Illustration by Paul Campbell © 2006
Coming Home
by Ed Waterman © 2006
Tommy grew up in a small town, not big enough for his dreams. He never had enough money to ever think about leaving.
One day, an Army recruiter came to his town, the people made a big thing about it and most of his friends joined up, he thought about it himself but in the end he just could not do it, he wanted to do big things, but he did not want to risk his life for it.
Every month around the same time the same recruiter came to the town, to see if Tommy had changed his mind. "The Army needs you!" he would say. Finally, after 6 months... Tommy joined the army.
There was no time for basic training, they knew that he was not ready, but they still handed him a gun and sent him off to war. A week later, Tommy found himself on a battlefield. He was so scared he could not keep from shaking, trying to aim his gun while bullets flew by.
Every day he would write to his father and brother to tell them that he was ok, he made himself sound so brave in his letters and told about how heroic he had been. Then, a day had gone by with no letter from Tommy, and that day became a week, then months... then a year, no letter...
Tommy's dad called the Army recruiter every day to see if he had any news, and every day he got the same answer, "as soon as I hear anything, I will call you."Tommy's dad would wait by the phone, and every time it rang he would rush from anything he may have been doing, and answer it in hopes that Tommy would be on the line. A year and three months later he got a call that deep down, he had been waiting for... the Recruiter told how Tommy and his crew were ambushed, and that they never had a fighting chance, but that Tommy had died a hero.
Tommy's father held back tears as he asked where to go to see his son, and what to do. the recruiter was crying when he said, "just wait there, Sir... Tommy is coming home on the next flight in..."
The End
