the alcohol or pure carelessness and depression would have surely ruined me. But why did they have to be taken, why did a being that could make me relive days take them from me.

I got the first inkling of it all being part of something bigger when the draft letter came. We were at war, true war, for the first time in decades and I was a low-level underwriter for a relatively minor insurance company. A widower, just under thirty, no kids or dependents, no major physical ailments. If I wasn't the first man on the list I should have been the second. I signed up for officer school because it seemed like the thing to do, high test scores, college educated, ex boy scout and collegiate seasonal athletics club president. What more could they want in the next Patton. I scored expert marksman with a pistol but barely qualified with any rifle or machine gun handed to me, I guess that's probably why I got tossed into the police force.

For two years I was a stateside MP, some people might say it was the three 'possible saboteurs (a pair of curious teenagers and a mentaly ill vagrant) I captured in my time at Fort Bragg that got me bumped to Captain, others that I was an ass kissing yes man. Really it was because I was too old and uncaring to be anything less in the US army, or anything more for that matter. I got sent to some little South Asian country as a company leader. Our main job was "protecting" VIPs a hundred miles behind the line.

The General was young for a two star, possibly one of the youngest in US military history. He was fresh off a victory in the Pacific, a victory that had won an entire theatre three months early and with 10,000 fewer casualties then expected. In fact beyond where he had been we were either at a standstill or slowly losing ground to the enemy. There were rumors that if he broke the standoff in this jungle he would get a third star and command of all troops in lower Asia. But he wasn't a pompous asshole either, he talked to me like an equal that whole week that we guarded him and his entourage as they toured camp after camp in a snaking trail towards the front. He even thanked me and my men for the dedicated work. Everyone saw an ace to win the war, I saw a future President.

During that week Nancy and the day I had come to calling the 'nothing week' were as far to the back of my mind as they could be. There was work to do, no time to think about what put me here or why. But, as I watch my men thrust the pistol of the would be assassin skyward, as my ears rings from a shot that tears through only canvas, as I see the grenade lacking a pin fall from the shell shocked soldiers sleeve, it all makes sense. You would think I would have rushed and jumped into action instead of just standing there staring. I know though, I know that this is merely a moment, a moment that I was destined to have. Hell, maybe if I don't jump I'll relive today too, or maybe even my whole life since that day I kicked Nancy out. I'm the only one that sees it, and even if anyone else does the only other person who could do anything is one of my men. John, he's got a wife and kids. Terry, his mom's in the hospital and he's currently fighting to keep a pistol pointed skywards. Miguel, if he doesn't get the General back it won't matter what anyone does, besides, his sister would kill me anyway. I could go for the door, if I had Nancy and a baby at home I would, fuck the General. But with no one, there's no point. Hell I wouldn't even be here if they were alive, ditto if I was dead to a 9mm or a bottle to a grief stricken brain. Maybe I could throw it, no, there's too many people in the way. I smile slightly, when I had shipped off my mother had said she didn't want to be handed a metal. Sorry mom, at least you'll get to meet the president with this one.

All this to save some men, no not to just save some men. I was right about the General, so is everyone else, he's going place and the world will go with him and him only. A little bit of spite for the universe wells up deep in side, a part of me thinks to just draw my pistol and do it myself as a giant middle finger to the greater plan. It's fleeting though, I had long ago come to terms with it, I had suffered too much, destiny had beaten me down just as it had over the nothing week. I look towards the General as I leap, everything moving in slow motion. I see the disbelief in his eyes, the confusion, the hint of burgeoning fear of what's to come next. they remind me of myself, one morning, a lifetime and seven days ago.