(Clementine's Pov)
Two weeks had passed us by quicker than I thought it would. I was laying in bed as Violet had rubbed the back of my head gently. I moved my head a bit and looked to violet and she looked down to me and smiled just a little. I know it was a fake smile. She was leaving in a few hours, just a few short hours and she's gone again. I lay my head back to her chest and she rubbed the back of my head again and I listen to her as she breathed.
"Can't sleep?" She asked and I nod a bit.
"Why?" She asked quietly.
"I… I don't want to close my eyes and then you're gone." I tell her. She sighs a little and I gripped her shirt a bit. I hated the fact they made her go back, I hated it, there were plenty of others to send, people who aren't even doing anything. Hell, if I could I'd go back if I was to stay with her. God by the time she got back the girls might be teenagers. I feel her move her hand to my back and she rubbed it gently. I look to her a bit and she looked to me and then she kissed the top of my head.
"Come on, let's go get some tea… it should relax you a bit." She says and I nod a bit as we get up and head to the kitchen. I stand with her ad we made the tea and I lean my head on her shoulder and I feel her looking to me.
"I'll be back soon… I promise." She whispers to me.
"You know you can't keep it." I mutter quietly and then I feel her turn to face me and she hugged me gently. I hugged her back and she placed her face in my neck and she kissed it gently.
"I always keep my promises with you and our girls." She whispers to me and I feel tears in my eyes.
"I wish I didn't lose my fucking leg in the accident." I mutter to her.
"Hey, hey… the girls need you, their mother-."
"You're their parent too Violet, they love you too, for gods sake they're old enough to know about all this… you missed years with them, what if you miss more? what if you're there and by the time you get back they're teenagers?" I asked her and she pulled back a bit and I see her frown a bit at this and then she rubbed the back of her neck.
"We were lucky with the last war and how it ended, now they make a new one and take you away from your family… What about that one asshole that told you, that you had to go? Why can't he go?" I asked her.
"He's a shit shot and doesn't know shit Clem; he goes and he's dead the moment his boots hit the ground." She tells me.
"And what? Your life is less than his? Our lives were less then those assholes." I tell her.
"What you want me to go AWOL? Clem I could go to fucking prison... I have no choice, I sighed for another eight years, after that no more." She tells me.
"I'm not asking you to go AWOL, and what if you do come back and you're just in a fucking box? For god's sake Violet what if they never find you if you go missing? What do I tell the girls?" I asked and she sighed a bit.
"Clem-."
"No… I can't just think all the good stuff what if something does happen? You weren't well before and you just go because you were mad at that prick and you were bored?" I asked and she takes a deep breath and then exhaled.
"Clementine, I promise, I will come back, I will be safe I swear." She tells me and I shake my head a bit and then she hugged me gently.
"It's going to be fine; you know what can happen I get it, you have to think about the worse outcomes as well, but I know what I'm doing." She tells me and I just stop talking. The tea was done and Violet makes me a cup and then herself one and we go and take a seat in the living room. We just sat in silence and drank the tea and I look to her as she looked to the television a bit and then she placed her hand on my leg. She looked to me and smiled that gentle smile of hers. As if she thinks that everything was going to be ok.
When it was time for her to go the girls had given her their hugs bye and that they would see their Papa soon. She hugged them back and I know she was giving them the biggest hug she could give without hurting them. She then get's up and looked to me and she opened her arms for me and I go up and hugged her. She hugs me tightly and I do the same. I didn't want to let her go but I had to. When I did, she grabbed her ruck and headed over to the aircraft and I see the other soldiers as they hugged their families as well. I look to Violet as she waved to us and we wave back to her. We watched as the aircraft left and I take a deep breath and exhaled then looked to the girls as they kept waving to the aircraft.
"Papa will be back." Diana tells me and I rubbed her head gently.
"Yeah… Papa will be back… they promised." I tell her and she nods and I look to Lura as she just kept looking out the window and I get to thinking.
"How about this winter we go and visit your grandma and Aunt?" I asked.
"Really?" Lura asked and I nodded.
