Toy Soldiers

Jacob went through a phase when he was younger, playing with G.I. Joes and watching The History Channel and reading war old memoirs. Playing soldier. He recalls interviews with marines and paratroopers, men telling how they came home missing arms and legs, but feeling the ache of their phantom limbs just the same. How'd they'd wake up with an itch on their big toe, only to reach to scratch it and realize there was nothing there.

Jacob knows exactly how they feel.

Some nights he startles suddenly, and in that hazy land between waking and sleeping he feels something. Before his mind becomes blinded by the all encompassing light that is Renesmee he reaches out for someone he can't quite see. Reaches across the bed to touch that aching throb that plagues him so fiercely, only to find himself alone, fingers clutching nothing but air.

There's no one there.

But as he drifts back to sleep, limbs twitching, he vaguely recalls a time when there was. A time when she was his, a time when that was enough. And the smell of strawberries carries him away.