Chapter+36

The Return Home

As Sgt. Jackson sat nervously in anticipation, he couldn’t help but wonder what his daughter really looked like. Sure, he had seen pictures of her at the base, but he had never seen her in person. At about 11:00 AM the pilot made an announcement. “We will be arriving at our destination in about fifteen minutes. The current temperature in Lawrence County is 72 degrees with clear skies. It has been an been an honor to be able to return our service men and women from Iraq to Alabama and on behalf of United and the flight crew and myself, thank you.” After the pilot finished up, the roar of the engines began to dim zoom noise and Sgt. Jackson could hear the wing flaps begin to move about and make as the plane prepared for its decent to the airport. As the plane started to go down, he thought himself, after a little over a year, in just a few minutes, he would finally be able to see his wife, Mary Rose, and his new six month old daughter, Chandra.

As Sgt Jackson stepped off the airplane and walked down the steps to the reception area, he was almost overwhelmed by the scene that lay in front off him. Over a thousand people, many locals of Lawrence County, had shown up to welcome the 135 returning soldiers. The local high school band was there and the Mayor’s of the two towns were there. As soon as they were all off the plane the crowd let of a loud applause and released hundreds off balloons. He couldn’t believe how much the community really supported the soldiers. After wandering the crowd for about twenty minutes, he recognized a familiar voice shouting at him. “Ohh, Jim Jackson, it is so good to see,” came a voice from behind him. He spun around and saw his wife. He immediately put his bags down and hugged her for what seemed like hours. He looked down at her face and could see she was crying. “It’s so good to see you,” he said. “Let me show you your daughter,” said Mary Rose. She turned around and lead him through the crowd and back into the airport. Once they were inside, she took him down a flight of stairs into the parking garage. Once they got to their old pick-up truck, Jim could see his mother and his daughter sitting in the front seat. Jim ran over to the car, opened the door, and took his daughter. “She is so beautiful,” he said.

Three days latter, Jim’s entire family was over at his house for a BBQ. The smell of chicken loomed over the backyard like a thick fog. Nearly everyone on both Jim’s and Mary Rose’s sides of the family were there. “We were so glad to hear that you made it back in one piece,” said one of Jim’s sisters. “Thank you,” Jim said. He wasn’t really paying attention to everyone’s comments. He was still kind of tired, despite the fact that he had just slept for two days straight, and he also just wanted to spend time with his daughter. Over dinner that same night, Jim learned that while in Iraq, his favorite uncle, Robert, had died of a stroke. Mary Rose didn’t want to have to tell Jim over the phone so she waited until he had returned. He was very upset over Robert’s death. He was more upset that he didn’t even get to say goodbye at the funeral. He wondered to himself what else had changed while he was away.

In the following months, things changed at the Jackson house. As the baby grew older, it began to not be able to sleep for the whole night. This was a real problem for Jim because every time the baby would start to cry in the middle of the night, he would wake up thinking he was still in Iraq and do strange things. Once he jumped out of bed and dove onto the ground, just nearly missing the family dog, Carl. Another time he, he ran into the babies room and picked up the baby. He was still in a sort of dream-like state, fortunately Mary Rose followed after him and was able to get the baby back from him and kept him from hurting the baby in any way. These short of incidents began occurring more often as time went by. Finally it got to the point where Mary Rose had to sleep in Chandra’s room and had to lock her door to make sure that Jim couldn’t come in. After about four months since Jim had been back, Mary Rose took Chandra and moved into her mother’s house. She told Jim that if they didn’t get help than she would leave him.

As Jim and Mary Rose walked up to the church house, Jim couldn’t help but think to himself, why are we here, this isn’t my fault. As they walked closer they could hear the sound of gospel music inside the church. Reverend Michaels always played it, even when church wasn’t in session. “Welcome,” said Reverend Michaels. “Thank you,” said Mary Rose. Jim didn’t respond. Ever since Mary Rose came up with the idea of counseling as a way to fix his “supposed” problems, Jim had been his usual pleasant self. “Take a seat,” said the reverend. “So tell me your problems. Mary Rose began from the beginning, only stopping once to tell Jim to wake up because he had dosed off. She spoke for over an hour. The reverend finally had to stop her by telling her had to go to the bathroom. After he left the room, Mary Rose turned to Jim. “Well, don’t you have anything to say,” she asked. “Even if I did, I wouldn’t be able to with you telling a stranger everything,” he replied. “He is our reverend, and he going to help us.” “No, he is a stranger that has no business in our lives and as far as I’m concerned I’m done with this meeting.” He got up and began to walk for the door. “If you walk out that door, I will take the baby and leave,” she quietly said. “Yeah I’m sure,” he said as he walked out the door. As he left, Mary Rose began to cry.

“I warned you, but you didn’t listen,” Mary Rose said to Jim. The sound of the buses exhaust could be heard in the distance. “Please don’t do this, I didn’t think you were serious,” pleaded Jim. “I promise you we can go back to the reverend. “Its’ not the reverend, its’ you. You have changed Jim. You aren’t willing to be a part of this family. You are always in a bad mood. You don’t like to be with the baby. We can’t stay with you anymore.” “Please don’t do this.” The bus pulled up next to the curb. Chandra began to cry. The birds in the tree behind the station all flew away as the bus door opened. “Please,” Jim cried one last time. “I’m sorry Jim, but you have changed,” Mary Rose said as she was stepping on the bus. The bus doors closed and the bus pulled away.

By Kai Youngman