"Yeah, not fair that they always come to visit us." I tell her and I take the girls to the car. The months passed by and we were on a train to Texas and I decided to get the first-class tickets for the three of us. The girls were excited for the trip and we were surprising their grandmother and aunt. I look to the window a bit and I look down to the book in my hand. I honestly thought I could read while we headed to Texas but I couldn't. I was still worried about Violet. She hasn't sent a letter in months; I know why but I still worried for her. Lura and Diana were wondering if we could get some treats and I nod as the lady with the cart came by and I get them each a treat. I watched the girls as they talked to each other then a child came to the door and waved to them and they waved back. The child's mother came by and I smiled at her a bit.
"I'm sorry she loves to just walk around." The mother tells me and I laughed a little.
"Oh, I get it, these two loved to just walk around and say high to strangers, their dad said 'Well at least they don't have my shyness.'" I joked and she laughed a bit too.
"Oh, trust me, my husband was the same with this little one." She says.
"Would you like to sit with us?" I asked.
"Sure, if you're ok with it." She says and she takes a seat across from me and the little girl talks with my daughters.
"How old are they?" The woman asked.
"Nine years old." I tell her.
"Oh, I am so sorry I didn't introduce myself, I'm Margret, and this is my daughter Milly." The woman says and I nod.
"I'm Clementine and this is Lura and this is Diana." I say pointing to the twins.
"No, I'm Diana, that's Lura." Lura says and I smirked a bit at this.
"You fooled me once; I know you two." I tell her and the girls giggled at their failed joke, but they still thought it was funny.
"So, you had twins, that's amazing." Margret says and I nod.
"They are our miracles." I tell her and I lean a bit so my back was facing the window.
"Do twins run on either side of the family?" She asked and I think a bit.
"No, at least from what my husband's family knows twins don't, and I don't have family to ask for myself so I'm not too sure." I tell her.
"Oh, I'm sorry, where are you headed?" She asked.
"Texas to meet my husband's mother and sister." I tell her.
"Oh, that is a long ways away." She says and I nod.
"What about you?" I asked.
"Oklahoma to see my husband." She says and I raise a brow a bit.
"Oh, he went to go see his mother, I was able to get some money so he didn't have to pay for us, man does a lot of work already." She says and I smiled a bit.
"Workaholic?" I asked.
"Ever since he came back home from the last war, can't get him to stop working." She says and I nod.
"Oh, I know, that's how I met my husband, we were in the same squad for a bit." I tell her.
"Oh wow, was it scary over there?" She asked and I nod.
"Very, my husband and I were snipers, we had our friends with us too, uh…. One of our friends were KIA… we were also locked in one of those camps for kidnapped soldiers and… my husband almost didn't make it." I tell her and she placed her hand to her mouth.
"Oh my, well at least you and him don't have to deal with that anymore." She says and I shake my head a bit.
"Well, I lost my leg in a crash so they couldn't send me back, but they sent my husband back… he was there when they dropped that atomic bomb." I tell her.
"Oh, my goodness." She says and I nod.
"Yeah, he went blind … but he got this surgery for his eyes, and he only got it because he said he wanted to see our children, when we had any." I tell her and my voice went soft.
"He's back over there because the recruiter basically mocked him and he wanted to prove himself… ironically the recruiter never went overseas and he still hasn't when I have to take the girls to their appointments, I see him on the base laughing with his buddies acting as if he's the best macho soldier there." I tell her.
"Bet your husband was pissed." She says and I think.
"He was but… he said his life was boring… he had a really complicated childhood, always working, always trying to show he isn't weak, trying to prove a point even if he makes the dumb choices… but I still love him and I love how he can still do more than many… and he helped me make these two." I say as I look to my daughters as they shared their treats with her.
"So, he's back over there?" She asked and I nodded.
"He came back not that long ago, they wanted to give him a week but I was able to tell him he should get at least a month." I tell her.
"Oh, so he left recently?" She asked and I offer her some of the treats but she declined.
"He left a few months back…. it's sad that he's missing another Christmas with his girls though." I explained and she nods.
"Holidays can be tough, my husband was so upset when his job wouldn't let him take easter off, I mean easter of all holidays… but I suppose they really needed him for work." She says and I nod a bit.
"My husband would have been throwing a fit if they made him work on easter, more so it was one of his grandmothers' favorite holidays and not for his religious beliefs." I tell her.
"Is he not?" She asked.
"Oh no, he is, he took his daughters every Sunday when they were little, but he never pushed them when they got older, if they wanted to go, he was ok with it, if they didn't, he was fine too, think he said 'Well if they want, they can read the book at home, not like they can't read'… though I don't think he enjoys our new pastor's wife that much." I say and the woman laughed.
