Memorial Day (550 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.57 on 8 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by FlakMonkey (View user info) at 2004-05-28 18:11:36 EDT
I sat at my brother's grave, touching his marker. The weather was blustery, threatening to rain.
"Timothy Stokely
b. 1978 d. 2004
-A son, a father, a husband, a patriot-"
Tim was the kind of guy most everyone liked. He was strong, he was funny, he was caring. Tim was the kind of guy who wasn't afraid to stand up for himself. He wasn't afraid to stand up for what he believed in. When he graduated high school in '97, he didn't hesitate to join the Navy. Our mother worried for him, worried from the moment he said he wanted to serve his country all the way until the conscript from the Office of Naval Affairs arrived at our door.
The soil on Tim's grave was still fresh, in fact, the marker had just been layed in today. It was the kind that looked like a wedge in the ground, the front of it flush with the grass, the back of it rising a few inches off the soil. It was carved out of marble, with two American flags waving on either side of his name.
When Tim called home in the summer of '99, we were all excited to hear from him. He had finished bootcamp and had gone directly to his first assignment without ever stopping by his hometown. Mom was almost overcome with tears when she realized it was Tim. She blubbered on about how things were doing just fine at home and how good my grades were. A few minutes later, she called me to the phone. I put the earpiece next to my ear.
"How ya doin' bud?" My brother sounded more confident than ever.
"Fine."
"I hear your grades are good, you gonna graduate Valedictorian next year?"
"They're good, but not that good, this asian girl from my Social Studies class is gonna get it." I replied, feeling a bit self concious.
"Well, hey, you got almost a whole year, it all depends on how much you want it."
"Yeah."
"I want to tell you something, but you have to promise me that you won't tell mom, it'll kill her." My brother's voice was far more confidential now. "I want you to promise me okay?"
"Okay."
"Fuck that, say it, say 'I promise'" That scared me when he said that, I took the phone into the laundry room.
"I promise Tim, what is it?"
"I'm goin' up for the SEAL program."
A patch of sun broke through the clouds and I suddenly realized how cold I was just sitting by Tim's grave. The sunlight washed over my face and I cried, realizing Tim would never feel anything like this again. The wind picked up and started blowing leaves across the cemetary, making sounds like death rattles.
No one heard from tim for almost three years after that, finally in December 2003, mom brought the mail in and sat down on the couch to read it. I sat with her as usual and looked at all the fliers and direct mailers along with the familiar envelopes for the bills and whatnot, then she pulled out a large envelope with Tim's name at the top. We opened it and my mom sat there and cried with Tim's BUD/S graduation certificates in her hands.
Tim was a SEAL.
A year later he died during a mission in Iraq.
While some people celebrate Memorial Day by drinking and Barbequeing, and some don't celebrate it at all, we celebrate it every day of the year.
User Reviews
Submitted by Jaineix (user info) at 2004-05-29 12:39:36 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
If it wasn't a fiction I'd give you a +2, but the moral of the story still counts.
Submitted by euripidestrousers (user info) at 2004-05-29 09:53:23 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
No Comment
Submitted by FlakMonkey (user info) at 2004-05-28 18:46:28 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
sorry everybody, this is a work of fiction, but I really do feel this way since I have no less than 5 friends in that sandbox over there right now.
so yeah, you all might think i'm a selfish little turd most of the time, but thanks for your positive comments.
have a happy and safe Memorial Day.
--FlakMonkey
Submitted by ess2s2 (user info) at 2004-05-28 18:43:07 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
What the hell? Flakmonkey wrote this?!? Is this real?
Submitted by Domochevsky (user info) at 2004-05-28 18:41:48 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
War takes so much and yields so little. What can I say? I'm sorry for your loss.
Submitted by posthumouslaughter (user info) at 2004-05-28 18:37:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
touching. made me teary eyed. i will raise toast and pay tribute to those who have come before, fought so valiently, and died so that i may enjoy my freedom. thank you for bringing a bit of reality back to this weekend of mine.
Submitted by WiKi (user info) at 2004-05-28 18:33:07 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Jebus.
*hugs*
Submitted by Slapshot99 (user info) at 2004-05-28 18:28:52 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
one G.I to another...BZ kiddo