COMING HOME

by

Ernest Bywater
All rights reserved © 2010

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.
Copyright © 2010 by Ernest Bywater
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Table of Contents
Arrival
Drive Home
Graveside
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Arrival

Janet wakes early and wakes the children. They shower, eat, and dress. There's a lot to do and they have to go meet their father at the airport. He's been gone so long and he's coming home today. An hour later they're ready and getting in the dual-cab flat-bed truck, the only road vehicle they have on their farm, and go to meet the flight he's on.

The drive into the local town isn't far and they soon go through it. It's still early and no one is about on the streets. There's no one to see them pass through as most of the town is still in bed, asleep. But it wouldn't matter much, as they come from the poor side of town and their skin colour isn't the same as most of the people in town. They're used to being not seen and not heard, so they just drive through.

Nearly an hour later they drive into the nearby city and go to the airport. They park in the short term car park and head for the arrivals section. It's not a big airport, just a small regional one that services a fair sized city of 60,000 people and the rural area around it. The walk from the car park to the arrivals terminal is only a few minutes. They join the small crowd of other people waiting to meet people on the early morning flight in, the first flight out of the state capital this morning.

They timed it well, the flight is on time and arrives only a few minutes after they arrive. It taxis to near the terminal and the trucks go out to where it stops. The steps and service trucks are quickly in place.

The cabin crew open the door at the same time the ground crew open the cargo doors. The luggage and cargo starts down the conveyor belt at the same time as passengers start down the stairs. Many of the passengers have a brief word as they walk by the cabin crew, and some just nod as they pass them. They all take care walking down the stairs. On reaching the ground, some slowly start walking to the terminal, while others wave and run to meet loved ones waiting for them.

Janet and her three children stand there and watch for him to come off the plane. Several minutes go by as people and cargo come off the plane. Then they see him exiting the plane. As he does most of the ground crew stop and stand still, while a few snap to attention as the coffin comes down the conveyor belt.

Slowly, the small family walks out to meet him. The local airline office manager meets them at the coffin and helps to open the lid, it's been secured whilst in flight. Janet looks in, and nods on recognising the face of her husband. At her nod the coffin is closed again.

He wasn't supposed to be coming home this way, not at all. Damn it, he was a civilian contractor, not a soldier, he'd left all that behind when they got married. But his military background was useful in some of the civilian organisations that worked with the military over there, so he took the job offer. It paid well and the drought had destroyed the crops three years in a row. The pay was too good to let go, the three year contract would pay off the mortgage on the farm and put money in the bank. It did do that, and he had only three months to go before he was coming home, and now he comes home this way, as she so feared.

The manager asks, "Excuse me, ma'am, have you arranged the hearse. I don't see it."

She turns to him, "We can't afford that. I've our truck over in the car park. We'll take him home ourselves." He nods and asks for the keys and registration number. He gives the keys and number plate on to one of the other staff. A few minutes later their truck is driven up to near the plane and the ground crew move the coffin on to the truck. They tie it down well. The family gets in and drives away, going home together.

Drive Home

On the drive back home she takes it slow and careful as she doesn't want to risk losing this load. As she drives she thinks about what the man said on the phone. The company will pay out his contract and the bonuses for being injured while over there, but her John was off duty when he was injured, and that's causing some problems with the senior management; so it may be some time before all the proper payments are made, while they sort out some legal aspects.

An emergency situation arose and John, along with most of the off duty people, went to help deal with it. He and two others were injured by the second set of bombs to go off. He died the next day, he was the only one to die as a result of that incident, the others were only injured. The bombs went off near the accommodation compound where the civilian medical staff were staying. They were set to destroy vehicles in a military convoy going down the road, but they only damaged them and injured about fifteen of the soldiers and twenty civilians. Like the rest of the off duty nursing staff, John grab a field kit and went to help save lives. He treated a number of people and was working on one of the less injured soldiers when another set of bombs started going off. He threw himself over the two injured soldiers beside him and protected them with his own body. That act was what doomed him. The extra height above the ground meant the shrapnel and debris that would have hit the soldiers hit him. The rest of the medical staff did what they could, but they couldn't save him.

