Prologue, A Sad Good-bye

Olivia attends the funeral of her stepfather and contemplates her future.

Prologue 

 

Twenty-one guns fired. My mom was handed an American flag. A terrible lump formed in my throat, so I couldn't even swallow. My stepfather, Bernard, though everyone called him Buddy, was dead. Pain seared through my chest. It hurt so much I thought I'd die. Surely it has to get better, I thought.  

I checked my mom. She was sagging to the side, but her friend Loretta was holding her up. Loretta, another Army wife, was from Texas. Her massive brown hair didn't budge in the wind here in Pennsylvania. It's funny what irrelevant things you notice on a day like this.  

The funeral was over and we walked to our cars to go to a luncheon. That's how it's done in Pennsylvania, my home state which was so foreign to me. I had moved around with my mother and Buddy since I was five years old.  

I turned from Buddy's grave, and said my own private good-bye silently. Buddy didn't die in Desert Storm or in Iraq or Afghanistan, though he had served in both. He'd suffered from terrible PTSD, and it has finally gotten the best of him. He'd shot himself less than a week ago.  

I told Buddy I hoped he was at peace now. I told him I'd miss our camping trips to the lake and the beach. Buddy taught me to fish and catch crabs on Chesapeake Bay. He hadn't been the same the past three years, but I was going to miss him.  

I sat through the funeral luncheon, picking at my Chicken Cordon Bleu. My mom and I were staying with my mom's parents, but that was only temporary. We were probably going to stay in Pennsylvania, but we had no place to live. After so many years of living in military housing, I was going to have to adjust to civilian life.  

I'd start a new school and be the new kid. I was going into my junior year, so everyone probably had their cliques established. The other kids would probably be wary of outsiders.