The Soldiers
The hurriedly built aircraft was settling itself, so the paratroopers could jump out into the French countryside and die. It was Clark’s first live-fire adventure; all he could think about was finding the courage to jump. If he doesn’t, he will die the slow death of being a mortified coward. An Army paratrooper should want to drop out into the petrifying pitch-black night.
Bravery was the least of Clark’s problems because the plane was knocked sideways by a bomb explosion inside its cockpit. The bomb blast at once changed the plane’s course into a death whirl. As the air became thick with panic and fear, the screams began.
When Clark’s brain first heard the explosion, it sent out two messages; One, hormones get off your ass and sent every stress notification you got, Two, your dead, and it will be painful. A few more lethal holes appeared in the sides of the flying death trap, ensuring a few more immediate deaths. Clark believed he saw his best friend Danny, but before he could reach him, his buddy disappeared. Clark didn’t die as he expected. The plane’s diverse gut-wrenching jerking and swirling ended when the plane smashed into the ground. The surrounding noises decreased and then stopped.
Clark walked out of the aircraft’s crushed remains; pulled out a pack of camels from his flak jacket. He lit up with the help of one of the many small fires burning around the smashed plane after stepping over some broken seats, bags, helmets, and body parts. He walked on a path leading to a streetlight with a parked bus underneath it. The bus’s front door was open.
Trooper Clark entered the bus; the driver was missing, so he went to find a seat. It was full of soldiers, but sometimes he would pass a family with silent children. He found an empty seat and sat down next to a fellow Ranger who looked familiar. The man turned and looked at him; it was Danny. Clark had to look closer because he couldn’t believe his eyes. It was his friend. But Danny wouldn’t respond and went back to sleep.
Clark closed his eyes and waited. He pictured himself as a little kid again going to his Grandma’s house. Clark was walking on a sidewalk trying not to step on a crack and break his mother’s back. Instead, the crack turned into a gaping pitch-black hole, which he fell in, as he was dropping, he passed his family waiting for him at a bus stop. Clark found himself back on the bus. He was not scared or worried he felt at ease and relaxed as if he was with his wife.
Clark’s years of fears and memories of disappointments and failures have disappeared.
Clark was on the bus thinking about his wife Tracy and their two girls, Joeann and Sarah. For an unknown reason, he was holding the two seats in front of him for his family, by putting his helmet on one seat and his flak jacket on the other. Joeann could sit on his lap.
He thought of his buddies from the plane, but they were gone, for now, their spirits left an emptiness that will always linger.
He closed his eyes again knowing his wife will be the one to wake him up. The last call sounded; the fog machine switched to its sweet sleep memory tract.
Clark had a pleasant dream; he could see his little Joeann with a stuffed bear in her arms bending over a baby wearing sunglasses.