My lost military man

Chapter 20

It turned out to be a very long night, filled with questions from the police, fire fighters and Michael. I knew exactly who pulled the alarm and who mysteriously texted me, how he got my number I'll never know. But I can't tell Michael or Anthony I don't want them to get angry and even more protective over me, I'll just have to be extra cautious as I go about my day.
"This makes no sense." Anthony said frustratedly, since the police got here he's been running his hands through his hair making it look messy.
"There's no harm done, just a faulty alarm." I explained. It is the dead of night and we are stuck here drying off papers and trying to get the animals calmed and relaxed, the guinea pigs have been squeaking for an entire hour, and the two puppies were huddled together shaking like leaves. We had to throw out the dog and cat food, it became soggy and it would have become moldy. We called McKenna so we could have extra help in cleaning up the water and throwing things out, my computer was ruined but luckily I had everything saved on an old laptop at home.
After we had finished cleaning what we could we all just went home, Michael just went to bed in his clothes and Anthony didn't even bothered to go to his bed, he flipped down on the couch and began to slightly snore. I couldn't blame either of them, it was past four in the morning and the sun was going to shine in two hours. I followed Michael's example and snuggled into my bed not caring about pajamas.
The 4th of July was always a favorite of mine, I loved the food, the parades, the fairs and especially the fireworks at the end of the day. The booming noise they make and beautiful colors that light up the night sky. I always got up early to be able to see the local parade they hold. I got up excitedly to go wake the boys up, only to see them fully ready and eating breakfast, they had their military uniform on, it warmed my heart to see that. I walked over and kissed Michael's cheek and before I was able to sit down Anthony cleared his throat looking at me, his finger was tapping his cheek signaling for me to kiss it. My face turned red as I leaned over lightly kissing his cheek and quickly pulled back.
"Are you guys going to come to the parade with me this morning?" I asked.
"Of course we are! Why wouldn't we?" Michael almost seemed offended that I would even ask if they were coming.
Spending The Fourth of July with my brother and Anthony was a lot more pleasurable than spending it alone. Everywhere we went they had both male and female thanking them, saluting them and getting handshakes from strangers, one little boy came up to Michael and pulled on his pant leg, Michael kneeled down to the little boys height and smiled at him. The little boy had on a military helmet and was holding the flag.
"What can I do for you soldier?" Michael asked in his soldier voice. The boy was shy and he looked down at the floor.
"I want to thank you for protecting our country." He said in a small voice. Michael smiled.
"Your welcome, and I like you helmet." He complimented.
"Thank you." He said slightly smiling. "It was my daddy's." The boy said proudly, Michael's smile faulted a little but he returned it.
"Conner! Conner where are you?" We looked up to see a women, her eyes zeroed in on the small boy and began to run over.
"I think your mommy is looking for you." Michael laughed, he picked up Conner and set him on his shoulders.
"I am so sorry, he pointed to you and wanted to talk to you but I didn't want him to disturb you, but I guess he did anyway." The women apologized.
"It's no problem ma'am, I enjoyed talking to him." The mom smiled sadly and reached up for Conner.
"I can't wait for daddy to come home and see how big I've gotten. Soon I will be as big as him." Conner said pointing to Anthony. The mothers face fell slightly as the memory of her lost husband invaded her mind. She pushed back the hair in his face and kissed his forehead.
"Daddy will be home soon. He'll be happy to see you." Her voice quivered as she tried to be strong in front of her son. Something over took me and I found myself walking up to her and hugging her, Anthony took the boy out of her arms allowing her to hug me back and silently cry into my shoulder.
"It's so hard." She said threw tears. "I miss him." Anthony and Michael took Conner to get some ice cream while I talked to the mom.
"He went missing in March and they couldn't find him, he was announced missing in action a week later." She blew her nose, and wiped away stray tears.
"On Conners fifths birthday last month we got a knock on the door." She began to cry again as the horrible memories over took her.
"Th-they told m-me he was found dead." I grabbed her hand and squeezed it, trying to give her comfort.
"Conner doesn't understand. He's still too little to know that he's not coming home." I sympathized her.
"Well I think once Conner has grown up some more and he is old enough to understand what has happened, he will become a great man." That seemed to have eased the tension in her body and mentally relax her, just then Conner came running up excitedly and hopped into his moms lap.
"Mommy I had so much fun! Those soldier men are so nice." He exclaimed smiling, his mom pushed this hair out of his eyes and smiled.
"Yes they are very nice." We waved goodbye to them as we went separate ways, them heading home and us going to the fireworks.
The colors were bright in the night sky lighting up the buildings and our faces, you could here the crowd cheering and clapping after every boom, the show goes on for almost an hour and the final firework of the night is one shaped like the American flag, as they are about to light it they play The Star Spangled Banner and we all put our hand on our hearts, Michael and Anthony saluted the flag and stayed like that till the song was over. It was a perfect day today, nothing had gone wrong and no one got hurt, I just wish it could be like this all the time.