Page 6 of When Love Is Lost and Found

Like Sharon, I laid my hand on the casket and cried, silently begging Jimmy to forgive me.

***

I met Jimmy Bowman in basic training. He was younger than me, joining the Marines right out of high school. I was twenty-two and had already graduated from college with a degree in education. We became fast friends when we realized we had a lot in common.

We were both from California. We loved sports, especially football. We enjoyed listening to rock music and reading novels by Stephen King. We were both the oldest of two children. Our parents were not happy about us joining the military, but we both felt it was our calling, so they had no choice but to let us go.

One thing we didn't have in common, though, was that Jimmy was on his way to the altar while I had just gone through a tough break-up.

"Is that your girlfriend?" I asked Jimmy, pointing at the picture in his locker.

"She's my fiancée," he said, smiling, "And before you say anything, I already know she's completely out of my league, but I asked her to marry me, and she said yes."

"She's beautiful," I said, noticing her piercing green eyes. "How are you able to keep eye contact with her? Those eyes. Wow."

"Did you know that only two percent of the world's population has green eyes?"

"I do now," I said, laughing. "How long have you two been together?"

"We have been friends since elementary school. We started dating when she was a freshman and I was a sophomore in high school."

"How did she feel about your enlisting?"

"It's what I've always wanted," he said. "I've been talking about it since I was little, so she always knew. What about you?"

"My uncle was in the Army. I was ten when he returned to the States. He and my dad would sit at the dinner table and talk for hours about what it was like and what he went through. You could say it made an impression on me that I couldn't ignore."

"That's probably why they weren't thrilled about your enlisting. I bet your uncle had plenty of tough stories to share."

"They convinced me to go to college first, and if I still felt the same way after graduating, they'd let me join."

"How's your uncle doing now? " Jimmy asked.

"He's doing great. He was stationed in Japan for a year after Vietnam, where he met his wife. They lived in the States for several years before moving back to Japan when I was sixteen. He's been teaching there ever since."

"No kidding!" Jimmy exclaimed. "I want to live in Japan someday."

"My parents talked about retiring there to be close to my uncle, but then Noah came along and threw a wrench in their plans. They decided to wait a few more years before taking him to live abroad."

"What about you?" Jimmy asked. "They'd just pick up and go, leaving you behind?'

"Well," I said, "I wasn't supposed to be alone."

Jimmy glanced at me and raised a thick eyebrow, waiting for me to elaborate.

"She broke my heart. End of story."

"In other words, she cheated," Jimmy said matter-of-factly.

When I looked at him, feeling completely exposed, it was all the confirmation he needed.

"I'm sorry, Man," he said. "That's gotta be tough."

"It was an emotional affair," I said, "That's what she called it."

"How did you find out?"

"She told me she had to get something off her chest, never expecting me to break up with her because of it."

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