Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Entry #22

"Dawn and Twilight"
by John McAuley


There used to be four of these lights--two in our bedroom and one in each of our sons rooms.

Our oldest boy, Joshua, died in 1991. He was a long way from home when it happened.

When they sent him back to us Jenny and I agreed to place the light in his casket because he'd always been afraid of the dark. It was a symbolic thing I guess, but it made us feel better.

Our second son, Kevin, was killed last month. I wasn't home with Jenny when the young soldiers with tight faces and immaculate uniforms came to our door again.

Kevin wasn't afraid of anything--but when we buried him we did the same for him as we'd done for his brother.

Jenny's wasting away now. I think she's ready to leave. But I'm not going to let her go alone like our children had to.

The last two lights will be out before morning.

10 comments:

Robin said...

Very nicely done. Loved it.

Bernita said...

Very, very good.

Erik Ivan James said...

Pulls the heart from the breast.

all that's right, or not said...

wow! Stumbled across you from another blog, wanted you to know I enjoyed it.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the good words!
A lot of good stories here.

John

For The Trees said...

How beautiful, that he won't let her go alone.

And how sad.

Nice story.

Lyn said...

No. No, no, no. Don't do it. (That was me talking to the dad.)

Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Keep writing. (That was me talking to you.)

Lyndon

Lyn said...

PS, call me an edit freak, but one type, I think: "in each of our sons rooms" is possessive. Good job on the structure of the story though, which is most important. lgp

Bhaswati said...

Such poignancy in so few words! Very nice :)

Anonymous said...

John, such a dark piece. So much is packed into the last line. Almost elegant in its despair.

Great delivery with the last line.