Then And Back Again

[F2d5thCav]

It was near the middle of the day in the broad valley in West Virginia.  About three hundred feet back from the gravel road, a small wooden house of "Jenny Lind"-style construction had been built.  Near it was a wooden barn.  In front of the house, the field stretched to the road, although the tilled earth could not be seen for the recent snow which had fallen.  Smoke rose from the chimney but otherwise the scene was still.

Inside the cabin was a table made of oak with wooden benches that served as seats.  At the table, a woman was seated with her arms on the table and her head pushed into her arms.  She had been crying for over an hour, for her entire world had collapsed.  On the table before her lay a telegram.

Harold's father would not see the telegram until that evening, when he returned from felling trees on the far side of the ridge.

Before very long, and all too soon, in a front window of the Holtenwood house would hang a Gold Star Flag.

~ ☼ ~