Home Front

She waited almost too long, then muttered, “Whatever. ”

A phrase he’d come to loathe.

Inside the room, Betsy stood with her back to him, at her window, woodenly rearranging her plastic horses. He didn’t need Cornflower to tell him that it was a desperate attempt to create order from chaos.

“She’s in pain, Betsy,” he said.

She went still. Her hand hovered above a black-and-white pinto, her fingers trembling. “She’s different. ”

He went to her, took her hand, and led her to the bed, where they sat side by side. “It’s okay to be afraid. ”

“But it’s her fault. She picked the army—”

“Betsy, honey—”

“Sierra’s dad says it’s Mom’s fault. He says women shouldn’t be flying helicopters in wartime anyway. If she hadn’t been flying, none of this would have happened. I told her I wouldn’t forgive her … and I can’t. ”

Michael sighed. “Sierra’s dad is a dick who doesn’t know shit. And you can tell him I said so. ”

“I’m scared, Dad. ”

>

“Yeah,” he said, putting an arm around her. “Me, too. ”

Then the door burst open and Lulu stood there, frowning furiously. “There you are. Were you hiding from me?”

Betsy turned, sniffling. “I’m sorry I was mean to you, Lulu. ”

Lulu grinned, showing off her tiny teeth and bright pink gums. “I know, silly,” she said. “Can we play patty-cake now?”

Twenty-One

Yesterday, Jolene had worked harder than she’d ever worked in her life—army-ranger training hard—and for what? So that she could sit upright in a chair, to stretch a leg that wasn’t there, to hold a rubber ball with fingers that barely worked.

Now, she lay in bed, too exhausted and depressed to reach for the trapeze and pull herself to a sit. How pathetic was that? She called Carl at the hospital in Germany, but he didn’t answer the phone. She left a message and hung up.

Tami, girl, where are you? Why aren’t we going through this shit together?

There was a knock at her door, and she knew who it was. Conny the dreadlocked torturer. She didn’t open her eyes.

“I know you aren’t sleeping,” he said, coming into the room.

She rolled away from him. Even that was hard to do with only one good leg. The motion was pathetic and lurching. “Go away. ”

He came over to the bedside. “You can’t hide from this, soldier girl. ”

“I rolled over. Why don’t you give me a treat and we’ll call it a day?”

He laughed at that. It was a bold, rich, velvety sound that clawed at her already-frayed nerves. “I can just pick you up and haul your scrawny white ass outta that bed. ”

“You would, too. ”

“What happened to the woman who made it through boot camp and flight school?”

“Her leg is in Germany and she needs it. ”

“She’s not getting it back. ”