Chapter 8 - HIS LAST ORDER
Walter continued.
“Rebecca, if you are hearing this, then I didn’t get the chance to fix what I let happen.”
Helen stepped forward.
“Stop.”
Walter kept reading.
“I asked you to stay at your post because I never wanted my illness to become the reason you abandoned your duty.”
My vision blurred.
“You did not abandon me.”
“You did not choose the Navy over your father.”
“You honored the man who raised you.”
I started crying then.
Not quietly.
Not gracefully.
Eleven months of guilt came out at once.
Walter’s voice cracked but continued.
“Helen is angry because she believes love is measured by who stands closest to the hospital bed.”
My mother stared at the floor.
“I disagree.”
“I measured your love every time you called.”
“Every time you tried to come home.”
“Every time you told me you were afraid.”
Then came the line that changed the room.
“If Helen tells you I begged for you at the end, she is lying.”
Someone behind me gasped.
My mother shook her head.
“No.”
Walter continued.
“I was sedated for most of my final night.”
“I could barely speak.”
“I did not ask for Rebecca.”
Helen shouted:
“He was confused!”
Walter lowered the paper.
“You want me to stop?”
She pointed at him.
“You weren’t there every minute.”
“No.”
Walter’s voice hardened.
“But I was there when Tom wrote this.”
May you like
Silence.
My mother froze.