Janet's not angry at John for going, he spent seven years as a platoon medic treating people in the field and was an ideal choice to ask to work as a field nurse for the civilian medical teams helping out in the city. They needed the money, and it was something he could do where he made a difference in people's lives. She wasn't happy about him going, but she didn't blame him for it. As one of the first response medical people his field combat experience was extremely useful as a triage nurse and in spotting dangers to the responding staff. The city wasn't a war zone, although some people were trying to make it one, but it came about as close to be a war zone as you can get without it being an official war zone. She didn't blame the military, either.

There were two groups she blamed for her husband's death. The killers who did it. They call themselves 'Freedom Fighters' and the media call them 'Insurgents,' but the truth is most of them are just blood thirsty murderers. The majority are not even from the country in question, just foreigners there to kill people because they have different ideals or religious beliefs. They're terrorists who kill civilians more often than soldiers. The other group she blames are the politicians who screwed up and caused the current troubles by interfering with the military and stopping them from doing the job right a generation earlier. If they'd let the army of that day do the right thing this current conflict would never have happened. She broods about this as she drives back through their town.

The town looks deserted, no one on the streets, no cars in sight, and many shops are shut. She wonders what's going on and what news she's missed out on. Since she had that phone call, a week ago, she hasn't been to town. Only the children have been in town to go to the public school, collected and returned by the school bus.

She passes through town and heads for the cemetery on the side nearest the farm. This is the older cemetery near the village that was the original town. It's not used much now. But it's where the rest of John's family is buried, and it's right beside their farm.

Janet wanted to bury him on the farm, but the council wouldn't allow that and the law was on their side. So this is the closest she can get. When she called the local minister about a service he offered to arrange to have the grave dug and a simple stone put up. She left him to it as it was more than she could deal with. He did call back to say the local Returned Servicemen's Club were organising for an honour guard and a bugler for her, as John had served overseas while in the Army.

Several minutes out of town and she turns into the driveway to the cemetery behind the old church. John was christened here, like all their children, they were married here, and now he'll be buried here.

Graveside

The drive way is long, it goes up beside the church and around the hill the church sits on. The cemetery is in a flat area behind the rise the church is on. The main church car park is on the other side of the church and accessed from a shorter driveway just a bit further down the road and the rise. The road bends around this small hill.

As Janet drives around the curve and the cemetery comes in sight she slows down and almost stops. Her mouth opens and her children sit up straighter. The area around the cemetery is a sea of vehicles and the cemetery is jammed full of people, except for the lane left open for her to drive up to near the single open grave beside where John's family are buried. Six corporals in full dress uniform are waiting beside the spot left for her to park in, obviously there to be John's pall bearers. She knows their rank as she can see their chevrons and it's one of the few ranks she recognises, it's the same rank as John was when they met.

She slowly drives up as she looks at the people, the minister is there with a small open spot beside him near the grave. To one side of the grave is a huge group of soldiers from the nearby Army base, there must be a few hundred there, all drawn up in ranks. And nearly all the townspeople are standing around the grave on the other two sides. She slowly drives up as she ponders on this scene.

The truck comes to a halt, and a voice calls out, "Parade, attention." All the soldiers snap to attention as she turns the motor off. She gets out as two soldiers undo the ropes holding John's coffin down.

Janet gets the children out and waits while the pall bearers lift the coffin up to their shoulders. She leads her children to the graveside, following the slow marching soldiers with their father on their shoulders. At the grave they lower the coffin into the grave with ropes, and she takes her family to stand beside the minister.

It all seems so unreal that Janet hardly notices what people are doing or saying. She hears the minister and others speak. She hears some shouted commands. The rifles fire. The bugle plays.

She finally comes out of her own little world when she hears the bagpipes play. She's shocked to realise someone else knew enough about her John to organise a piper. The tears roll down her face as she hears his favourite song, the only one she came prepared to play at the graveside, but all she has is a CD to play on the truck sound system; and it's not as good as the live piper playing. Then a deep baritone starts to sing, soon joined by many more voices.
There was a soldier a Scottish soldier
who wandered far away and soldiered far away
there was none bolder with good broad shoulder
he fought in many a fray and fought and won
he'd seen the glory and told his story....

Sometime later the service is over and people leave after throwing a hand full of dirt on the coffin, as is the local custom at a funeral. After all have left and the minister helps her to the truck, she realises that, in some things there is no wrong side of the track and only one colour to people - red, the colour of the blood they shed together.