Page 13 of Desert Wind

“Oh, my,” she whispered.

“Yeah. I didn’t regret that at all. I didn’t shoot him, but I damn sure created enough rain that it filled the ditch he was hiding in and drowned him. But it didn’t save the girls. His men had already taken them, and they were killed before our unit could arrive.”

“I’m so sorry, Nash. But you tried. You did your best,” she said innocently.

“I guess that I did. I mean, I know the entire unit did what we could, but it still wasn’t enough. When you’re a Marine or any service member, you take orders from those who often are nowhere near the action. They’re sitting in some situation room or war room calling the shots, and they see nothing.

“As a man with a conscience, there were times that I questioned their orders and was concerned that they were in contradiction to the situation.”

“What did you do?”

“Sometimes, I followed them anyway. Other times, I walked away. It never mattered because there was always someone willing to follow the order and make the kill.”

Jenna was quiet as a mouse, staring through the windshield at the hot asphalt of Texas.

“Jenna? Why did you ask me that?”

“I wish – I wish that I could have killed those men myself. I know that I wouldn’t know how, and I know that I wouldn’t have been brave enough. But I keep thinking that if I had, it would make me feel better.”

“It wouldn’t,” he said directly. “Trust me in this, Jenna. It wouldn’t have made you feel any better.”

“I keep having these dreams of men coming for me and my sisters. It’s silly, really. They’ve been gone a long time. My mother isn’t in the dream, but my father is, and he just says it can’t be helped. What do you think that means?”

“I’m not sure. It would be something that Irene might know, or maybe Noah or Julia. They’re very tied to our ghosts but also to other spirits.” She yawned, and Nash smiled at her.

“Go back to sleep. I’m not tired at all. You obviously need the rest, and the car is relaxing you enough to sleep. I’ll wake you when we stop again.”

“Are you sure?” she asked, yawning once again.

“Positive.” She gave a soft nod, closing her eyes as she reclined the seat.

“You’re a good man, Nash.” Her eyes closed, and she drifted off to sleep. Nash could only shake his head.

“Yeah. I’m a good man. I just hope you figure out that I’m a good man and much more.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

By six, they were well past Dallas and in Abilene.

“Are we stopping here?” she asked.

“I thought we might since it’s a bigger city, but there’s a huge rodeo and horse show happening, and all the hotels are taken. Sly has found a room for us at a smaller hotel in Sweetwater.”

“It sounds like a nice place,” she smiled.

“It’s not very big, but it has some decent small hotel chains. We’ll grab a room and get something to eat.”

After securing a room with two double beds, the last one available at the hotel, they showered off, changed their clothes, and headed out to find something to eat. It was Texas, so the options were steak, barbecue, ribs, or more steak.

It turned out that steak was what you should eat in Abilene, Texas. The cuts of meat were so large even Nash wasn’t sure he could eat the whole thing.

Finally full beyond what was surely healthy for them, they walked back down the road to their hotel.

“Hey, look at that,” said Jenna. “The WASP WWII Museum. They were women in the military, right?”

“They were,” he smiled. “Women’s Airforce Service Pilots. They were incredibly brave women doing the jobs of men because there were none here to do it. They were all serving overseas. They would test planes, flying them from one location to another and interacting in maneuvers to prove the planes were flight-worthy. Or they would fly a group of planes across the country to be sent to the men serving in WWII.”

“That’s amazing. How unbelievably brave they were,” she smiled.

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