"I've kept your picture in plain view where he could see it and remember," Lorraine cried.
The other two children hung back, unsure of what to think. "It's really me, guys" he said, holding his arms out to them.
"When did his memory come back?" Sidney asked Hawkeye.
"A few minutes before you pulled up. It was the darndest thing. He saw a pinstripe suit, like the one we gave him before we left. Then a plane flew overheard, and something just broke," Hawkeye explained.
"What is that commotion outside?" Louise wondered. She, Peg, Patti, and Mrs. O'Riley had been in the kitchen working on the food preparations. She wandered outside to see the Blake family reunited again.
"It's been so hard without you," she heard Mrs. Blake sob. It made Lousie choke up to realize that it could have been her just as easily who was left a widow with young children to raise.
As Louise stood there, Trapper took a good look at her. She was beautiful, inside and out. He was lucky to have her when all was said and done. Unobtrusively, he went to stand next to her and squeezed her hand. She smiled and nodded. It was thier private signal for 'we need to talk.'
They slipped past the backyard to the beach.
He drew her into a hug. "I love you," he said.
"I love you too John," she replied, hanging on tight.
"I want to give us another chance babe. When we get home, I'm taking a couple of days off to just be with you and the girls. Real quality time."
"And I'm going to ease up on housework. Dust can wait. You can't."
"Ease up?" Trapper asked, suprised. Lousie kept an immaculate home.
"Just a little bit," she promised. She could feel the love flow between them again, as though they had been given a second chance when faced with what they could have lost.
"Then, we'll go on a weekend getaway, just the two of us," he promised. "We'll leave the girls with my parents."
"Just the two of us.. I like the sound of that," she confessed as they held each other against the backdrop of the untamed Eastern shore.
Everyone in the front yard seperated to either the house or the backyard to give the Blakes some time alone they hadn't had in a while.
It was several minutes before Lorraine could not hold Henry as tightly as she did. She had never truly felt that he was gone. After the memorial service, after visiting his grave several times over the past few years, even after seeking help from a counselor, she had never felt that he had died. Now he was here. Her hunches had been right.
"Maggie, we have to go now," Margeret heard her sister call.
"I'm coming," she replied, hurriedly sitting in her chair, a wide smile on her face. Up until now, she hadn't been sure. Now she knew. Excitedly she wheeled out of the room, picturing what it would be like to make that kind of announcement.
"Here, take this, this and this, and can you balance this?" Liz asked, as she placed various dishes in Margaret's lap.
"Emily, wheel me out before she buries me," Margaret joked.
"James, get your butt down here," Liz called.
"Coming, sweetheart," he called as he thundered down the stairs.
"James, wheel her out of here, Emily go unlock the car now, lets go people," Liz ordered as she picked up a bowl of pasta salad..
"And you were the one in the army," James muttered to Margaret as he obediently wheeled her out of the house.
Sherman waited in the terminal, observing the activity around him. Mostly joyful meetings. A few businessmen, he could tell by the way they briskly walked out of the terminal, eager to get on with their agendas, a few tired families that looked grateful to be home.
Then he stepped off the place. A few years older, but who hadn't aged much in the time they'd been home.
"Colonel Potter," Father Mulcahy greeted him.
"Hello Padre. It's great to see you again.
"God bless you, Colonel."
"Oh, it's just plain ol' Sherman now. Let's go get your luggage."
Father Mulcahy held up his bag. "Everything I need is right here. Priests travel light."
"Of course.. Let's go. I'm sure the others will be as happy to see you as I am. How was your trip?" Sherman asked, turning away from his old friend.
Father Mulcahy was looking straight ahead as he walked alongside him, unaware that any words had been spoken.
Col. Potter tapped his old friend on the shoulder. "Padre, are you okay?" he asked.
"Yes. Splendid. Why?" he asked looking directly at the Colonel.
"I just asked you how your flight was."
"Oh, um, perhaps it's fatigue. I am a bit weary," the priest said. He knew it would have to come out sometime that he could no longer hear, but he was nervous as to how all his old friends would react. He had become very good at adapting. While working with deaf children, he had learned alongside them about sign language and lip reading. No one could tell he was deaf unless he told them, or unless they talked to him without looking at him as the old colonel had just done.
"Well, let's check you in at the hotel,and you can have a little siesta," Sherman suggested.
"That would be wonderful," Father Mulcahy agreed. He fretted about the evening, because he had seen it many times in OR with one of the wounded. If one of the boys lost a limb or his sight, his commerades would treat him differently. He had spent many nights in Post OP, not only counseling men who were missing parts they came with, but the friends who realized that the same fate could have been theirs.