Page 8 of Life After Levi

“I can go if you’d prefer privacy,” I say.

“No, no, that’s okay.” She laughs but there’s no humor. “The irony isn’t lost on me that a week after he died, I got his last letter to me, which I thought would be all that I’d get, y’know? Instead, I now have this box full of things he bought for me.”

“I just hate it took so long for me to get it to you,” I admit. “I didn’t want to just ship it though. Thought that might be harder. Not only that, but I was worried that something could happen to it, and I didn’t want that to happen.”

Plus, I wanted to meet her, not that I’ll admit that fact.

“It’s okay. I probably wouldn’t have been in a good place then if you had shipped it to me.”

“Are you now? In a good place?” I ask.

Once again, various expressions race across her face as I wait for her answer. “I’d like to think I am. It still hurts, of course, but it’s more like an ache of an old wound, not fresh and raw like it was for so long. If not for Levinia, I’m not sure where I’d be at this point, to be honest.”

“It gutted me,” I tell her. “Then, not being able to come back for his funeral? Yeah, I was glad I had leave because I spent it drunk.”

She snickers then quickly sobers. “I know he was your best friend, Damien. He was mine, too. I’m still amazed I didn’t meet you when you came home with him on leave.”

I shake my head. “Emerie, I wasn’t going to take his time away from you when we were here. In fact, I think I spent most of it either sleeping or eating.”

“Miriam can definitely cook, can’t she?”

This time it’s me that’s laughing. “Yeah, she can. I gained back the weight I’d lost from being out in the desert sweating my ass off. Thank God they don’t reissue BDUs when we lose weight. They just tell us to put another hole in the belt.”

She joins me laughing. “He may have said that a time or two. I think the biggest shock was seeing him after y’all completed basic training. He was thinner, but had more muscles, and looked more like an adult. That probably doesn’t make sense, but he always had a baby face until then.”

“Basic then BUDs kicked our asses, that’s for sure,” I reply. “Damn, I miss him. He got me through.”

“He told me you gothimthrough,” she retorts. “Regardless, I’m glad y’all had one another. I worried about him constantly, but never expected him to die the way he did. I thought it would be on a mission or something. Not that I wanted him to die, of course,” she hastens to add.

“Freak training accident all the way around. Several other guys were injured, but he was closest to the blast and took the brunt,” I say. “I ended up with a broken arm and on desk duty for twelve weeks. I had hoped because of that I would be able to come home for his funeral, but our commanding officer said my skills were necessary and could be done at a desk.”

When I see her start trying to open the box, I pull my knife from my pocket and say, “Let me get that for you.”

“Thanks.” Her voice is breathless, and I can see her eyes have a slight sheen to them.

“If you want, I’ll open this for you then take off, Emerie. I’m okay with doing that,” I offer.

“Are you sure? I feel like that’d be rude of me,” she replies.

“Not at all.”

I may be disappointed in not spending more time with her, but I also understand that this box and its contents wasn’t expected, so it’s probably put her right back to square one with her grief journey. Hopefully, though, she’ll let me hang around Possum Creek because I’d really like to get to know her better.

“I, uh, I’m off the next two days from both jobs if you’d like to see some of the sights around here,” she says.

“Are you sure you don’t mind?” I ask.

“Wouldn’t have offered if I minded,” she teases, grinning at me.

“Then I’ll take you up on the offer. Do you want me to come out here or what?”

“No, Levinia and I can come into town and pick you up. You’re at the Possum Creek Inn, right?”

“How’d you know that?” I question, stumped.

“Because it’s the only one in town. I mean, you could’ve stayed somewhere else, of course, but it makes sense to me that you’d stay in town since you were going to see Levi’s parents,” she replies.

“Gotcha,” I say in understanding. “What time?”

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