The Colonel Came Home With Her Chapter 01
Ethan came back safe after six months of deployment — and he brought back a girl with a swollen belly.
I was standing at the entrance to the Fort Bragg family housing area, holding my son. My face went black.
Around me, the wives who’d come out to gawk let their coffee slosh out over the rims of their paper cups, splashing across the pavement.
Ethan saw me. His eyes flickered away.
“Honey, let me explain—”
I let out a cold laugh.
Sam, in my arms, looked at his father and the girl, then turned back and asked, wide-eyed and confused:
“Mama, who’s that next to Daddy?”
I turned and started walking back, my face still dark.
“You don’t have a daddy. Your daddy’s dead.”
…
There was a commotion behind me.
The sound of combat boots on gravel came chasing after me, quick and urgent.
Ethan circled around in front of me and, in full view of half the street, dropped straight to his knees.
“Honey, let me explain!”
I shifted Sam to my other hip and looked down at him kneeling there.
Six months apart, and this is how we meet again.
“Go on. Explain. I’m listening.”
The girl caught up.
She came to stand beside Ethan.
“Ma’am, my name is Lily. Lily Carter. I’m the dependent of a relief worker in the war zone. My hometown was hit — my whole family’s gone. Colonel Hayes brought me out of the refugee resettlement camp.”
Kneeling on the ground, Ethan looked up at her when she said that.
I stared at her belly.
“Whose baby is it?”
Lily lowered her head. Not a word.
I turned back to Ethan.
He was kneeling there, shoulders slumped, hands braced on his knees like someone had pulled the spine right out of him.
“I’m asking you. Whose baby is it.”
His lips moved a couple of times before he squeezed out: “I can’t say.”
There was a sharp clack from the crowd.
Mrs. Miller slammed her coffee cup down on the porch railing so hard it splashed halfway up her arm. She hollered:
“With a belly that big, you still have to ask? Isn’t it obvious as day?”
A couple of the other wives traded glances.
Somebody snickered.
I crouched down.
“I’m going to ask you three things.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed.
“First. Is the baby yours?”
He said nothing.
“Second. What happened between you and her in the war zone?”
Sweat rolled down from his temple past his cheekbone.
“Third. Before you brought her back, did you ever think about how you were going to tell me?”
This time he answered.
His voice was dry. “I thought about it. I couldn’t figure out what to say.”
I laughed once.
Then I stood up and hoisted Sam higher.
Sam’s little arms locked around my neck, his face buried in my shoulder.
I stepped around Ethan and walked into the housing area.
Behind me, Mrs. Miller was muttering to someone, just loud enough for me to catch:
“Who’s she throwing that attitude at? You think it’s been easy for that girl, following him here in her condition?”
At the corner, I paused and glanced back.
Ethan was still kneeling. His knees looked like they’d been driven into the gravel.
Lily was still standing there too.
Looking down at him.
I turned my head forward and marched home, Sam in my arms.
Sam pressed his mouth close to my ear and whispered, “Mama, why is Daddy kneeling? Why doesn’t he get up?”
“Because your mama won’t let him get up.”
He said “oh” softly, then asked, “Who’s that aunty?”
I kicked the gate open, set Sam down, and crouched to meet his eyes.
“That’s someone your daddy brought home from far away. Starting today, she’s going to live in this yard with us.”
Sam blinked.
“Then whose is the baby in her tummy?”
Good question, kiddo. Mama would like to know that too.