WAMH Ch 6

Sully sat on his usual place in front of the fire place, cuddling the small animal. He wondered what on earth had possessed him to take the dog. He had always wanted one; now he was responsible for this small animal to live.

Rising he went to the phone and called the grocery store and ordered some dog food and some extra for himself. At the other end of the phone a surprised shop assistant asked, "Will that be all, Mr. Sully?"

Sully did not hear the surprise in the voice and said, "Humm... no, and a bag of puppy biscuits for Wolf."

"A wolf?" the alarmed shop helper exclaimed.

Sully chuckled and smiled broadly the first time in a very long time, "Oh no, it's the name of the pup he looks like a wolf," he explained.

Relieved the shop assistant re-read the items on the list, gave Sully the amount and hung up. He looked at the phone in disbelief because that customer never ordered very many groceries.

Sully was woken by a wet lick on his face, which immediately put his whole body on high alert. Opening his eyes he was rewarded with another lick. He was relieved at seeing it was only the puppy he had adopted the afternoon before. Whimpering the small animal trotted to the door and waited patiently. When it eventually ran back to Sully and looked at him, suddenly the penny dropped: the dog needed to go outside in a hurry.

But it was too late; the puppy made a puddle. Sully placed paper over it and opened the door, and his little companion went out onto the porch. Sully watched as it tried getting down the steps on its own. Two it managed to do very well, then it was tumbling down to the ground on the final ones.

Sully remembered the night before when he looked back into the room.

He had commenced in his usual position on the chair, his legs stretched out in front on the coffee table. He had never gone up stairs to sleep, only to the bathroom since arriving home. The puppy had sat at his feet, wanting contact, and he had finally given in and placed a blanket on the floor and stretched out there. His furry companion had curled up near his chest, listening to his heart beat. Sully had heard that babies liked the sound of the regular thump, thump as it sounded like when they were in the womb. He had to admit that being stretched out and sleeping on the floor his body felt better in the morning.

Sleeping in the war zone, he had become accustomed to small spaces and cat naps. Since arriving home he felt as if he needed to catch up with all those lost hours. When asked if he was all right his response was always *yes* because he was afraid to tell others of the nightly nightmares, even admit them to himself.

Suddenly he realized that last night he had slept soundly the first time in a long, long time. He glanced at the pup seated patiently at the bottom of the steps, waiting to be helped up and he wondered, "Could he be the reason?"

After all, he had resigned himself to a life of loneliness when he arrived home. But now it had changed by a small boy, his mother and a pup he had named Wolf. There was no way he could go back to how he was yesterday. Suddenly he felt fear, as his breath quickened and his pulse began to race. He knew the signs, he was having a panic attack. Sitting in the worn cane chair, then moving to the steps he tried to regulate his breathing when he felt the wet tongue of the pup on his face and heard a whine.

He concentrated on the small brown concerned eyes looking at him. All of a sudden it was over.

"Thanks boy," Sully said, the puppy wagged it's tail and looked pleased licking Sully's face again. The smell of the small animal's breath told Sully it was not all that old.

...

Michaela was again studying the file she had become occupied with, wondering now whether it was only the case, or rather the man that attracted her since she had met him. The computer was now open in front of her.

She at first typed in Sully's name, service number, unit and up popped a file that was pages long. Her manila folder had his health records and snippets of information related to his physical state. The file on the computer was all service information. He was indeed a hero; he had put his life on the line on a number of occasions. The last skirmish had been by far the worst, the unit had been in an orchard and one of their own local members had turned on them, a betrayal that had occurred on many occasions. Sully had been forced to kill the man then try and save others from attack from the other enemy.

One of his own men had been pronounced dead, but they had still brought him home. He was a translator and he was recorded as being Cloud Dancing. Sully had saved many others, one being Robert E.

Michaela shivered as she could imagine the effect something like this had on Sully's psyche. He was there, wanting to be killed, but his men around him copped the bullets. Sully had his men's back and it was stated he was particularly close to these two. He never saw or heard of them again. He had been considered too traumatised, so he was discharged unfit for duty it said and was sent home. He was a hero, and then he just became a recluse. Other professionals had failed to assist him to recover. A life time of sadness was more than anyone could bear.

Finally she went looking at the others records. She looked and found to her amazement that Robert E actually lived quite close to Colorado Springs, in Manitou. Writing down the address and phone number she had it now on her *to do list*. If Sully did not know about Robert then that could help Sully's recovery.

Next she investigated other members of his unit on that fateful day. What they said and did. They all stated Sully drew fire and then went in, as he had said he was not leaving one man behind.

Finally there was only one soldier left to see what happened. What she discovered was so unexpected, she just read and re-read what was written on the screen. It was just too incomprehensible to understand.

...

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