"Why was she hitting on him?" She asked.
"Oh, trust me, if she was my husband would tell me to take my leg off and beat her with it, but I think he'd say that to get me to laugh…. No, she was basically trying to force us to put our children in a catholic school. Along with the fact that we hadn't baptized our daughters yet but my husband wanted to be there and his mother to be there, things just got hectic in our lives and now the girls are older, so we want them to make that choice." I explained and Margret nods.
"Oh, that's understandable, my family isn't religious much but if our daughter wants to be baptized when she's older than she can, his mother was upset but after my husband explained she was fine with it." She tells me and I nod. We chatted for a bit longer and the two ended up leaving our cart and I look to the girls as they got ready for bed so I get up and close the door and lock it. I pulled the chairs out to make their bed and I go and take a seat on the other side of the chairs and they go to bed as I read my story a bit. It was another day before we finally got to Texas and I was able to get a cab to take us to Violet's mothers' house.
When we got there, I paid the cab driver and I hear the house door open and I looked to see Lucy and Kat coming up to us. Of course, Kat ran up to her nieces and Lucy gives me a hug.
"Oh my god if I knew you were coming, I could have cleaned up a little." She tells me and I laughed.
"We wanted to surprise you two, plus you've seen how messy these two are, like a tornado ran through the house and not two little children." I joke and she laughs. Oh, come in, come in, it's a little chilly out here." Lucy says and I nod as we go inside the house. The girls went to go play with their aunt and I wanted to help Lucy a bit in the kitchen.
"So, how's the bakery?" She asked as I was washing some vegetables.
"Going well, lots of people keep asking about the girls and then we get the common… well rude people who come in." I say in the nicest way possible.
"Rude people come and go, don't let them bring you down." She tells me and I nod.
"Has Violet written you?" She asked and I shook my head.
"No, but she has to be busy, they want to end this quickly, though Violet's hoping they keep here there till she's done the full twenty years." I say as I set the vegetable to the side.
"She is a strange woman… though she is like her grandfather, hard headed and work willing." She says and I nod.
"She's told me about her grandparents but… I never asked you." I say and look to the older woman and she was smiling a bit.
"They were kind people, I don't think they had a mean bone in their body, well unless someone in their family was hurt then it seems like Satan himself was in the room." She tells me and I smile a bit.
"I wish I had given her more time with them… I wish I was strong like them too… to stand up to their son… I once told them I wanted to divorce their son, he was a deadbeat dad, he was nice in the beginning but after violet… he changed, he even said violet wasn't his and I was a cheater." She tells me and I look to her.
"And I'm not… I've left him and still haven't gotten a new husband or boyfriends." She says and I look to the window a bit.
"He was a nasty man and I wish I had taken Violet and ran off but… I was scared, I had no money to leave the state, what was I going to do? Let my daughter starve on the streets? Not let her continue her education?" She tells me and I look to her.
"I thought about shooting him once, but… if I did, they wouldn't let her live with her grandparents, they were too old, and I just didn't know what to do." She tells me and I look to the sink and then cleaned the meat.
"It's hard when it comes to the interests of your child, what to do, what to try and do… I want to keep my girls safe from all the idiotic people back home but I know they're going to deal with all that in life… just because they have darker skin than their dad but lighter skin than me." I mutter a bit and set the meat to the side.
"Racists are the scum of the earth, and then they want to tant the lords' words to continue that… how my husband became that way I won't know, his parents taught him to treat everyone equally because we all bleed the same color, and god made them in his image, how people can twist it and make others believe it's not true I will never know, and I don't care to know." She says and I smile a bit.
"So, you don't have a problem with me?" I asked.
"Never did, I was happy Violet has someone to be with, someone who could show her love and someone she could love… as long as she is happy then I was happy." She tells me and I look to her a bit and we started to work on the stew.
"I will admit I wasn't the best mother, and I'm still not expecting Violet to forgive me completely but she's letting me see my grandchildren, and just spend time with her own family… it's all I can ask for… and I have to thank you for that, if you didn't tell her to see me at the diner, well…. I don't know where I'd be." She tells me and add some salt to the pot and she tastes it and nods at this.
