Letter of Pain, Source for Strength
Zim looked over the letter again hoping that he had read it wrong, hoping the he had missed something and that what the letter was saying was wrong. But the words had not changed, along with the message. They burned deeper into his heart…
"To Sgt. Charles Zim,
We regrettably write this to tell you that during an op. on Klendathu, your daughter Cpl. Rebecca Zim was reported as MIA…"
This was his worst nightmare come true; his daughter was a casualty of war, worse then that she was MIA. Somehow he found the not knowing whether she was dead or alive worse than knowing one way or the other. Zim crumpled the sheet of paper in his hand, mixed feelings running though him.
He had told himself of the dangers that came with her enlisting, but somehow he'd never really thought it would happen to her. He really didn't want her to enlist, but it was her choice, and he would stand by her no matter what her decision was. He collapsed into his chair, reaching down into his desk drawer; he removed a silver-framed picture of Rebecca. It had been taken right after her graduation. He remembered how proud he felt seeing her receiving her diploma. That had been the last time he had seen her, that night she left for boot camp.
He wasn't able to train her at Currie, so he pulled a few strings, called in a few favors, and was able to get her into Currie's Siberian counterpart. That was all he had done for her, anything she accomplished from there on was with her own blood, sweat, and tears. Secretly he had wished that she would be a 'wash out' but she made it through with flying colors.
With a heavy sigh he placed her picture back in his desk drawer and closed it. A new shipment of recruits was coming in and he couldn't afford to let his feeling get in the way of his training, even if it was his daughter. He was teaching them what they needed to survive this war, but he knew that many of them wouldn't. As he got ready to walk back out and 'greet' the recruits, one word slipped into his mind; hope. There was hope that she was still alive, even if it was slim, there was hope.