Her tears fell, single, soundless, on the stone beneath her knees, weeping for her son. “A few good men” flickered in her mind. He was good, one of the few. He enlisted early, at seventeen. “The proud, the few, the Marines.” He was all of that and more. He didn’t even graduate before they called his number. He stood astute, his arm raised, his hand positioned in perfect salute, dressed in his blues. A visit home before deployment and a return in a simple pine box, days before his eighteenth birthday. Her tears fell for a life snuffed too soon.
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Today’s flash fiction is brought to you by Lance/Leeroy’s 100 Word Song (David Bowie’s Soul Love) and Velvet Verbosity’s 100 Word Challenge (Soundless).
I welcome and appreciate all honest feedback. Please share your thoughts in a comment.
Thanks for stopping in!
01/29/2013 at 11:11 am
Reblogged this on Kith and Kin : The Sisters Grinn.
01/28/2013 at 11:15 pm
I watch on the PBS Newshour the young, young men and women killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and my heart cracks at every photo delivered in silence. Our freedom is being protected by boys – brave, stalwart boys. Excellent writing. Thanks for sharing.
01/28/2013 at 11:19 pm
Mine too, and then those Westboro Church people….grrr
01/28/2013 at 11:14 pm
Heart. breaking. How many generations of mothers have to lose their sons to war?
Sorry you missed the link up deadline this week, but thanks for posting and playing!
01/28/2013 at 11:18 pm
its my fault for not checking it. Thanks for stopping in anyway!
01/28/2013 at 10:51 pm
Oh, heartbreaking.
01/28/2013 at 11:18 pm
Email me, please? I don’t have your email.
01/28/2013 at 6:38 pm
So heartbreaking! Great story!
01/28/2013 at 10:57 pm
Thanks, Tessa!
01/28/2013 at 6:15 pm
My daughter was mentioning the air force the other day. This terrifies me.
01/28/2013 at 10:56 pm
That was my stepson’s original plan til he discovered that to be a pilot you have to have perfect vision (I told him that, but what do I know?)
01/29/2013 at 2:30 am
Well that count Tay out. Hmmm. I’ll tell her first thing in the morning.
01/29/2013 at 2:52 am
He decided on navy after waffling between that and marines. If she really must enlist, navy is the way to go.
01/29/2013 at 6:51 am
I was kind of thinking that. The marines scare me more than the navy.. Don’t get me wrong, I respect all marines and I am grateful for each and everyone of them. But this is my baby girl.
01/29/2013 at 7:52 am
He says the navy has the best options for college which is how he made his decision.
01/28/2013 at 3:15 pm
Living in a military town, I hate to say that this happens far too often.
01/28/2013 at 3:51 pm
That’s so unfortunate.
01/28/2013 at 1:49 pm
It never fails to awe me how you can put so much impact into so few words.
01/28/2013 at 1:58 pm
Welcome back, mysterious stranger!
01/28/2013 at 3:42 pm
Thank you!
01/28/2013 at 3:52 pm
You’ve been missed!
01/28/2013 at 1:25 pm
oh Steph, this was heartbreaking. As the mom of sons, I wonder and worry where the world will take them.
The imagery here was just so vivid.
01/28/2013 at 2:01 pm
We share that worry. XOXO
01/28/2013 at 1:16 pm
tragic…that a life should be ended so soon and sometimes for nothing
01/28/2013 at 1:26 pm
This is partially true. My oldest stepson is planning to enlist when he turns 17 in March.
01/28/2013 at 1:11 pm
Well done. And so. Heartbreaking.
01/28/2013 at 1:26 pm
And one I hope I never live through.