"I told her I wish I could see my parents… I told her that she had the opportunity to talk to you where I wish I could talk to my own mother." I tell her.
"I think it gave her a reality check that she could mend things with you where I… I wish my parents were here to see their grandkids, that I didn't see them… you know… plus what was the harm in talking?" I asked and she nods a bit at this. We worked more on dinner and I asked if I could make some desserts and she agreed. I was working on a pie and then I hear the girls run inside.
"No running." I warn them.
"There's a man in the driveway, he called us a bad word." Lura says and I look to Lucy and she looked to me as she looked out the window and Kat comes in.
"It's dad." She tells her mom who rolls her eyes and the girls come over to me and I look to them.
"He didn't touch you, did he?" Lucy asked.
"No, he just called us a bad word, wouldn't stop calling us the word." Diana tells us and I nod a bit.
"Kat can you take the girls to your room just in case?" Lucy asked and she nods and takes the girls away to her room. I look to lucy who cleans her hands a bit and she looked to me.
"You know, you can go there too if you feel uncomfortable." She tells me and I shake my head and I cut the stove off and she nods as she went and grabbed her shot gun. Honestly, I wanted to laugh at this but I kept my mouth shut as we walked out and her ex-husband was coming up the porch.
"Oh, great this ni-."
"Say that word again and I blow your head off." Lucy warns and he looked to the gun in her hands and he looked to me and sneered then looked to his Ex-Wife.
"What are you doing here?" She asked.
"Came to see my daughter I have a right." He tells her.
"The judge said you don't, now get off my property." Lucy tells him.
"I am her father I have a damn right to see her, you're keeping her away from me." He tells her.
"No, you going into a drunk rage cause you not to see here anymore, I should have left you when you did that to Violet." Lucy tells him.
"Oh, that stupid cunt? Really? Has she brainwashed you?" He asked lucy.
"Oh, shut up you bitter old man." Lucy says and I cover my mouth a bit to hold back a laugh and I clear my throat a bit.
"You watch yourself bitch, I'll hang you from a tree along with your kids." He threatened and I hold Lucy's hand before she raised the shotgun up and I look to the man.
"Threaten me all you want but don't threaten my children, Violet wouldn't like to hear about that." I tell him.
"Oh, what's she going to do? Fucking cry?" He mocked and I think.
"No, I think she'd make your death painful; Honestly I think at this point she could make your death look like an accident, don't know how a man can be so cruel to his grandchildren either, such a shame." I tell him.
"They are not my grandchildren with your types blood." He says and I shrugged.
"Well, we told them you weren't their grandfather so no issues." I tell him and he glared at me.
"You aren't allowed to see or talk to Kat, now go before you end up in the hospital." Lucy tells him and he laughed.
"Bitch you can't shoot worth shit." He says and I look to Lucy and I think.
"Mind handing me the gun?" I asked her and she looked to me.
"You'd be a shit shot too." He says and I laughed.
"Seems he forgot he was told we were snipers." I laughed more as he turned red in the face.
"Paint me like a thug, but I know how to shoot, so if Lucy hands that shotgun to me, I'd think you'd want to run unless you want your lower jaw missing, I won't give you a quick death." I warn him.
"I'll have the cops on your ass." He says.
"How you going to tell anyone anything with your jaw blown off?" I asked him and the next thing I know I'm getting smacked in the face and then there is a loud thud. I look to see Violet's father on the ground by the steps and Lucy pointing her gun at him as she stood next to me. He gets up and glared at her.
"YOU BITCH!" He yelled then a cop car had come up to the house and I just look to Violet's father.
"What seems to be the problem here?" The officer asked.
"This bitch shoved me off the porch." He tells the officer.
"He's trespassing." Lucy tells the officer and the man looked to me.
"Alright you have to come to the station." He says as he comes up to me.
"What? I didn't-."
"Shut it and just do as I say."
"But she didn't do anything, she is a guest here." Lucy tells him and he looked to her and I sighed and placed my hands behind my back and he cuffs me.
"Clementine." She says.
"Just call Jesus and then…. God get him to call Violet." I tell her and she nods and I'm taken into the police car and I shake my head at this. They take me to the station and if I have to be honest some of the people gave the officer a questioning look as they put me through the whole process before locking me up in a jail cell. I took a seat at the benches and I look to the side a bit as I see someone arguing with the officer. I look back to the wall in front of me and I rubbed my face a bit. It was a few days they had me locked up here and I see one of the officers come up to the cell and I look to them.
