Bella sat in the kitchen peeling potatoes when her youngest two grandchildren came running into the kitchen crying, "Grandma!" Bella smiled softly at her two grand-kids. The little girl named Isa after her self and the little boy named Jasper after his father. Both were eight, Isa had dark brown hair and bright blue eyes while Jasper had light blond hair and dark brown eyes. Their parents joked there was a gene switch but Bella knew better. "Now children, what seems to be the problem?" Bella asked kindly, a light twinkle in her eye.
"Momma wants us to go to bed but we don't wanna!" Jasper cried.
"And daddy, threatened to whoop us if we didn't go to bed." Isa whimpered. Bella's eyes narrowed. James wasn't these kids daddy and he'd never be. Yet her step daughter Caroline insisted that they call him daddy and forget about their real father. Well, Bella thought, I'll show them. I do believe it's time they know my story and how Jasper Whitlock Jr. came to be.
"Now, kids you know you know you don't have to call James daddy around me. How would you like to know about your real daddy?" Bella paused, "And maybe your granddaddy to?" she asked. Her heart clenched at the thought of her first and only love. She'd met Jasper just before the Vietnam War and they'd fallen in love. Before the Vietnamese had taken him away and she had received his Purple Heart and his Medal of Honor.
Isa looked at her Grandma and gently reached up to wipe a tear away from her eye. "Grandma, we want to hear the story, but not if it makes you sad. " Isa said quietly. Bella smiled at Isa and Jasper before gesturing them to sit while she continued to peel the potatoes.
"Me and Grandpa met just a few months before the Vietnam War begun. He set about to Court me even though he knew he would be drafted into war. He was a stubborn soul and at first I said no. I was already in a relationship with Edward Mason, the towns only doctor's son. Now Edward was handsome, but he couldn't hold a candle to my Jasper." Bella said quietly. She'd slipped into her memories and was recalling them aloud to to the children.
"It was early May when he got drafted and he came down to the Diner where I worked to let me know the news. 'Bella, can we go talk somewhere?' he asked quietly. I had smiled and told him I'd be off in an hour and then we could go. He had nodded and sat down in a booth drinking his coffee black. I knew something was wrong then. Normally he came in sat down at the counter and drank his coffee with two sugars and a dash of milk. Then he'd smile at me and order a slice of pie and pester me about him courting me. I hurried through the customers and was able to go thirty minutes early." By now Bella's eyes were glassy and the children were listening with rapt attention.
"We walked down to the pier and were sitting there just talking about when he'd be back. I remember it so clearly, I looked him dead in his eye and told him, 'Jasper Dwayne Whitlock, you had better come home to me soldier. Cause once you do I'm going to allow you to Court me.' He had simply smiled, saluted me and said 'Yes ma'am.' I had leaned in and kissed him on his cheek. He'd blushed the brightest red I'd ever seen. He turned to me and said, 'Bella, I love you and I have ever since I laid eyes on you. I was wondering if you'd mind too much if I sent letters to you?' I had nodded to him. And we- uh that part will come when your older." Bella said realising that she had almost said to much.
"You fucked?" Jasper asked. Bella looked at him apalled, "Jasper!" she scolded, "Where on Earth did you learn to use that language and how on Earth do you know what it means?" Bella asked. Jasper looked at his Grandma and almost cried. She never scolded him unless it was serious," I'm sorry Grandma. But James uses it all the time and one day I asked him what it meant and he told me." he sobbed,"I didn't know it was bad." He said. Bella pursed her lips, One day James. One day. She thought quietly.
"No Jasper, we did not fuck." she spat the word with disdain, "We made love and there is a difference and when you're truly old enough I'll explain it. And yes that is a very bad word, I never want to hear it leave your lips again. Do you understand?" she asked. He nodded and replied, "Yes'um."
"Now where was I? Oh yes, Well two weeks after the incident at the Pier he had to leave to go to War. And two weeks later I got my first letter. He told me he was fine and that the training he had been going through was tough but he'd make it through and not to worry about him. Another week and another letter. This time I replied with some very important news. I was pregnant with his child. Another week and I got his reply, he was beyond estatic. He made me promise to send him letters as often as possible and pictures. I never failed to send the letters and the pictures. But one day the letter I had wrote to him came back to me. There was no reply. No return to sender stamp. Nothing. Just his name and base area. I began to worry. By now I was ten weeks pregnant." Bella shuddered slightly.
"The weeks passed by and I still wrote him letters, and eveytime they were returned to me. It was later that I discovered from a letter that he had been killed in action saving his brother. With the envelope came his dog tags, and an invitation to meet with the President. I of course went. It was the President after all, He told me that Jasper was the last of his family and had requested that in case he did die in the war that they tell me he said he was sorry for breaking his promise and that he leaves everything to me." Bella looked around the house.
"That's how I got this place. Well It turns out that because of Jasper's braveness and courage he was awarded the Purple Heart and Medal of Honor which both became mine. He was a Major in the Vietnam war and he served his country until his dieing breath. They told me he loved me until it as well. Well I was pregnant with his child and five months along. The towns people didn't approve and neither did my mother. She tried and tried to find me a husband but turned them all down. I had what I wanted, My Jasper's last name and I wasn't about to change that. I carried his child and I was gonna make sure it had his name. The only one who seemed to understand was my daddy and he made sure momma and the townsfolk left me alone. As the month's passed by I grew more and more pregnant. And then on February the eighteenth, the same as his daddy's Jasper Whitlock Jr. was born. I watched him grow up just like his daddy. I made sure to talk about him everyday. Soon He fell in love with your mother but being like his father he joined the Army and also like his father he died in action defending a group of young children. He made sure they survived even though he died. He also received the Medal of Honor and I hold that one as well." Bella sighed. She'd lost her lover and her son to war.
At that moment Caroline came in,"Bella you had no right whatsoever to tell my children that story! Jasper stopped being their daddy the day he went to war and James has been there ever since!" She shouted. Bella glared at the so called woman in front of her, "Listen here you no good scoundrel! You just admitted to cheating on my son! You are no longer apart of this family and I take the right to these children away from you! James isn't their father. A father wouldn't teach an eight year old to say fuck a father would get up off his lazy ass and help provide for these children instead of letting you do it! Get out of my house!" Bella screamed.
Suddenly there was pain in her chest and she began to feel weak. She was having a second heart attack. At eighty-nine it was no surprise. Bella closed her eyes and drifted to sleep and when she opened her eyes she saw her beloved son. "Oh, Jasper! How I've missed you," She cried out to him. Her son walked up to her and smiled, momma come on. Daddy needs your help." And with that he showed Bella Jasper now. He wasn't dead. In fact he looked the same as the day he went to war.
She turned to her son and asked,"But how?" He simply smiled and replied, "All in good time momma, all in good time." He smiled at her and said, "Momma, you need to go back. You're gonna be different and they're gonna be obstacles, but you'll be with daddy again. I love you Momma." Jasper whispered as he hugged her..
Ok. let me know if I should continue this. Just sorta popped into my head and wouldn't go away until it was published.