It was a simple luxury as far as luxuries went. A small house in the country. A house with enough land for a garden, and walking in the woods. There was enough space for horses; although with the amount of they took Eliot couldn't justify having any – yet. The key word being yet. Someday there would be horse in the two-hundred year old barn.
If they knew about this place none of them had said anything. They gave him this; this place where he could be alone. And all too often it was a place where he could be alone, and heal. Since he'd purchased the house it had become a ritual for him on the times when he managed to escape the team and Boston. A cup of coffee and read the newspaper. After the paper he'd make breakfast, then weed the large garden, and putter around fixing this, mending that. It was an old house. Almost three hundred years old and it took a lot of upkeep. But, keeping her together and in good shape was worth it. The house was a she; she most definitely had a personality. And was as finicky and as high maintenance as Sophie!
Eliot sat down with the paper that had been delivered to the box at the end of the private road. He'd gone for a run and walked back up the long driveway with the thick newspaper as his cool-down. Sipping the excellent cup of coffee he skimmed the magazine, the business section, spent some more time on the sports section. Yes! Kentucky was playing Tennessee tonight; that would be a good game. As was the routine he scanned through everything; and stuttered to a halt when he saw the words Master Sergeant Dominic Daniel Labrutta, United States Army.
The death of Master Sergeant Dominic Daniel Labrutta, 38, was officially announced Monday. Labrutta, who was assigned to the 20th Engineer Battalion of the 36th Engineer Brigade, died in Kandahar, officials stated. He is the ninth soldier with county ties to die while serving in the war against terrorism since 2003.
Adams is the first to die in Afghanistan; the other eight died in Iraq. Of the nine deaths, seven were killed in action and two succumbed to injuries from non-combat circumstances. He was a 1994 graduate of South County High and is survived by his parents; Dominic Giovanni Labrutta and Gina Tosca Labrutta; his sisters Marie Gina Labrutta McLauren, Bianca Leah Labrutta.
Five simple sentences. Five sentences in the back of the newspaper, that was it. Dom's entire life summed up in five sentences. Five short sentences. Eliot felt the tears start leaking out of his eyes and just let them fall. Let them hit the newspaper which had fallen forgotten onto the dining room table.
Eliot let the tears fall. One more soldier dead. Dead. Another name that would be forgotten too soon. A life snuffed out too soon and all that bullshit. The good ones always die too young. It might only be seven thirty in the morning; but, he shoved the chair back from the table not caring that it hit the wall with too much force denting the lovingly restored wainscoting. He reached into the kitchen cabinet and got the bottle of Jameson's from the back roughly pouring a couple of measures into the clear glass. Eliot tossed back the Irish whiskey and felt the burn reach into his nose, instead of slamming the glass down like he and Dom had many times he held it up in a silent salute. A salute to those gone.
The burn hit his stomach and the hitter stared at the glass he held in the air, he felt the tears in his eyes. Today was a day he didn't want to remember, didn't want to feel. So he poured a second measure of good whiskey and whispered:
Life contracts and death is expected,
As in a season of autumn.
The soldier falls.
He does not become a three-days personage,
Imposing his separation,
Calling for pomp.
Death is absolute and without memorial,
As in a season of autumn,
When the wind stops,
When the wind stops and, over the heavens,
The clouds go, nevertheless,
In their direction
It wasn't a poem he'd been forced to read in high school; and even now Eliot couldn't remember the author. But, the words 'absolute and without memorial' had always stuck with him. Today the wind had stopped.
