With Love, Silvia. [✔️]

Chapter 21 Reunited

  "Dad?" I said in a whisper.

  He said no words as he embraced me in his arms. I could smell his scent that I had never forgotten. My dad was finally back for me.

 We broke from our hug and just stared at each other crying tears of joy.

  "Well how 'bout you both come inside." Erica said wiping a few tears from her own eyes.

  We walked into the house and I watched as my father took it all in.

  "It's lovely." He said.

  "Take a seat. I'll fix up some coffee and we can talk about, well, everything." Erica said heading toward the kitchen.

  I took a seat on the couch and for the first time ever, felt a twinge of nerves between my joy. I mean, I had never really spent that much time with him, so I felt out of place.

 Emily and Owen sat at my dad's feet admiring his thick boots. I was so caught up in the moment, I had barely realized that he was in his military uniform.

  "Cool shoes!" Owen said patting the toe end of his worn out gray boots.

   Dad smiled and laughed.

  "I like them too." He said.

  I immeadiately smelled the scent of coffee wafting through the air as Erica brought back 3 steaming cups for us to drink. I wasn't much of a hot coffee drinker, I mostly preferred mine iced, but I took it anyway and was grateful for it's warmth.

  "Well David. It's sure been a long time." Erica said setting her mug on the glass coffee table.

  "Yes, it has." He smiled.

  "Where were you?" I asked impatiently. I wanted answers on why he was gone for so long.

  "Well, some of it is classified information. But I can tell you some of it." He said after taking a long gulp of his coffee.

  "Man I missed this stuff. We didn't have any on our base." Dad said.

  I waited for him to get to the point with annoyance.

  "Ok so I owe you all an explanation." He began folding his hands.

  "Just a few months after I was deployed I was called for an exclusive mission out in Iraq. It's purpose is still highly confidential. However I was sent out with 23 other men, with one highly specialized leader who knew how to get us in and out and do our job well within a few weeks. Unfortunately that was not how our mission went. Only a few days into our job we were discovered and our leader was shot and killed. Me and the other men ran, and grabbed as many devices to contact the head base as we could, and went into hiding out in the middle of nowhere.  For the first few weeks we survived well and contacted our General often for advice. The search and rescue helicopters were on their way, all we needed to do was give him our coordinates so that we could be rescued. That was when all of our contact devices stopped working and we were stranded for good. We hoped that the helicopter would find us, but after weeks of hoping I knew that we were goners. Slowly, one by one, our men died out as our supplies ran low. I was the only one left.  A soul survivor, and with everything it took me to do, I went back into the town and was taken in by a family until I could be rescued. That lasted 10 years, and I'm so glad to be back." Dad finished rustling my hair.  

 "Oh my gosh." I said in disbelief.

  "What a story..." Erica said.

  We all sat in silence staring at our toes.

  "Well now it's your turn. How's life been?" Dad asked us.

   Erica started first.

   "I suppose you already know about Beatrice, and her unfortunate  passing. So Silvia came to live with us after she died." She said tapping her foot.