Autumn sighed. “Crowded, hot, and exhausting. Good thing is, the actual ceremony is really short. We’re gonna spend more time waiting than in the ceremony. But hopefully, we’ll get to see them come off the plane. We’ll get a few minutes to hug, and then they’ll do the ceremony and eventually we’ll get to drive out of here—you with your husband and me with my brother.”
She smiled, seemingly relieved.
Autumn stepped off the bus and was handed a small American flag on a thin stick. Her young seatmate fell in step next to her; the girl assumed they were now in this together. Her parents were in the crowd behind her, but they became separated and herded toward the hangar with no opportunity to wait for anyone behind them.
“So, what’s your name?” Autumn asked her new tag along.
“Callie,” the girl said.
“Are you here with family?”
She shook her head. “Just me.”
Autumn thought it strikingly sad. Often she found herself wishing not to always be surrounded by her rather sizable extended network of relatives. But to have only one person showing up for a soldier’s homecoming made tears come to her eyes. She blinked them back, surprised at herself. They were ushered over to the barrier outside the hangar and were told to line up to wait for the plane. Autumn grabbed Callie’s arm and pushed her way through the crowd to situate the young woman to watch her husband step off the plane for the first time.
“Where are you from?” Callie asked, breaking her train of thought.
“White Oak,” she replied. “It’s in East Tennessee, small town. You?”
“Bramwell, tiny place in West Virginia. There’s, like, four hundred people in the town.”
“You win the small-town showdown.”
Callie laughed. “What do you do in White Oak?”
“I’m assistant managing a new wedding venue opening in April called Huntington Farms.”
Callie’s eyes widened. “That’s really cool.”
Autumn smiled. “Yeah, but it’s crazy. We’re taking an old farm that was abandoned, restoring the house, and turning the barn into this really awesome event space.” She said ‘we’ like it was something she, as opposed to Brandon and Ben, had ownership of.
“That sounds hard.”
She nodded. “Yeah, my bosses are friends of mine. They started it all and had done most of the work themselves when they asked me to join them.”
An announcement came through over a bullhorn: the plane would be landing momentarily. When the soldiers disembarked, they would make their way down to the waiting group. Everyone had five minutes to greet the soldiers prior to the ceremony. Once the service concluded, the soldiers would have to return their equipment. Instructions for picking up soldiers from equipment turn-in would be forthcoming.
Callie bounced a little. “Oh gosh,” she said. “Do I look okay?”
Autumn smiled. “Honey, he’s gonna think you’re the prettiest woman on earth.”
She looked like she was about to cry.
“Hey, look.” Autumn pointed to the gate, ten feet to their left. “There’s the gate. When you see him come off that plane, go on in and meet him. It may take a minute to get through the people, so go when you see him.”
She took Autumn’s advice, and with the soldiers filing down the steps, she pushed her way to the gate and ran in, screaming the entire way. Autumn watched Callie running toward one of the men in fatigues before she leapt into his arms. He lifted her off the ground, swinging her around. They remained lip-locked as others swarmed, blocked her view. Autumn smiled and acknowledged the twinge of jealousy in her gut.
Other women got their soldiers home today.
She saw her mother waving frantically and there was Jason; he was back. Skinny, but in one piece.
Well, she got one soldier home today.
16.
Jason made two requests upon his homecoming: to have his mother’s homemade fried chicken and to not have a welcoming party. Only one of those requests happened. Once again, the McMillan front yard overflowed with cars while the back filled with relatives and friends. It looked like an American flag had thrown up on the place. Scrawny, sunburned Jason with bags under his eyes looked done with it all from the moment the party began. Autumn could sympathize—she didn’t want the party for herself, either. Why her mom felt the need to celebrate people who didn’t want it was beyond her. Shirley McMillan beamed with pride, running around like a headless chicken, putting out food and rearranging the buffet table while fussing over every detail. Autumn watched Jason humbly accept the words of appreciation, handshakes, and hugs. The welcoming greetings lavished on him made her think of how similar Dan had acted when people surrounded him and praised him for his service.
However, Jason didn’t look quite as healthy.