AT MIDNIGHT

He knocks on the door. She looks through the peephole. She sees his uniform and a white envelope in his hand. Her heart skips a beat...

Hi, Hailey!
I miss you so much baby! There is not a day that goes by that I don't think about ya! Yesterday we found a little girl wandering on the road. We asked her where her parents were. She told us that she saw a big airplane with a flag on it, which had white stars and red stripes and she really liked it. Then this airplane dropped something over their house and there was a big loud BOOM. She had been hiding in the basement for a long time because she was afraid. Finally she got the courage to go upstairs and see what the big BOOM was all about. She saw her father standing over her mother crying. She asked him what was going on but all he did was curse and curse at something called America. Then she pointed at our uniforms. She said that while her father was crying and cursing a man who was dressed in a uniform like ours came and shot her father with a really big gun. This little girl had a t-shirt on, but no pants or shoes. Her face was dirty and bloody. When I saw her all I wanted to do was break down and cry. All I could think of was our little Nancy. Will she ever know? Will she ever know that her father is a murderer? Will she ever know that her father carried out operations and dropped bombs, which killed  thousands upon thousands and left children parentless and parents childless? How could I ever look into her eyes again? Will she hate me? Hailey, I am broken. This war has stolen my humanity. I can't even remember the last time I truly laughed. All that keeps me going is the scent of your letters. They smell like magnolias. I am a monster. I no longer feel that I am defending my country, that I am fighting for peace, that I am a patriot with pride and integrity. I am a monster!!! Every night I wake up in cold sweat and I can't shake the nightmares. There is one in particular that just scares the crap out of me so I have become an insomniac. I am in this house in Iraq and around me are women covered in black sheets from head to toe. I can't see their faces but I can hear their cries. They are in mourning shouting out the names of their dead loved ones. They are pointing their fingers at me. I am crying with them until I can't take any more and I run out of that room. For some reason I end up in another room full of coffins. I start to open them one by one. In the first coffin I see a little girl holding her teddy bear. She is missing a leg and the left side of her face. In the second coffin there is a pregnant woman with blood streaming from between her legs and in her hand she is holding a fetus covered in blood and ashes. I open the third coffin and I see myself there. My eyes are missing and all I can see is black holes. I have an AK47 in my hand and there is a big hole where my heart had been once. That is when I burst in tears and wake up gasping for air. What do we really fight for, Hailey? Why are we going to war to achieve piece? This is no way to live. Sometimes I think about pointing that AK47 to my head and blowing my brains out. What stops me from doing that is that little baby growing in your tummy. I don't want my children to be fatherless! I can't wait for our second angel to get here, but at the same time I wish he could stay in your womb forever. It's a cold, scary, nasty, cruel, and unforgiving world out here, Hailey. It's no place for the innocent. I promise you, once this war is over I will never, ever, ever, leave your side! I really hope this letter reaches you sooner then later. I told my buddy Jason to personally deliver this to you if something were to happen to me.  Now let me tell you about Jason! He is a comedian this guy! He loves to play pranks on me. Like the other da


She opens the door.
"Hello, mam. My name is Jason Perez. I am here to..." she raises her hand, motioning him to stop talking. Her eyes fill up with salty water. She asks, "His body?" He looks to the floor, "It will be here soon. It's being transported from Iraq with the rest of the...bodies." She rubs her belly and asks, "How?" He looks at the white envelope, "He was shot in the back of the head as he was writing this letter. It was a sniper attack on us at midnight. We were all asleep until we heard the shots. We found him sitting in front of the window with this in his hand. He liked to sit there every night and read your letters over and over again." She takes the bloodstained letter as the tears roll down her neck.
Children are parentless and parents are childless.   
 

Author's Note

Do not pay attention to grammar, spelling or form/format. I didn't care any about that. This is pure from the heart and free of any form...it's a letter. I don't want you to concentrate on run-on sentences or spelling. I want you to think about the point of the story. Any grammatical errors, form, and run-on sentences you may see are intentional so chill on that and just enjoy the message!!!

Reviews

Hey , this is very good .. heartfelt .. let me quote someone famous (most probably Churchill) : 'A single death is a tragedy , a million deaths , a statistic' , let me add to that , that if those million death be looked at individually and the tragedy summed that all the rivers, seas and oceans would flood with the tears that would be spent in grievance from those that have heart .

Only correction , the line before the last line , '..tears roll down her spine..' is technically incorrect as spine is towards the back and eys at the front .. please do change it to '..tears rolled down her eyes..' .

A 100 for such a nice write on such a sensitive issue .

[Haunzwürthe]

Wow. I had to read it twice. The letter goes a long way to capture the brutality and indiscriminate nature of those we fight against as well as the gray area experienced in the fog of war. You've opened a window into the mind of those who have to go through this. The tragic and immediate ending is powerful beyond description. Great work and thank you for sharing.

[Neva Flores Smith - Cha..]

Emmie, this is one of the most fantastic stories I have read on here in quite awhile. Excellent work.

[Coyote Poetry]

A powerful poem. I was in Bosnia on a convoy. I saw 40 or more bodies floating in a river. Me and 4 Soldiers brought out the bodies of woman/children and old men. They were killed because they were Christians. In this world where men twist the words of the bible and the Quran to kill innocent people. Men do get scars that won't heal. Both side lose people in war. Both sides have poor families trying to understand death. Your story is very sad. Scary part it is a story happening everyday to Soldiers and the poor people in the way of the war machine. Thank you for the outstanding story.
Coyote

[Eric Cox]

So deep and sad and penned with heart. An excellent write. Great story, nice pen upon this.

[Art]

nobody wins when it comes to wars...and the ending where ....Children are parentless and parents are childless...that is where one can see that we all lose from wars...

[joshua deathdealer]

This is emotional and true. Thanks for posting this. xx

[The Analog Kid]

Very powerful write.

Well... kinda restricted on what to say :p
So I'll just say it's a pretty good job.
It was enjoyable/interesting from the perspective it's driven overall by the point of view of a letter and that the plot then is twisted by the trope of death notices and the arrival of the CAO... You also did a fine job of creating a well-rounded character with the role of Jason.
The only thing is... the part about the uniformed officer stuttering. I understand the role of drama it implies as an emotional drive, but CAOs have rehearsed speeches which they're trained to give under the circumstances. Just kinda a heads up I guess...
Also, forgive me if I'm too up front... sipping a little wine and know sometimes I can get a little frank when I had too much.
It's a wonderful job, and hope to see more from you.