Page 91 of Welcome Home, Cowboy
Julie sucked in a breath. “Good advice. Thank you.” She hugged Val’s neck. “And thank you both for coming.”
“Wouldn’t miss it,” Kat said. “Now go cut that ribbon.”
Julie nodded. She’d never been good at interviews and this felt like one big interview. She was the new assistant director for the Veterans’ Center. The town was meeting her in this role for the first time today and she wanted to make a good impression. She planned on staying in this job for a long time. It was going to demand a lot of her time and energy, and she had plans to add more than just yoga classes. She was thinking about possibly offering a meditation class, too.
Allison waved her up toward the front of the building. Mr. Banks stood beside her, along with a few other people that Julie recognized. She stood with them and waited to say something that was somewhat intelligent. At least she prayed it would be.
Allison spoke first. Then Mr. Banks. Then they ushered her in front of the microphone.
“Hello, everyone. I feel honored to be here today, among so many people who have fought for this country. You are all my heroes, and I consider it an honor to be able to work with you, to give back, and hopefully help in some small way.” She smiled, looking out into the crowd. She hadn’t jumbled or stuttered any of her words so far. “Thank you.” She was unconsciously looking for Lawson as she addressed the crowd. How long would she do that? Would she look for him everywhere she went from now on? Would she wonder if it was him every time the phone rang?
Rose was standing in the front of the crowd. She’d been coming to Julie’s yoga classes from the beginning. She had PTSD from her war experiences, but she was fighting for some kind of normalcy.
Julie stepped over and placed the scissors in Rose’s hands. “You do the honors.”
Rose’s mouth fell open. “Me?”
“This building is for our heroes. It’s for you. You should cut the ribbon,” Julie said quietly enough for only Rose to hear.
Rose curled her fingers around the handles of the scissors. “I would love to.”
It was a small crowd, but they went wild as the scissor’s blades chopped through the yellow ribbon. Julie’s throat tightened as she looked out at the people surrounding the front of the building again, hoping to see one particular face.
But she didn’t.
—
Lawson focused on the missing Marine and not the fact that he was in a cockpit for the first time in months. He went through the motions that he could do in his sleep.
“Don’t kill us both,” Commander Oakes advised through the headset, looking over.
Lawson nodded. “Not today, sir. We have a life to save.” And that’s what he focused on. Not the sounds of metal gnashing in his memory. Not what had happened the last time he’d gone airborne.
He took a deep breath in through his nose, and exhaled. In through his nose and exhaled, watching the ground disappear as they lifted and started flying east toward the coordinates of the missing Marine. There was a search party on the ground, but there’d been no success, which meant the dense expanse of trees needed to be searched overhead. It was a fifty-fifty chance, in Lawson’s mind, if they were looking for the living or the dead.
A chill ran over him and those pesky memories of death on his last flight niggled in his mind. He focused on his breath and the memory of Julie’s voice telling him torelease and let go.She’d been a calming force in his life since he’d met her. Better than any therapy the Corps could offer.
And now he was being torn away from her.
They approached the area where the Marine had gone missing, and he started to look down, praying silently that this flight was about life and not death.
Please let him be alive.
Please let him be alive.
It became a mental chant. He breathed in and chanted. Breathed out and chanted. They searched for over an hour, flying over the trees with nothing to show for their efforts. They were just turning to head back when Lawson saw something. At first he thought it was his mind playing tricks. It’d been good for that over the last few months. Then he realized that he was looking at a parachute caught up in one of the pines, its strings holding on to its lifeless passenger.
“Please let him be alive.” He said it out loud this time.
“Captain?” Commander Oakes glanced over and Lawson pointed. “There. In the tree.” He called out the coordinates to the local search and rescue chopper several miles away, breathing in and out. Then they circled and waited, the minutes ticking like hours.
“You just keep this thing in the air like you’re doing,” Commander Oakes said. “Because of you, we’re bringing this Marine home to his family tonight.”
Dead or alive was the question. Those were the unspoken words. They were implied, though, and it terrified him. Not because of the past. That didn’t matter right now. It was the future hanging in the balance. This guy had friends and family. He had a life he needed to get back to.
The search and rescue chopper came into view. Lawson kept his helicopter hovering at a distance, and they watched as a team of men worked. One man suspended down from the chopper, swinging gently in the modest breeze and the wind coming off the chopper. He reached the parachute and pulled at the strings.
Lawson swallowed as the lifeless body came into view. Acid rose up in his throat.
