• • •
Jill was halfway through the last bulletin board on one side of the room , when Colonel Martindale ’ s wife entered the all-purpose room , quickly walking over to Renee , a young woman who Jill just knew in passing from being involved with MWR projects . She knew what was coming and held her breath along with the nine other women in the room .
And there it was , again . It was that sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach , the feeling of ice in her veins and the heaviness in her chest that would grab hold of her ever since she had watched David ’ s plane take off .
She heard the muffled sound of crying from Renee and the murmured words of comfort from the Colonel ’ s wife as she rocked her in her arms . Tears immediately sprung to Jill ’ s eyes but she kept moving , kept stapling the bunting to the bulletin board .
The older woman walked the younger woman out of the room and no one spoke for the next hour . Really , what could the women say to each other . There was just nothing you could say . This was what they had signed up for as Army wives .
• • •
They were finished with the decorations around noon and went to gather their children from the small room where Wanda was doing arts and crafts with them . Maddie ran to her with a red star in her hand and said , “ Write Daddy .” Jill took the star and looked to Wanda , who handed her a black sharpie . She leaned down , put the star on the table and wrote “ SGT David Campbell ” on the star .
Tricia asked the group of ladies , “ Does anyone want to go get pizza ?”
Most of the ladies said , “ no , thank you ,” making their excuses . It was obvious that some of them were still a little rattled by what had occurred earlier . Jill , however , thought she owed it to her kids to treat them as they had been really good all morning .
Before they left , Mrs . Elizabeth thanked them all for volunteering , “ I really appreciate you coming out to help , especially , on this Sunday , when you should be taking the day off .”
Jill only half heard what the older lady said as she tried to get Maddie zipped back up into her rain jacket . It had started raining just like she had predicted and it would be a wet walk to Tricia ’ s car .
• • •
Jill hadn ’ t been home very long from the base ’ s pizza parlor when her phone rang . “ Hello ,” she answered .
“ Jill , it ’ s me ,” said her husband faintly over a bad connection . “ I need you to do something for me .”
“ David , the connection ’ s bad . I ’ m having a hard time hearing you ,” she said .
“ I can ’ t talk very long . I need you to send me another set of BDU ’ s ,” he said .
“ BDU ’ s ?” she repeated wondering why he needed another uniform set .
“ Yes , and don ’ t forget to have my new rank put on it ,” he said . “ Oh , and also send me two more sets of rank for my other uniforms ,” he said . “ Okay , honey , anything else ?,” she asked knowing that if he said he had a limited amount of time to talk , he meant it .
“ Um … yeah . Some of that lip stuff with the high SPF . You know , the really good stuff . Maybe get a couple of tubes of it ,” he answered . “ You okay ?,” she asked . “ Yeah , baby , I am . The kids good ?,” he replied . “ They are . They just miss you . Davie asks when you ’ re coming home almost every day ,” she said .
“ Baby , I gotta go ! I ’ m sorry . I ’ ll be able to talk longer later . Can you get that stuff in the mail to me ASAP ,” he said as the connection grew worse .
“ I will ! I love you !,” she said loudly over the noisy line .
“ I love you !,” she could just make out before the line went dead .
She really wanted to just go and lie curled up on her bed but she hurried to the notepad on the fridge and wrote down what he needed sent . Then , she went quietly down the hall to peek into the kids ’ rooms to see what they were up to . “ No time for dramatics ,” she told herself . Both of them were in Davie ’ s room coloring and actually seemed to be getting along pretty well . She didn ’ t make her presence known but went on
MAY 2024 MoultrieScene 73