They’ll throw a ticker tape parade. Word will travel that I’m back from the war and the town will turn out. Thank you for your service. I’ll hear that over and over. Pubtenders pushing beers across counters will say, Your money’s no good in Elkhart, soldier.
When I was last home on leave, my kid brother had the Mustang shined up, immaculate. I’m signing over the title to him. Can’t wait to see his face when he finds out. I should’ve had more patience back when he tried to tag along. I’ll be there for him now.
Did Molly get married? People do. They marry and/or have babies. Their lives achieve perpetual motion. Things keep happening in the world, milestones stack up, while we do more of the same indefinitely here. For some reason. I didn’t think about her for the longest time, now I’m curious. Even if she’s free, I couldn’t fix that situation. Not after this much time. But I wonder, is Molly around?
A week left in-country, then my war’s over. Lucky seven. Then hello Indiana. Flat, boring, less shooting. God bless Indiana. I’ll stop down to the trailer factory where I worked the summer before enlistment. Instead of offering me a line job, they’ll say, we need you be the Plant Manager. I’ll say, relax, I’ve got this thing.
Been in three trucks that blew up. Everybody with me evaporated, but I’m okay, I have all my limbs. Patched up and back out and back out and back out in the field. Maybe I’m meant for something greater. A higher purpose. The army wrung full value from me. At this point nothing scares me. Except the next seven days.
We’re on patrol soon, but I’m in an open convertible, wearing my dress uniform, my Purple Heart. Soaking up the gratitude of my city’s people. I feel the love. I’m sending it back out. I’m doubling the love. Never realized before the war how much they mean to me. My neighbors say thank you, and I tell them, you’re welcome.
I don’t know what this has been about, but I’m ready to live in the world again.
TODD MERCER won the Dyer-Ives Kent County Prize for Poetry (2016), the National Writers Series Poetry Prize (2016) and the Grand Rapids Festival Flash Fiction Award (2015). His digital chapbook, Life-wish Maintenance, appeared at Right Hand Pointing. Mercer’s recent poetry and fiction appear in 100 Word Story, Dunes Review, Eunoia Review, The Lake, Literary Orphans, Split Lip Magazine, and The Magnolia Review.
–Art by Thomas H
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