Deep Divide

Zoe Browning had always admired her grandfather, Jeffrey Martin and had often visited him and grandmother Velma. It was the day of their wedding anniversary and Zoe brings her mother Jacqueline, the second daughter and third born to Jeffrey and Velma. Their other children include first born Frances and middle child Richard. Jacqueline was reluctant to visit that day. However the mother and daughter drove to the house in the middle of the afternoon to celebrate.

"To my parents, celebrating forty five years of marriage and many more." Jacqueline said to her smiling parents. Zoe went upstairs to her grandparents' room and catches a glimpse of Jeffrey and Velma's wedding photo. He was wearing a Army dress uniform as she wore a white gown. He at the time was training in the beginning of Nam.

"I see you like the picture." Jeffrey said as he entered the room. He sat down in a chair and began to talk to her about the beginning of the relationship. The two had met as juniors in high school. Velma Carter had met Jeffrey through his younger sister by a year, Caroline Martin one of her closest friends and later a counselor. Both were seventeen when they began dating and went to the prom. Velma had wore a sky blue dress and Jeffrey wore a black tux. Months after graduating at the height of the Vietnam war, Jeffrey proposed to her, but the two agreed to wait a certain time until he was drafted.

A year after getting married, Jeffrey and Velma had Frances partly named after his mother, Francine, and then Richard afterwards. Jeffrey then flew to Vietnam as Velma was two weeks pregnant with Jacqueline. In the meantime, he and his men went into battle for the next seven months. One dark and cold night, while flying in a helicopter over a Cambodian forest, Jeffrey noticed a few Viet Cong soldiers were firing at the plane from the ground.

The helicopter is hit by several bullets and one strikes the pilot in his left shoulder, causing him to lose control of the plane. It eventually crashes into a forest and Jeffrey comes out with a small scar on his cheek and a large scar on his left knee. He attended to the pilot who was not responding. He sees a infantry walking towards him to help him until twenty Viet Cong soldiers began a ambush on the infantry.

They all shoot at each other and Jeffrey, after throwing a grenade, is hit twice in his left leg and collapsed on the ground. Holding his now wounded leg, Jeffrey is being carried away by two Viet Cong soldiers to a house in the forest. The next morning, a seven month pregnant Velma Martin is eating breakfast. Jeffrey had married Velma three years after graduating from high school and Velma was living with two year son Richard and three year old Frances.

Then she hears a knock on the door. She opens it with a soldier and a chaplain who are looking distressed. She is initially confused about their presence but expected them to mention Jeffrey as she knew people in her younger days who had relatives going overseas.

“Mrs.Velma Martin, your husband has been reported missing two weeks ago. We have looked everywhere for him. I'm sorry.” He said. The words she heard him say caused her to collapse into his arms.

“My water broke.” She panicking said. The soldier drove Velma to the hospital where she was soon to give birth to a baby girl that evening, earlier than expected. Velma then named her and Jeffrey’s newborn daughter, Jacqueline. The next five years after his daughter's birth, Jeffrey realized that she would have been born already. But he had a plan of escaping on his mind.