Eventually, Ella settled with Ace in New York City. Boston was her first stop after the Medal of Honor ceremony, but it hurt just a little too much to stay there. New York was easier to blend in to. The military pension given to those who had been awarded the Medal of Honor was easy to live on, since Ella didn't need much, but she did publish regularly in TIME magazine. She began to write an ongoing set of essays called The Americana Series. Her first chapter was called "Americans in France" and was widely regarded as a treasured piece of American history. The second essay, titled "Shame," was a major bashing of the use of nuclear weapons against Japan and sparked debates all over the country. Utivich sent Ella a letter commending her on the essay, a risky move on his part since he was now working for the FBI. Aldo just called it 'making trouble.'
Ella made it a point to visit Maynardville every three months or so. Just over one year after their return from France, she attended Aldo's wedding to a little spitfire of a woman named Jeannie. Unsurprisingly, Ella and Jeannie got along quite well, especially when moonshine was involved. Less than a year later, Jeannie and Aldo had their first child - a girl named Mary Ella Raine. Ella Demski was ecstatic. The little girl had Jeannie's big blue eyes and a pout like her father.
In June 1949, Ella published her seventh of The Americana Series ( titled "America's Pastime") and headed to Maynardville to see the Raine family with Ace, which now included three-year old Mary and one-year old William Donald. On Ella's last day in Tennessee, she and Aldo sat on the porch while Jeannie napped with the children, sipping iced tea and Bourbon.
"You goin' to a game on your way back?" Aldo asked. Ella made it a habit that whenever she went back North, if it was baseball season, she went to a Boston Red Sox game at Fenway.
"Sure am. One of these days, you're gonna have to come with me."
He shook his head. "Ain't my thing."
"Wasn't mine, either." Ella swirled the spiked tea in the glass, watching the beads of sweat roll down onto her fingers. "It kind of is now, though."
"Yeah, I read that TIME." Aldo reached down and patted Ace on the head absentmindedly. He had definitely warmed up to the dog since that night in the tavern with Landa. Ace had grown up to be a handsome, picturesque German Shepherd, and he kept his manners and went everywhere with Ella.
"You better have read it. I send you one each time I publish."
"Don't worry, I got 'em all upstairs." He smiled at her. "El, I hope you're happy up there in New York."
"I try, Aldo. I really do. Nothing's gonna compare to France ever again, but I try my best. God, it was a fucked-up time, but that's where I was really, actually happy."
"I know it was. I would tell you to settle down with a man, but there ain't no one out there good enough for my El." Aldo's accent had gotten stronger since they had come home, and Ella loved hearing it.
"The chances of that are indeed slim," Ella laughed. "I should go make sure I have everything. Your brother will be here soon to bring me to Knoxville."
"Say goodbye to my woman before you leave, or she'll give me hell," Aldo said, standing up with Ella.
"Don't worry. She'll do that anyways!"
Aldo groaned.
Ella donned a black skirt and a white blouse with a red belt at her waist for the game, as well as the small gold pendant that she only ever took off for showers. Simplistic, yet showing a little fan pride for the Red Sox. One of the gentlemen who ran Fenway Park actually had a son in the F.S.S.F., and he always made sure Ella had the best seats he could get and that she could bring in Ace without a fuss. Usually she sat on the first-base line with a perfect view of the field. Once, she wore her military jacket to an early spring game, and Ted Williams himself came over and shook her hand, saying he'd read her piece in TIME and thought she was a brave woman. He had fought in the war himself, so coming from him, it was high praise.
On June 23rd, they were playing the St. Louis Browns. Ella didn't hear much about the Browns, but it would have been a good game either way. Ted Williams and Dom Dimaggio were playing, (two Red Sox players who would later be inducted into the Hall of Fame), and Ella loved the atmosphere at Fenway, even if the Sox didn't win. Ella settled in her aisle seat with Ace at her feet, his tail sweeping the dust from the stairs next to them. She slipped on a pair of sunglasses to fend off the setting sun.
By the end of the third inning, the Sox were ahead by 5. Ella loved the electric energy that surrounded her when the team was winning, and she shouted and jeered along with the best of them. Ace even threw in a few barks for good measure. It was when Stan Spence (oddly enough, also a Kentucky native) came up to bat and there was mostly quiet that Ace started to bark and tug on his leash to run up the stairs.
"Ace, relax, boy, it's okay." A confused Ella tried to pull him back to her chair.
"Need some help with that dog, missy?" said the man sitting behind Ella. "He looks to be a handful."
"He was more of a handful when we were fighting in France, thank you very much," Ella huffed. "Ace, what has gotten into you? Sit!"
"The dog looked back at her, as if he was sorry that he was disobeying, but that this was too important.
"Lady," the man behind her started.
"I didn't ask you anything, bub," Ella snapped, standing up to face the man. "An Army Sergeant can control her dog. He's just being a pest about something." He looked back at her in shock, his eyes wide.
Ella relinquished, stepping out into the aisle. "Okay, okay. But only because you're disturbing this nice gentleman," she said to Ace, throwing in some southern drawl for good measure. That's when she looked up the stairs and saw what Ace was barking at.
Both of them had frozen. Neither could actually believe what they were seeing. Ella was a mystery, disappearing into the corners of the country and as far as Ella knew...well, Donny was supposed to be dead.
