Page 2 of The Homecoming

Autumn shook her head. Her brother was in the army and somewhere in the desert, as far as she knew. “Deployed somewhere. He’s still got a couple of months before he’ll surface again.”

Dee continued talking about her kids, but Autumn tuned it out. She gave the occasional nod, to convince Dee she was listening. Autumn glanced around the backyard. Relatives from all over the region were eating, talking, and laughing. Time and distance had created a space between her and the rest of her family. She had changed, and most of them ignored her whenever she was around. It didn’t matter how much she tried to relate to them. Maybe being aware of the fact only made it worse. Autumn and Dee practically grew up together, inseparable from the ages of nine through fourteen. After that, Dee was busy with boys and now, she was practically a stranger. Autumn’s head throbbed and she was desperate to get away from the crowd surrounding her even if most of them didn’t pay her any attention.

Autumn was extricated from her conversation with Dee by her toddlers’ exhausted tantrum. Inside the kitchen, the air was cool and quiet. The commotion of the large family gathering remained outside. Autumn found the headache medicine and considered sneaking off to her room when Daniel appeared at the door. The last time she saw him, he was a skinny eighteen-year-old leaving for boot camp with her brother. The scruffy, military man in front of her was over six feet tall, an imposing figure even in shorts, a t-shirt, and a ball cap. “Hey, it’s the graduate,” Dan said. “I’ve been looking for you.” He closed the door behind him.

“Well, here I am,” she replied. Autumn had known Dan since childhood; he was her brother’s best friend. Jason and Dan had spent endless years torturing Autumn and her friends. When she was seven, they tied her up with a vine that turned out to be poison ivy. In the moment, she swore she would never forgive them. But time faded the anger along with the rash, and the incident became a footnote of a long-forgotten summer. They initially exchanged letters after he and Jason went to boot camp; she’d gotten to know Dan well through their correspondence. But she had been fifteen then, and he was cute but too old for her. Eventually, the letters slowed until they came to a stop. She hadn’t seen him in nine years.

“Hiding from your party?” he asked.

“Trying and failing.” Autumn shot him a sarcastic smile.

Dan smiled. “You want to go for a drive?”

“Sounds great.”

The world passed by from the passenger window of Dan’s jeep. They rode down the old neighborhood roads that were vaguely familiar, something Autumn would have to get used to if she planned to stay. The mid-May evening was more temperate than usual, and there was even a slight chill in the air with the window down. He turned out of the subdivision onto Main Street where most of the town’s shops lined the road on the way to the town square with a courthouse in the center. On the other side of the square, the streets were narrow and wound through fields and farmland until the town nestled against the plateau.

She watched him in her periphery with one hand on the wheel and the other on the stick shift. He moved and drove with the confident air of a man comfortable in his skin. Sergeant Daniel Madera of the United States Special Forces, known as the Green Berets. He’d spent the first part of his military career with the 75th Ranger Regiment and had initially joined the Army like many other young men his age on the heels of the terrorist attack on 9/11. He’d been around the world and had served in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Kosovo. Nine years later, he couldn’t imagine doing anything else with his life other than stomping out terrorists. Unfortunately, the MO of the bad guys had changed for the worse over the years and picking out who was friend or foe had become far more difficult.

“So, you’re still in the terrorist-stomping line of work?” she asked.

“You could say that.” He slowed to allow a car to cross the road in front of them.

“Is terrorist-stomping in the job description?”

He smiled. “Something like that.”

“Okay,” she said. “How long are you home?”

“I’m here until they tell me to come in for orders.”

“Where, Fort Campbell?”

He shook his head. “Fort Bragg.”

“But you don’t have a timetable to return?” She watched him drive, his dark eyes shielded by sunglasses.

“No, ma’am,” he replied. “What about you?”

She sighed at this change of subject. “What about me?”

He glanced at her. “You’re back?”

She rubbed her forehead. “Yeah. I graduated and with no job and no prospects. I’m here.” It was her turn to change the subject on him. “Heard from Jason lately?”

“I was in the field until a few days ago and haven’t had a chance to catch up.”

Autumn wondered. “So, do you know where he is?”

“I don’t.” He reached over and his large, warm hand rubbed hers. “I’m sure he’s fine. You don’t need to worry.” She hadn’t been worried until then.

***

Dan pulled up and parked in a space in front of the Dairy Stop. It was an old, run-down, white clapboard building that didn’t have inside dining. It only had two windows: one to order and one to pick up, and they had a section of covered picnic tables off to the side. “Ice cream,” he said.

“Is that a question?”

He smiled, and they walked up to the window.

---