Army Wife

one

. . .

Everything was fine. It was a nice summery afternoon, the sun shone above, birds tweeted atop trees; it was a wonderful day indeed. Lin ambled to her son's school, enjoying the joyous, light breeze after a long day of work at her local care home. Many of the old folks that had to stay there were kind to her for she actually did her job, unlike some of her co-workers; they often gossiped from across the room they were in as they stood next to the patients.

Smiling along the way her mind wandered to off to her husband, he had yet to come back from his job as a soldier; it had been three years already. Lin missed him every day and every night; his voice couldn't alleviate her aching heart. She had only five-ten minutes to talk to him once every week, it was quite troublesome-she was cut off mid-sentence every time. She missed all of him; his smile, laugh and his handsome face. Lin carried a picture of him everywhere; it kept her sane.

Everything is fine. He's fine, absolutely fine. He'll come back soon.

She tried to calm herself down as she neared the entrance of the small primary school. Taking her mirror out, she checked her face for any smudges around her eyes. A single black streak had slid down to the middle of her cheek; she wiped it clean with the back of her slender hand in one swipe and put then mirror away.

Albeit muffled, the shrill of bell for the end of the day rang clear. As soon as she reached the entrance, the gates poured tiny children holding hands with their mums and dads. She stared longingly at the parents, wishing her husband would come back home could be there with her; he was missing their son's childhood. Entering the school she walked to her son's class. They were lined up waiting. Lin spotted her child-from the back of the crowd of parents-and waved to him. He looked like an exact copy of his dad; He had his midnight hair, bright brown eyes and fair skin. Pulling the edge of his teacher's shirt he got her attention, he showed her where his mother was. After the teacher had seen his mum, she let the little boy go.

"How was your day chick?" Lin asked, breaking the silence as they sauntered to the exit.

"Mum! Don't call me that," he moaned.

"Why not?" she questioned confused as to why he didn't like the nickname anymore.

"None of my friend's mums call them that. They call them by their name," he said. That was only one of the reasons he didn't want to be called by the nickname; he didn't like the name at all.

"Fine. How was your day Henry," she repeated. Henry gave a tight smile, satisfied with his mother's reply. He boasted about his football skills; he scored a goal near the end of the match, winning the game for his team, technically the opposition's goalie had scored, with a little help from henry, but his mother didn't need to know that. He also told her how he rescued Chen-one of his many friends-from a burning house when he was playing fire fighters. Lin could see that he enjoyed helping people, just as much as his father.

"Do you want to be a firefighter when you're older chick?"

"Mum! I told you to not call me that! Just call me by my name," Henry groaned, looking around to see if any of his friends overheard the awful name.

Sighing, Lin repeated the question without the nickname again. She was quite amused at how persistent he was. She believed that he had gotten the annoying trait from her. She couldn't see her husband, Jun, being so insistent.

"Hmm... Maybe. I can rescue you from the fires in the kitchen!" Henry suggested, excited to start his new job.

Lin was embarrassed to the extent that her face became tomato red. She relied on her trusty microwave to feed Henry and herself. Even then she sometimes burned the food. One day Lin was heating up some baked beans-she couldn't eat it cold, it made her feel sick-she had forgotten that the can was metal and put it in the microwave, not even two seconds later sparks began to fly inside. Lin didn't know what to do so she called for Jun. He turned off the microwave as fast as he could. Luckily he made it there before anything disastrous could happen. For a few months Jun wouldn't allow her anywhere near the kitchen. He supervised her for months before she could use it without him staring holes into her. Lin didn't understand how she had not died yet, it was quite a mystery. Jun had saved her quite a lot; he her knight in shining armour.