Ella dropped the leash and Ace ran up to Donny, jumping up on him and trying his damndest to lick his face. After a second Donny leaned down and acknowledged the dog, but his eyes never left Ella's.
She slowly removed her sunglasses, her jaw agape, trying to think if she'd had any whiskey earlier. Making sure it wasn't just her brain trying to place him there, making someone who looked like him be the man she had been missing with her entire being for five and a half years. Just the sight of him - almost exactly the same, except instead of the boots with woollen socks and the heavy leather jacket, he was wearing a crisp white button-up with suspenders and grey trousers - made her breath catch in her chest. She had never in her life been at such a loss for words.
Donny took a few steps down towards her.
"Hey, doll, I've been looking everywhere for you."
"That broke her. She rushed up the stairs, almost stumbling on the way. She practically fell into his arms.
"I got you, doll," he murmured into her ear. His strong arms lifted her into the air, one hand around her waist, the other under her rear. She buried her face in his shoulder, her hands gripping his strong back, and inhaled deeply, letting his musk fill her senses. She was well aware that everyone around them was staring now, but it didn't matter. They even ignored the one wolf-whistle from the stands off to her left. "I got you, El. After lookin' for five years, I found you."
"Oh God, Donny, I never knew. I thought...I thought you were gone forever. If I had known..."
"I know." He slowly set her down, his hands low around her waist. The woman he had been waiting so long to see was finally in his arms, and he had no clue what to say. "I missed you, El."
She laughed. "Still my Donny. I missed you too, Sarge." Her arms around his neck, she pulled him down to kiss her, one hand drifting to the familiar stubble on his cheek. More whistles and catcalls surrounded them, as well as cheers when Stan Spence struck out and the Sox headed out to the field.
""You remember that deal we made?" she asked softly, her fingers toying with the gold pendant. Donny looked to where her hand went, and everything he had hoped for came true.
"Course I do."
"I don't want to wait until we're old."
"Ella, if I could have married you the minute the war was over, I would have. You're all I've thought about since I landed back in the States. I dreamt about you. I read your essays, and I even called the magazine, but they wouldn't give me an address. I fully intend to get you a ring, Ella Demski."
She bit her lip, her heart pounding out of her chest. Words she never thought she'd hear, coming from a man she never thought she'd see again. "Pinch me, Donny. I think I'm dreaming."
"You're wide awake, doll."
The Americana Series
Part 8 - The War is Over
December 8, 1949
After all the things that I've come across in my life, I can still be struck speechless. No language conveys the feeling you get when the last thing you ever expected stumbles into your path - especially when that thing (or person, as it were) was all you ever wanted. I never thought I'd see him again. You may say that the great Sergeant Demski is going soft, but the man snoring lightly in my bed right now is one of very few that I trust with my life, on and off the battlefield.
I've written a great deal about my time in the military, as condensed as it was. I have dwelled upon it since I returned from France in May of 1944. The Red Sox and the Yankees took over for my Allies and Axis, my pen for my gun, and the two men remaining from my unit continued to be my brothers. America itself has certainly moved on - its sights are set on the USSR, and the paranoia called the Red Scare runs rampant, but I myself am finally starting to see what normalcy looks like. I will never unsee what happened in France and Italy, and my blade may shine dormantly on my mantle, but it will always carry the blood of hundreds. That will never change. But the sudden reappearance of the man I gave my whole self to and lost to the war has given me a new view of things.
My commanding officer and would-be brother in Tennessee has a wife and two children. When I told Donny that the boy was named after him, he sat in awed silence for a few minutes. Anyone who knows a Bostonian knows this is a feat. He then stood and told me that we should have one and name it after our CO. I told him that I would never in my life name a child Aldo, but on the inside, the thought of even having a child had never crossed my mind - never mind what to name it. It's true, Donny and I are engaged - next summer, probably in Boston proper. The company that Donny builds houses for is going to set us up with a new place for a very good price just outside the city. But I hadn't even thought of children. Maybe it will happen. Who knows? With the way things have been going, not much would surprise me anymore. I'll be celebrating my first Hanukkah with my future in-laws in a week. I can hardly remember actually celebrating Christmas when I was a child, and I haven't much since. It will be...an adventure, to say the least. In a good way, of course - Donny's family is wonderful, and though it's been a long time since I've had any family besides my unit, they've quickly become the parents I lost when I was young.
The moral of the story is, things change. Sometimes for the better. Once you think you've settled into your life, fate decides you need something new. Or old, as it were. The war is over, you know. I think I just realized that. Believe me, I'm one of the last to know. Our CO, Aldo, realized that a long time ago, maybe when he first saw his brother after we got back on U.S. soil. But now that I do know, I can move forward. Don't dwell on the past, because the future holds so much more.
First Sergeant Ella Demski
U.S. Army First Sergeant Ella Demski has published three previous pieces in the New Yorker: Americans in France, Shame, and America's Pastime.
A/N: Thank you so much to my readers! After a few years off of fanfiction writing, I can say I came back at it hard - mostly because I have started many a story, and only ever finished this one. Maybe I'll write something else about Ella soon - I like her too much to just give her 16 chapters. Anyways, this is it - The Wolves in France is now a complete story. You guys are the best, and maybe I'll come back with something else soon enough ;) If you have ideas, message me! Thanks!
