Home at Last

Jim was just about to fall asleep, the night voices filling his head. Sometimes they spoke of the sad world of yesterday; sometimes they spoke of the world of tomorrow – mostly they spoke nonsense into his ear.

“Pops.”

That was a voice from without. “Dang!” Jim mused to himself, “Can’t a man get some sleep.”

The voice was insistent however. “Pops! Are you asleep?”

“Not anymore,” Jim croaked. He opened one weary eye on the disrupter of his slumber. The rain from earlier in the night had stopped, but dampness still filled the air – despite the fire in the hearth trying its best to fight it off. “What is it you want boy? And it had better be important.” Jim’s inner curmudgeon had come out. He did not like to be interrupted in the only peace left to him these days.

“It is pops! It really is!” Spencer said, staring down at him.

He then got a good look at Spencer, his oldest, and even in the eerie glow of the fire, he could see that Spencer was drenched and covered in mud. Spencer’s eyes hinted at a somber melancholy however. “Well boy, get out with it.”

It was then that Spencer reached into the inner pocket of his coat and pulled out something in his hand. Jim sat up and struggled to look at the object. He at first wondered if it was that old piece of battered cloth that Spencer had pulled out that he should be paying attention to, but then thought better of it. It was something probably rolled up in the cloth.

Speaking rapidly, Spencer said, “Pop, I went into the ruins today. Back to the old place.” He was unwrapping the cloth then. Jim looked from the cloth to Spencer’s face. Though young, the last few years have aged it more considerably than it would have aged… before.

“Boy! Are you nuts! Does one go poking at a corpse or go digging around in the pockets of a drunk?” Jim pontificated incredulously, and then considering, he asked, “Did you go alone? You weren’t spotted were ya?” Jim knew well the penalty if caught looting in the old city.

Spencer got a serious look on his face, and stated “No pop, I wasn’t spotted, I was waiting for a day like this, and I did this all on my own.” Spencer then got a broad smile as the cloth was unwound and he showed Jim his treasure – the look in his eyes however belied the smile. “Take a look! You’re not going to believe what I found!”

In the cloth something, though still caked with a thin layer of smeared mud, gleamed as the stars used to at night. Jim struggled to look, and then gasped as he caught the shape of a golden heart at the end of a golden chain. With it stirred memories that brought up a well of bittersweet feelings.

***

The day was new and bright and aglow with hope. Jim stood with his wife, Loraine, on the steps of their newly purchased home. “Oh Jim! It’s so lovely! You didn’t have to!” his wife cooed as she gazed at the open jewelry box. She lifted the little heart shaped golden locket and chain from within and gazed appreciatively at it. She then threw her arms around his neck and kissed him tenderly.

“Look inside! Look inside the locket!” Jim said excitedly, loosening her grip and pointing eagerly at the locket.

She opened the clasp on the heart and inside were pictures of two young children.

Looking closely, she cried “Spencer and Belle! Look at how little they were!” Indeed, Spencer was now a little man of 13 and Belle a young lady of nine.

“Do you like it?” Jim asked eagerly. “Our family has always been close to your heart, and when I saw it, I thought of you and the kids.”

“Like it? I love it! Thank you so much!” and she then plied more kisses on his smiling face.

***

On the far-off horizon, storm clouds threatened. Looking wearily through the plate glass of the airport lounge coffee shop windows, Jim muttered to no one in particular, “looks like a storm is coming.” The remaining evening light cast a faceted yellow glow on the ground, teasing of a calm before the storm.

Loraine looked up from the children, worry worn on her face as she glanced at the horizon, “you don’t think that they’ll cancel the flight, do you?”

“No,” he said determinedly, “it’ll go. It has to – fish are a waitin’!” Anxiously, he looked at his watch and shoved himself up from the table. “We better get a move on, Spencer and I still need to get through the security line,” and then looking at Spencer, he said, “son, are you ready for some fun with just your old man?”

Spencer, now getting up, said, “absolutely pops! I can’t wait!”

Jim then took his wife in his arms and kissed her tenderly. “l miss you already,” he said. He then hugged Belle and said, “you take good care of your mom while we’re gone.”

“I will daddy!” she said impishly, “and you take good care of those fish!”

Jim laughed, “you bet dear!”

Standing in the security line of the airport, Jim looked back at his wife and daughter and blew them a kiss while they waved back.

***

They were out on a boat by the Coronado’s when “the disaster” came. A disaster of a magnitude that one could only contemplate in their wildest nightmares. It didn’t have a name - everyone who lived through it simply called it “the disaster.” It took them five bitter months to work their way back. The city had been largely destroyed and deserted by then. He had to get special permission to even go into what was once his home. He had found nothing then, and, with the other survivors, had set up new, rough hewn homes on the edge of the city that had once been their home. He had always hoped against home that somehow…

***

Memories. That is all he had now. Memories! Bitter tears threatened to fill Jim’s eyes that were still fixed on the locket. The acrid smell of smoke from the fire hung in the air. “Where?” simply asked, still looking only at the locket.

“Like I said pop. Home. I went home. Or what was left of it. I was there. It… that is the locket, it was there.” Spencer said simply. He held out the cloth and locket to his father. He then said in a sad voice, “I always kind of figured it was there... Somewhere in there.”

Hands shaking, Jim took the locket with his gnarled fingers, and fumbling, he got open the clasp. Inside, the faces of two innocents stared up at him. It was then that the tears came freely. He had finally, really, come home at last.