In the Service

One day in late spring, I was sitting on my front porch staring at the passing river when a late model car, gleaming in the afternoon light pulled up in front of my house. I figured they had to be lost. I stood to offer directions, when a man stepped out of the car. He approached the walk, turned smartly and marched up to the porch steps.

"Hey stranger, remember me?"

My eyes filled with tears, my heart was in my throat, I couldn't speak.

"Mind if I come in?" he said politely as he climbed the stairs and walked passed me into the cottage.

I was still standing there like a statue.

He poked his head out the door, "You coming in? We have a lot of catching up to do."

I followed his beckoning finger, then up the stairs and began making up for the lost years. In the late morning the next day, we lay together, mere desiccated husks, he turned to me, "I missed you every day, every minute. I couldn't write. Everything was censored. If they had gotten a hint of who my sweetheart was, I'd have been kicked out and probably go to prison. I'm sorry."

"I didn't know if I'd ever see you again. You're here now. How long can you stay?"

"That's kind of the point. My mom, well she married some guy from Illinois, sold our house and moved with him. My brother has a car dealership in the next county, but he has a family. Hell, I'm thirty-five years old and I've got nowhere to go."

"Yes, you do. You're in it."

"You might think differently when you find out I don't have a job."

"Why? Someone once took me in."

"You were a kid."

"Not exactly."

"It doesn't matter, we'll work it out. What did you do before the war?"

"I was working my way up to foreman on a construction crew."

"I read in the paper that there were plans for a housing development for all the GI's and their families. I'll bet you could get a job. You do have an authoritative air."

And so it went. He easily got a job supervising a construction crew. The town remembered him as the Colonel and went out of their way to show respect for his role in the war. That he lived with me wasn't really discussed. Sometimes small towns can be kind.

It wasn't long before a developer convinced the Colonel to open his own construction business. We settled into a nice life together. I looked forward to his big pickup coming home in the evenings, quiet dinners, walks along the paths in the woods or along the river and most of all our time in bed. I never really thought about all those young men who had passed through my life. I had the perfect man every day.

_________________

"I do believe you are sincere."

"You know that I am."

"Do you want to, you know..."

"I thought you'd never ask."

"I have to ask?"

"Shut up and get in bed, Colonel."

"Yes, dear."