"Uh your lawyer is here." He says and I nod as I get up and they take me to a room where I see Jesus and I was surprised to see Violet here too. She comes up to me and looks me over and I smile a bit at her.
"What the hell happened?" She asked.
"Oh, just a bit of a mix up I suppose." I tell her.
"A mix up? They call this a fucking Mix up? I get a call saying my wife is in jail in fucking Texas, what were you doing here anyway?" She asked as we go take a seat.
"Just wanted to spend the holidays with your mother and sister, the girls too." I tell her and she looked to Jesus.
"How the fuck did this happen, they know he wasn't supposed to be there, he has a restraining order what fucking good is it if they don't abide by it." She mutters and I smiled a little at her.
"Look the officer is on suspension for arresting her, but there was still the complaint he said she pushed him off the porch." Jesus says as he looked to me.
"I didn't shove or push or touch the man in any shape or form, I just bruised his ego." I tell him.
"Says you threatened to shoot him." He tells me and I sighed and nodded.
"Yes, but that was because he said Lucy was a shit shot, look he threatened to hang me and my kids-."
"HE DID WHAT?!" Violet yelled.
"Calm down, I know that's horrible but we need to keep a level head." He tells her.
"He threatened their lives for fuck sake how do you expect me to be calm?" She asked him.
"I know I know, but we will fix this." Jesus says and I shake my head and laughed a little.
"I always kept my mouth shut for this reason should have still kept my mouth shut." I mutter and look to them.
"Look, he can't do anything, the officer should have taken him and right now they are looking for him-."
"They haven't gotten him yet this is… this is bullshit." Violet says.
"The good news is, you can get out of here, bad news-."
"I have to go to court unless he drops the charges which we all know he won't." I finished and Jesus nods at this.
"Yes, sadly." He tells me and I nod at this. I look over to Violet as she leaned back in the chair and she looked to Jesus.
"What's the bail?" I hear her ask.
"Thirty-five dollars." He says and she nods.
"I'll go pay it." She tells him.
"Violet-."
"I'm not having my wife sit in jail close to Christmas, or at all, now I'm going to go pay the bail, and we will head to my mom's." She tells me and I just nod at this as she left the room and I look to Jesus.
"You think they'll not give me jail time?" I asked and he looked to me and smiled.
"Yes, I'll make sure of it, he threatened your kids and your life, he also violated the restraining order, and if he doesn't show up the first day to court, he loses the case, plus he has a warrant out on him so regardless he will have jail time." He explained and I nod a bit at this and I rubbed my face.
"Ok… sorry I just." I tried to say something.
"It's fine Clementine, we will get you out of this." He tells me and I nod. Violet comes on over to us and I look to her as she looked to me a bit and then we head out and we get in a taxi, Jesus heads to the hotel he was going to stay and we head on over to Lucy's home. Once there the girls came running out and give me a hug and then Violet gets a hug as well. Lucy looks to me as she comes over.
"I am so sorry-."
"It's fine Lucy, how were the girls?" I asked and she told me how they had behaved and I look to Violet as she looked to the girls then to me.
"You ok?" She asked.
"Not really." I tell her and she nods.
"Come in, it's chilly out." Lucy tells us and we all head on inside. I look to see Violet as she looked upset and I place my hand on her shoulder and she looked to me.
"Are you mad?" I asked her and she takes a breath.
"I… am not mad at you, I am mad at him." She tells me and I looked down a bit.
"Not your fault for being overprotective, fucking bastard." She mutters. She looks to the side then back to me and places her hand on my shoulder.
"Are you ok? they didn't do anything to you?" She asked and I shook my head.
"The lady's were nice to me, and one of the officers yelled at the one who arrested me, so there was that… they just had to keep me because of the charges your dad put on me." I tell her and she shook her head.
"When do you have to go back?" I asked her and she glared a bit.
"Till all this is over, I'm not leaving till-."
"It could take months." I tell her.
"So? I don't want him getting away with what he caused." She tells me and I sighed a bit.
"Look, we will figure something out, I already asked Omar to watch the shop back home when I got the call so no need to worry about that." She tells me and I sighed.
"What about Lee?" I asked.
