The Checkpoint

The meat would be sold to the hotel at a premium. The proceeds were split between Kurt and the ranchers. It was 'farm to table' before anybody thought to call it that.

Kurt married the daughter of a rancher. They had four children, including a daughter, Colette, and a son, Hank. The other two were Pierre and Marie, after the old couple from the clearing.

Hank gave Kurt and Colette each ten acres of land out by the highway. Not much by Colorado ranching standards. But plenty for a house for their families. A clinic was built for Colette and a butcher shop was built for Kurt.

Hank, they discovered, owned 10,000 acres of land and ran 20,000 head of cattle. He was one of the largest ranchers in the area.

Hank never married and never had children. When he died at age 67, his will stated that the ranch was to go to a conservation group and be returned to prairie land. The cattle were to be auctioned off with the money going to his two friends.

When they packed up his house, Kurt and Colette found a small locked room off the master bedroom. They found the key and opened it.

Inside was a chair. It was the chair Colette sat on when hiding from passing deserters. How it had gotten from France to Hank's house in Colorado was a mystery.

The chair was positioned to look out the window facing toward the east. Toward the little clearing in the woods.

On the wall was the M-1 rifle Hank had carried during the war. The rifle he had used to protect them from the escaped prisoners. Hanging nearby was the greatcoat that he had worn as a disguise while pretending to be a sentry.

Hank had once told Colette that he thought the time spent in the little clearing had been the high point of his life.

"You know why you go to war? To protect people you care about. To make things better in the end. But it's all an abstraction when you're in the middle of the fighting."

"In that little clearing, it wasn't an abstraction. It was real. It was you and the old couple that I cared about and wanted to protect. It was rebuilding their home so their life would be better. It was the best thing I've ever done."