Leah Silverstein1/18/08

A Farewell to Arms – StoryAmerican Lit.

October –

My husband has left home for Iraq. My daughter, who is just about six years old, will surely be asking questions. She has already dealt out the typical ones.

"Mom, when will Papa be home?"

"Soon enough, sweetheart. When the war is over."

"Why'd he go?"

"He's going to help protect the country, Erika. He's doing a very good thing. It's his job, now."

She huffed. "He should be getting paid for it, then." I smiled, and there was a small silence, alien between the two of us. "…If Papa's out protecting the country, then who is going to protect us?" Ah. Now this question wasn't so typical. "Mommy?" I knelt down and pulled her onto my lap, running my fingers through golden silk.

"We'll be alright. I'll protect you, and God will protect all three of us." She nodded, snuggling closer to me. This was the first time she had cried since he left.

January –

Edward has been able to come back and visit for a short while. I'm happy to have him here, alive, although he's not quite acting like himself. I guess I should have expected that. He's having nightmares a lot, as well. One night I tried to wake him, and in exchange, I received a black eye. He's insisted that he sleep on the couch for the rest of the visit. When he left, the way he held Erika and me was different than the way he used to, but neither of us said anything about it.

May –

I smiled, watching Erika run around the yard, bathed in sunlight and sprinklers. The phone shook me from my pleasant daze, and I rushed over to answer it. "Hello?" I wait. Listen. Panic and disbelief bloom inside my stomach, and rise up into my chest and throat, strangling me. If Papa's out protecting the country, then who is going to protect us? I heard the man on the other end of the phone, asking me if I was alright. His voice sounded distant to me. I gently placed the phone inside its cradle, my eyes burning as I looked out once again to see my daughter, laughing happily in the grass.

I just keep telling her that one day, many years from now, she will meet him in a beautiful place far away from here. Somewhere on what seemed to be the other side of the world, a woman with tanned skin and dark eyes was telling the same exact thing to her baby boy.

Um..we read 'A Farewell To Arms' for English, and we had to write a piece afterwards relating to the Iraqui war...I'm not good with writing death scenes in war . so I chose to write of something closer to home. I..used Edo's name because I couldn't think of one...and military makes me thing either Roy Mustang or Edward Elric, as far as men go xD And the little girl, Erika (or "Eri") is mine 3 Anyway, sorry if it's too depressing'