"They'll be here once they tell us more on what's going on, and yes, your grandparents know too and will be here as well." She tells me and I nod a bit at this. It was about another month before they had caught Violet's dad and then we had to go to court and violet sat behind me as I sat with Jesus. My dad and other family members were here and I look to the judge.
"Off, not a good look here." He says and I look to Jesus.
"Alright, explain." He says and Jesus let Violet's fathers lawyer speak first.
"Sir my client was there peacefully to see his daughter, and she went savage on him, threatening his life like all blacks do they're common thugs." He says.
"You will be careful what you say about her and her skin color, I'm not tolerating bigots in this court room unless you want to be held in contempt." The judge warned and I look to him a bit then to the lawyer.
"Anyway, he was simply defending himself and she shoved him off the porch almost breaking his neck." He says.
"Any medical records to back this up?" The judge asked.
"Well, that's why I said almost-."
"So, he wasn't hurt?" The judge asked.
"He was-."
"Then where are the medical records to prove he was hurt? Plus, your client was on the run, he violated his restraining order and decided to come to Lucy's home onto her property with her guest." The judge says and I hear the lawyer grumbling a bit.
"You may speak." The judge says to Jesus.
"Yes, your honor, my client didn't touch him as stated in the police records Lucy her mother-in-law had said she was the one to shove her Ex-husband off her porch and that she was the one holding the shot gun to defend her home." Jesus says and I look to lucy who nods when the judge looked to her.
"I read that, I also read that he had threatened to lynch not only Mrs. Everette but her children as well is that correct?" The judge asked as he looked to Mr. Aldon and his lawyer.
"Well, the kids-."
"Are you going to tell me two nine-year-old girls threatened his life in some manner?" The judge asked as he leaned forward at his podium and the lawyer looked to the papers a bit then to his client who nodded.
"Yes, my client said that after he was pushed, they were going to throw something at him from the window on the second story." The lawyer says.
"Is that so?" The judge asked.
"THAT'S BULLSHIT!" Lucy and Violet yelled.
"ORDER!" The judge yelled and he looked to the two and I look back to him.
"There will be no out bursts." He says calmly and they sit back down and I look to Violet as she glared at her father.
"So, what were they going to throw at you?" The judge asked.
"I don't know something-."
"Could have been water balloons, stuffed toys, a pillow, since you know, they were going to throw something you had to see what the item was since the windows of the house aren't covered by roofing and just flat to the house." The judge says and Mr. Aldon didn't say anything.
"Tell me what it was Mr. Aldon, you should have seen it clear as day." The judge says getting a little impatient.
"I don't know." He mutters.
"Says here in the police report that their Aunt Kat was with them as she was on the phone calling police and that they were in your ex-wife's room which is at the opposite end of the house, so were you in the back or front yard?" The judge asked.
"The front." He tells him.
"Then the girls didn't try and throw anything at you, now clearly you were a threat to Mrs. Everett and her children, along with Lucy and Kat, you have no medical records stating you were injured or in life threatening conditions, you Violated a restraining order, and you ran from the police after they had arrested the wrong person but you clearly were able to give a statement, which what you're telling me right here and right now didn't happen, because you said, Mrs. Everett had the gun, that she was the one to push you, and that she cause you pain and suffering, but again no medical attention was seeked." The judge says to him.
"You also threatened her, your wife, your daughter and Mrs. Everett's daughters as well, and with them being of different skin tone it's classified as a hate crime and carries a heavier charge, so unless they have a plea for you then you aren't winning this case." The judge tells him.
"We don't have a plea in place sir." Jesus tells him.
"Then I have no choice but to sentence you to ten years in the county jail, with the chance of parole." The judge says.
"Your honor this seems like a harsh punishment-."
"Harsh you say? Let's see, drunk man beat his kid almost half to death cops in town do nothing to stop it but they bragged about knowing it, man beats his other daughter which caused the restraining order in the first place, shall I go on?" The judge asked and I look to him a bit as he glared at the lawyer who didn't speak.
"Let's see, he also fled from the cops even though he was the one to press charges on Mrs. Everett which now we know are false and he perjured himself, so I think ten damn years are being really lenient but because you seem to have reminded me of all this let's add in another ten years shall we?" He asked.
"I'll have your job for this-."
