Excerpt from Beyond Flanders Fileld

How to Join	Member's Area	Private Library	Search	Sanctuary		Login
Main Forums	Discussion	Tech Talk	Mature Content	Archives	A home without a wall, Our haven without ends, A circle we all call Our Family of Friends!

Logan
Senior Member

since 2001-05-28

Posts 1641
Arkansas

0 posted 2001-12-07 11:39 PM

     Katherine walked slowly out the door, the moans of the wounded shoved into the recesses of her mind.  Wearily she brushed her dark hair back from her face, shoving her hand in her smock for the battered silver cigarette case.  For a moment her fingers traced the outline and then with a sensitive finger tip traced the engraving of the coat-of-arms.  Watching the far-off flashes of the man-made lightning of artillery shells and the distant rumble of the explosions, her thoughts turned to Jake.  The thought brought back the smell of the trenches, the sour mud, the cordite of expanded rounds.  The look on the men’s faces, wondering when they would be called to go over the top again, to face the withering machine gun fire and dropping artillery.  The officers, like Jake, walking among them, slapping their backs and reassuring their faint hearts, while trying to still their own fears and doubts.  Knowing that they would be the first to go when the whistles blew.
   Angrily, she lit a cigarette, shaking her head to banish the thoughts of the broken and mutilated bodies after such a charge.  Instead she thought of when she saw him last.  Standing at the window, his back toward her, looking toward the direction of the front.  The neatly tailored uniform, and brown officers riding boots with the high polished Sam Browne belt encompassing his body.  She had walked over to him and laid her head against his back with her arms around him.  “It was so different,” she had thought.  “The stretcher bearers bringing him in the first aid station where she had just arrived with the ambulance.  The uniform mud-caked and bloody and his face pale as death.  Those eyes softening when she had reached out and touched his hand. The thunderbolt feeling, as though an electric current had run between them.  Now, he has to go back.  It seems so long ago and again like yesterday.”
     Jake as usual, reading her thoughts, reached up and patted her hand. "Don't," he said.  "Don't think about it.  You know I‘ve to go back.  All those boys are too green.  I can keep some of them alive."
     Bitter tears rolled down her face.  "But dammit, can you keep yourself alive?"
     Disengaging her arms, Jake turned and cupped her face in his hands and lightly kissed her. With a smile, he drew back and told her, "Katie, you know I have to do what I have to do.  You wouldn't want me any other way.  We'll always have had this time and I will be back, I promise you.  Now, there is the lorry and I've got to go.  You take care, my dear girldear.  Some of those krauts don't recognize that Red Cross on your ambulance. Now, I want you to have this, since you won't stop smoking."  Jake smiled at her as he placed an object in her hand.  Katie looked down at the battered silver cigarette case, which displayed Jake's family coat of arms.  "At least, if you have to smoke, you'll have to think of me" Jake smiled.
     "Dammit Jake, I want you, not this.  Oh God, Jake, take care of yourself.  Wait!," she cried, as she ran over to her luggage, frantically throwing clothes out of her way as she sought to find what she was looking for.  Finally, Katie pulled out a cloth wrapped object of her own from the debris she had created.  "Here, Jake!" thrusting her findings into his hands, "My great grandfather and my grandmother carried this as long as they were alive.  It served them well in times of need.  I don't want you to have to use it, but the time may come, you will need this when nothing else will do."
     Jake slowly unwrapped the muslin wrapped gift.  His blue eyes changed as the gleaming steel blade, and bone handle of the Arkansas toothpick knife came into view.  "Katie, I can't take this, this is a magnificent piece of work.  This is very, very old.  God, what a wonderful made blade and the balance is incredible.  Why this fits my hand like it was made for it."  Jake slowly turned the knife over and over in his hands, his face alight with pleasure and a certain possessive look in his eyes.  He sighed a small audible breath out and handed it back to her.  "I can't take this, Katie, this is just too much.  Something would happen to it, and I would never forgive myself, if it did."
     Katie had felt a small sensation within herself, as she saw the rapture on Jake's face as he had handled the blade.   "Why," she thought, "it is like it was something he had lost and finally regained." She felt a flush of pleasure, as she placed her hands behind her back to refuse.  "I'm giving him something he would never have gotten anywhere else, or would have meant more."   Katie smiled to herself with pleasure, then answered him.  "Jake, love, it is a knife for a warrior, not a mantle conversation piece.  I know if you lose it, it will be in battle, and that knife was made for battle and self-protection.  It has a long history, but always a noble history of protection to it's owners.  Keep it with my love, Jake, I have a feeling that you have to have it with you to come back to me."   Again, Katie felt a sensation sweep through her body, causing almost a chill, as Jake only nodded and shoved the knife in the top of his officer's boot, reaching down and tying the rawhide thongs around his calf to hold the scabbard in place.
     "I'll always have it with me, Katie," he said, "with your love and your protection.  Yes, it is a gift beyond measure for a fighting man.  Thank you, girldear, you will never realize how much I treasure this.  It is almost like I had lost something and regained it.  It is the perfect gift from you."  Jake reached out and hugged Katie with a tight hug in his strong arms, then after a hard passionate farewell kiss, he turned away from her, striding  briskly from the room.  Neither one of them wanting to see each other’s face.  Katherine stayed at the window and gave a small wave as Jake stepped into the lorry.  She kept watching until it was out of sight
     Hearing the doctor call, “Katherine, can you come help me, please?”  Katherine threw the cigarette away, along with her thoughts.
     “Be right there, doctor,” she answered and walked back in to the smells and misery of the hospital which was enough to occupy her mind.

Sunshine

Administrator

Member Empyrean

since 1999-06-25

Posts 63354
Listening to every heart

1 posted 2001-12-08 07:33 AM

You did not end this on a sad note, but the chills and tears are evident throughout as this will hopefully, hopefully continue on in its story line...it sounds familiar, and I would like to see more...

Janet Marie
Member Laureate

since 2000-01-22

Posts 18554

2 posted 2001-12-08 12:04 PM

The detail and imagery of this is just so very impressive ...
and once again...as always when reading you...one thought remains constant...

"what once was ... will be again" *S*

Dont make us beg for more sweet keeper

Sprayed across my heart and hers
danced butterflies in the wild.
This angel, this woman,
who loves me with the innocence of a child.

DeVante'

Dusk Treader

Moderator

Senior Member

since 1999-06-18

Posts 1187
St. Paul, MN

3 posted 2001-12-08 11:46 PM

Excellent writing in this excerpt of wartime love. Quite impressive, it certainly draws the reader in and makes him feel.

One thing I noticed, though was that in the first paragraph is that you use the word "expanded" and I believe you meant to say "expended." Other than that, greatly enjoyed this, on to part 2!

"A hard, cold wisom is required for goodness to accomplish good. Goodness without wisdom always accomplishes evil" - Robert Heinlein

Enchantress
Member Empyrean

since 2001-08-14

Posts 35113
Canada eh.

4 posted 2001-12-09 03:10 PM

Yes....so very well done! Next.....

"A dream is a wish your heart makes..."

	⇧ top of page ⇧
All times are ET (US). All dates are in Year-Month-Day format.