The room is dark and dismal. Every curtain drawn together obscures the light. It’s suggestive of the despair filling the deepest recesses of Tank Brooks’ soul. Struck by a boundless trembling, his heart beat loudly gathers voice, filling his head. He sits ensnared in a whirlwind where his ability to reason is all but lost.
On the walls are his dusty old family pictures, treasured memories of happier days. Each a reminder of those he loved and then lost. Over the years he came to learn that it’s possible to miss a girl more than you loved them.
Not a day went by that he didn’t grill himself searching for faults, deeds he should or shouldn’t have done. For what he might have done to hold Ellie in his life for just one more day.
The secret shame …show more content…
Everything is quiet. All sound is absent, stillness reigns all around him. The sun shines hot through a clear blue sky. He feels warm all over. Did he squeeze off the round? Is this what it feels like being dead?
“Two Six Romeo, this is Foxtrot Actual, over,” a voice crackles through the static. Startled, he looks for the source of the signal. Slowly but surely his reality begins merging into another kind of space. He was sitting in his wheelchair, but the world around him is changing, shifting and becoming something else.
“Two Six Romeo, this is Foxtrot Actual. Do you copy? Over.” It’s his former call sign. How can that be?
Before him, lay the rugged arid expanse of the Afghan hillside. Climbing up a mountain trail in Taliban-infested terrain his heart races. He’s back in that God forsaken place called the Helmand Province. What’s going on he wonders? Then he remembered.
Someone once told him that just before dying one’s whole life flashes before their eyes. Is this what is happening?
“Two Six Romeo, this is Foxtrot Actual. Do you read? Over.”
Pressing the button to send, he responds.
“Foxtrot Actual this is Two Six Romeo Actual, your signal is, Lima Charlie.
On the walls are his dusty old family pictures, treasured memories of happier days. Each a reminder of those he loved and then lost. Over the years he came to learn that it’s possible to miss a girl more than you loved them.
Not a day went by that he didn’t grill himself searching for faults, deeds he should or shouldn’t have done. For what he might have done to hold Ellie in his life for just one more day.
The secret shame …show more content…
Everything is quiet. All sound is absent, stillness reigns all around him. The sun shines hot through a clear blue sky. He feels warm all over. Did he squeeze off the round? Is this what it feels like being dead?
“Two Six Romeo, this is Foxtrot Actual, over,” a voice crackles through the static. Startled, he looks for the source of the signal. Slowly but surely his reality begins merging into another kind of space. He was sitting in his wheelchair, but the world around him is changing, shifting and becoming something else.
“Two Six Romeo, this is Foxtrot Actual. Do you copy? Over.” It’s his former call sign. How can that be?
Before him, lay the rugged arid expanse of the Afghan hillside. Climbing up a mountain trail in Taliban-infested terrain his heart races. He’s back in that God forsaken place called the Helmand Province. What’s going on he wonders? Then he remembered.
Someone once told him that just before dying one’s whole life flashes before their eyes. Is this what is happening?
“Two Six Romeo, this is Foxtrot Actual. Do you read? Over.”
Pressing the button to send, he responds.
“Foxtrot Actual this is Two Six Romeo Actual, your signal is, Lima Charlie.