"And I'll be sure to tell your buddies at the little lawyer club of yours that you told your client to perjure themselves then what's written on the statement that you have provided." The judge says and the lawyer shuts his mouth.
"Twenty years and a chance of parole." The judge says as he banged on his gavel and I take a breath and Violet comes over the barrier and hugged me.
"Holy shit." She says and I nod a bit at this. When all was done we all went to Lucy's house and Violet was with the girls as we stayed in the back yard and I watch them.
"She leaves in two days." Kat says and I nod at this.
"Yeah… sucks but that's how things are." I tell her.
"Don't know how you can deal with her gone for so long though." She says and I shrugged a bit.
"Her kids are a handful and keep me occupied." I tell her and she laughed a little.
"Oh, so when they're hellions they're her kids?" She asked and I laughed and nodded.
"Yeah, trust me you'll be that way with your husband, when the kids are angels, they are ours, when they act like little devils that their dads." I joked and she smiled and shakes her head a bit.
"They are good kids though." She says and I nod.
"Raised them right… and I'll give Violet credit too." I say as I watched them.
"How are they when she's gone?" Kat asked.
"They know she's just working, and that there will be times where she doesn't come home for months or even years… it was hard at first, they always ask for their Papa when she left the first time… I just hope they don't think to bad of her for just doing something she likes." I tell her and she nods again.
"Does she really like the Army?" She asked.
"Oh, it's more so of she's a hard worker… and it's all she knows… you know why she was in the Army?" I asked.
"Yeah… mom told me… I feel bad for her." She says as she looked to her sister and I nod a bit.
"It's what she wants to do… and I can't stop her." I tell Kat and she nods. I look to Violet a bit as Diana and Lura tackled her to the ground.
"I'm scared for her… I know she has to be going through worse than what the last war was like but still… she didn't have a family, yes she had friends but no kids or a wife… not able to see them for long periods of time… plus I'm worried about her eye sight sometimes, do people ridicule her because of the scars? Hell, she told me a while before she left that she didn't want her pictures taken while over there because she's scared, they'd use it as propaganda for here." I tell Kat.
"Would they?" She asked and I nod.
"Anything to get more people to join… 'look at this soldier, who had lost her eyesight from the war and back again serving her country.'… she doesn't want our daughters to see her like that… used for that reason." I tell kat who looked to Violet as she picked both the twins up and brought them over to Lucy who grabbed Diana and Lee grabbed Lura.
"I'd hate that too." She tells me and I nod a bit. Violet came over to me and she was sweating and I smiled at her as she takes a seat next to me.
"Note to self… don't try and play with sugar high children." She laughed and I smiled at her and patted her shoulder.
"That's not sugar high, but thanks for giving me permission to cut their sweets intake." I tell her and she laughed a bit and then she pulled out her cigarettes and lit one up. She offered one to me and I take it and she lights it for me and then she looked to kat who declined and I smack Violet's shoulder.
"She's to young you dumbass." I tell her and she laughed.
"She's almost old enough to join the military and have kids, and drive a car, plus I was smoking at a younger age." She says and then takes a drag from her cigarette. I shake my head at this and then looked to the girls and then look to Violet a bit. Kat heads over to her mother and I place my hand on Violet's shoulder and she looked to me with the cigarette in her mouth and I smiled.
"How's everything going on over there?" I asked her.
"Going good, they say we're close to winning this damn thing, the uh… the Army offered me a promotion as well." She says and I look to her.
"Just need to go to the board and stuff." She mutters and then takes the cigarette from her mouth and flicks the ashes.
"Promotion is good." I tell her and she nods.
"They uh… want to make me a Lieutenant." She says and I look to her.
"Oh, wow that's a big job." I say and she nods.
"Well, they like me enough… more money too, more life insurance." She tells me and then she looked to the girls a bit.
"If something happens, not saying it will or won't." She says quietly.
"Hmm, and when I met you, you were just a corporal." I laughed and she shoved me.
"Ok private." She joked and I salute her and she laughed a bit and salutes me back and then dropped her hand and I dropped mine.
"…You think my mom is proud of me?" She asked and I think and I nod.
"I think she is… why don't you ask her?" I asked.
"Scared too… shouldn't be but I am." She tells me and I think.
"I think you and her should have a day for yourselves… you know, to talk and have fun before you go back." I tell her and she shakes her head.
