This really isn't a "Romantic Fiction" piece nor is it a "Historical Fiction" piece...so it's just kind of floating out in the middle of nowhere (thank you, Other Fiction category)! It was written for Loose's contest. Feel free to tear it apart...seriously. I apologize for the font, I couldn't make it post right with the paragraphs so this is just how it has to be :/
[pre]Bittersweet Love of War
It came like a tornado. One day he was there, the next he was gone—but she knew it was coming. It warned her like the sirens; like the darkened sky and the deathly still air and the settled dust. It isn’t fair to call it the calm before the storm—no one was calm before he left. No one but him, anyway.
Two short months ago Tobias had come home with a sullen face. He didn’t say a word at first, just walked in the door and sat at the kitchen table while his beautiful wife did a few dishes. For a few moments she didn’t even hear him come in—didn’t know he was there. But as the turned to get a dry dish towel she caught a glimpse out of the corner of her eye. Needless to say it quite frightened her. She sucked her breath in and put a palm on her chest, “Tob, you could kill a woman like that!”
Allyson turned off the faucet and dropped the dish towel, quickly taking a seat at the other end of the table and forming a sweet smile on her face, “Hey baby. How was work?”
There was a silence about the kitchen that was almost disturbing. The sounds of the children playing in the other room filtered in through the doorway but seemed to stop before they reached the two at the table. Tobias and Allyson locked stares, both of them searching for something in the others eyes—neither sure exactly what that was.
Allyson leaned forward on the table, crossing her arms on its top and switching her facial expression from excitement to worry in a split second. “What’s going on?”
Tobias shifted a little in his seat and looked down to his hands nervously. He glanced into the living room at his children, smiling for just a moment. As he turned back to Allyson his smile stayed, though he wasn’t sure why. He couldn’t put it off any longer, “I’m being deployed in April.”
Allyson nodded and looked down herself. They both knew this moment would come, and they tried their best to be prepared for it but there was just no way to be ready. She turned up to him, “Where?”
“Iraq,” this time a quick response; no more lingering.
His wife glanced into the living room as well and back to her husband, “Should we tell the kids?”
“Let’s wait until tomorrow.” Tobias nodded to convince himself it was the right thing to do, not for Ally’s sake.
Allyson sighed and stood back up, heading back to the sink. “Okay.” She picked up a plate and started scrubbing it.
Toby abandoned his place at the table and joined her at the sink, “Babe, that plate’s clean.”
She dropped the plate into the sink but didn’t turn her attention from it. Tears filled her eyes and she moved a hand to them. Tobias turned her towards him and cupped her small cheeks in his strong hands. “I don’t want you to go.” A single tear poured over from Ally’s eye, falling to his hand.
Tobias pulled her close to him and wrapped his arms around her, “I know baby. But it’s all going to be okay, I promise. Alright? It’s going to be fine.”
But it wasn’t. Tobias had promised Allyson everything would be okay, but he had lied. Toby was gone on the day the tornado came. It touched down into their bedroom and stole him from Ally before she knew what happened. She wouldn’t talk to him for at least another month, and even then she wasn’t allowed to know his whereabouts.
For months Allyson lived a very repetitive life. Get up, feed and change the baby, get the older kids off to school, run errands, pick the kids back up, cook dinner, bathe all three kids, get them to bed, sleep, and get back up to do it all over again. Ally didn’t really favor this life. Her husband was always there for her, always around to be with the kids, to help with dinner…to sleep next to her at night. The family spoke to Tobias once every two or three weeks, but every night the kids asked for him. The baby had learned “dada” and he wasn’t around to hear it—Allyson planned not to tell him, to let him think when he heard it for the first time it was the first time she had said it.
In early October Ally had received a videophone call from Tobias—he was coming home in two weeks! Allyson and the kids spent the next weeks planning a coming home party for him. The clouds were rising—the love of Ally’s life and father of her children would soon be home to make their lives whole again.
The day they had waited eight months for had finally come. Allyson piled the kids in the car with their homemade signs and headed off to the airport. There were families everywhere waiting for their loved ones. Some father, mostly mothers, children of all ages, girlfriends, boyfriends, fiancés. Allyson looked around at their faces, all desperate from the love that has been missing from their lives. Some happy, some worried, but all anxious.
Allyson lead her children through the crowd to a spot before the fence, a clear shot of the plane that was about to unload. It was a bittersweet feeling for Ally, being here amongst a crowd of dozens whom all shared her pain yet none that she knew. The kids stood beside her waiving their signs they had made for daddy in the air excitedly, the baby sat on Ally’s hip calmly observing her surroundings.
The plane door lowered slowly to the pavement; Ally’s heart began to race, she could feel a smile forcing its way out—though she did nothing to stop it. A couple flight attendants filed out of the plane and stood at the bottom on either side of the railing, as if their small blonde frames would be strong enough to help the passengers with anything they could do themselves.
It was only a few seconds before the soldiers filed off themselves, one by one with their carry-ons in hand. They looked handsome and strong in their uniforms and matching hats, their badges and pins flashed in the sunlight as if they were heaven-sent. Allyson watched as one by one the soldiers and their families embraces. There were smiles as wide as Texas itself and tears as joyful as a new born baby. She quickly pointed her gaze back to the plane, watching every last soldier exit and walk the pavement to their waiting loved ones.
The last soldier in the line exited the plane. It was not Tobias. Toby had not been seen. They all stared at the stairway, hoping he would come out next. He didn’t.
A small hand tugged at Ally’s shirt, “Mama, where’s Daddy?” The small boy batted his eyes up at the woman, who didn’t know what to say. She turned up and looked around her. The crowd was starting to clear out as soldiers went home to fill their voids.
As the crowd filtered out Allyson’s glance fell on a homeless man sitting on a bench. In his hands he held a cardboard sign:
“All’s Fair in Love and War.”[/pre]
I liked it a lot. The comparison to a tornado was cool. I'm not great at grammer, but I caught two things I thought might be misspells. Otherwise it was great!