"I'll do it when I get back." She tells me and I look to my parents a bit and to my grandparents.
"Sing any cadences while there?" I asked.
"Oh my god, did you know they didn't know 'Here We Go Again'? like who doesn't know that." She laughed and I did too.
"Here we go again." I laughed as I say the cadence.
"Same old stuff again." Violet says and we look to each other as we both said the cadence.
"Marching down the avenue, few more days and we'll be through, I won't have to look at you, So I'll be glad and so will you." We both laughed when we finished and I shake my head and lean my head on her shoulder and she put her arm around my waist.
"How do they not know that? We sang that in basic." I laughed and she shrugged.
"Lot of the older soldiers knew it, so I wasn't alone." She tells me and I nod at this.
"You… I miss you." I tell her and she looked to me a bit and I look to her.
"I miss you too." She tells me quietly and I nod and I kissed her cheek.
"How are you feeling though? After everything?" I hear her ask.
"I'm ok… at least the judge was fair." I tell her and she nods at this. We finished our cigarettes and the days passed by too quickly and Violet went back and I along with the girls were headed back to Georgia and they were back in school and I was currently working at the Bakery with Omar. We had a lot of orders come in and we were busy. More and more time passed and I was looking at the Calander and it was seven years already. I take a breath and look to the door of the bakery and I put the open sign in place and got to work.
I was in the back right now finishing the touches on the cupcakes before I would put them in the window display. I had the radio on so I could listen to music as I worked. I then hear the shop bell ring and I set the piping bag down on the table and I clean my hands with a wash rag.
"I'll be there in a minute." I tell the customer.
"Take your time." I hear and I stopped and then ran out the kitchen and I see Violet and I run up and hugged her as she laughed and hugged me back.
"Holy shit, when did you come back?" I asked and I kissed her cheek and she smiled.
"Last night, wanted to surprise you." She tells me.
"You jerk." I say and she laughed and I look to her as she took her cap off and I kissed her.
"Well, I have a few months left so they sent me back." She tells me.
"You going to work with Lieutenant Kim?" I asked.
"Oh, he's not a lieutenant anymore, he's a general." She laughed.
"Oh shit… need to go talk to people more." I mutter and she laughed.
"It's fine, but I will be working with him yes." She says and I nod.
"Want a cake?" I asked.
"Got any of those brownie cookies?" She asked and I smiled and nodded as I went to get her some. We sat at the table and talked for a bit, I told her how the girls had started to play baseball and I see her smile.
"They hitting home runs?" She asked as she swung an invisible bat and I smiled.
"Well Diana has a really great pitching arm, and Lura is a great catcher and batter." I tell her and she laughs.
"That's our girls, they'll be better than Babe Ruth." She says and I nod.
"They are part of my old high school baseball team; they have plenty of colleges looking at them." I tell her and she nods.
"How's AJ?" She asked.
"He's working with animals at the vet clinic with Tennessee." I tell her and she nods at this and takes a bite of her cookie.
"That's great." She says and I nod.
"Grandpa and Grandma have been asking about you a lot." I tell her and she nods.
"I have to visit them." She tells me.
"Well grandpa is in the hospital right now, nothing too bad." I tell her and she looked a little worried.
"It's not bad, he just fell and they want to check on him, he doesn't have a concussion or broken bones." I tell her and she nods at this.
"Ok, that's good I mean bad but he's fine, right?" She asked and I nod at this.
"Yes, he's fine, grandma keeps trying to bring him meatloaf even though he's supposed to be eating low sodium foods but hey that's grandma." I laughed and so does she.
"How are you?" I asked her and she looked to me with half a cookie in her mouth and I couldn't help but giggle a little at this. She chews her food and then swallows a bit.
"Fine, no big hiccups, didn't die, didn't lose a limb… got real lucky." She says to me and I nod.
"Might have yelled at some idiots when I almost did get stabbed or shot but hey, play stupid games win stupid prizes." She laughed and I look to her a bit.
"You should head on home to see the girls." I tell her and she shook her head.
"I want to see you more." She tells me and I kissed her cheek gently.
"You will, now go home get some rest, the girls will be home from school later but you look tired." I tell her and she nods a bit.
"I'm going to get a pizza for dinner if that's ok?" She asked and I nod at this. She gives me a kiss and then heads out to the house and I get to work.