Forget me not

Talking To An Army Man

Jason's pov

She was laying in my arms, her head in the crook of my neck and her finger tracing my tattoo. I wanna get a tattoo in rememberance of my little brother. "Hey Jason, when the baby's born I wanna name him or her Carter." My eyes go wide. I hug her tighter. "I'd love that baby." "Yeah. Carter can be a girl's name too, right?" "Yeah."

*the next day*

I met up with sergeant Todd Daley, Carter's sergeant. He salutes and I shakily do the same. The man is huge and intimidating. I'm nervous asking him this. "Sir I wanna talk to you about my brother." "Who's your brother?" "Carter Williams. He died four years ago. A look of sadness crosses his face. "Aww Cadet Williams. He was a brave man. Brave and smart. He never gave up." That's my brother. "I wanna know what happened to him and why he didn't get a proper soldier's release." His eyes go wide. He sighs and sits down. "That boy deserved that more than anything. I don't know why they didn't." We both sit down. "I have a few questions I hope you don't mind me asking." He shakes his head. "Ain't nothin' this old man hasn't seen." "Well first off, did he die alone? Or was there someone there holding his hand, telling him it would all be over soon." He looks me dead in the eye and whispers, "I did." My blood runs cold. "Y-You?" He nods. "We were in the same combat vehicle and a grenade fell into the floorboard. He screamed my name as it exploded." My hands are shaking by now and I grip my jeans as he tells the story. "After the smoke cleared, I was laying in a pool of blood, my leg blown off." He lifts his pants leg up revealing a prosthetic leg, making me shudder. Carter ran to help me and an enemy soldier shot him in the throat, he fell beside me that's when I reached out and grabbed his hand. I thought I'd die too." Poor Carter. "I just have to say one last thing. That boy went down a hero. He was one of the bravest men ever to fight under my command and I'd be honored to fire off in the 21 gun salute beside his brother." My eyes go wide. "W-We're gonna do it?" He smiles. "It's about time we did." He stands up. I do too and we go to another room. A bunch of plaques hang on the walls. "The wall of bravery." I whisper. I remember Carter telling me about this before he left for his first tour. We were playing football.

~flashback~

He tossed it to me. "Hey Jason, I hope one day you'll understand why I'm doing this." I have been furious the last week and a half since he told us he did this. "It's not that I don't understand, man, I do. It's just I can't protect you over there. I can't keep you safe and I.... Don't wanna lose you." I throw it back to him, feeling down. He walks over, the ball falling from his hand. "You don't hate me?" I smile and fight back the tears. "Of course not little brother. You'll be the bravest of them all!" He smiles. "Maybe one day I'll be on the wall of bravery." We walked to the flint river and sat on the bank as he explained it all to me.

~flashback over~

Tears fill my eyes when I find the plaque with his name on it. "He said.... He said one day he'd be up here. He wasn't kidding." I say, shakily my voice cracking. "Oh God my brother's really gone!" I finally break down. I cover my eyes in tears. Todd puts a hand on my shoulder. "That man is living free now. No pain." "I feel like such a wuss." "Don't. Sean told me you only just found out about everything." "Yeah a couple months ago. Still extremely hard. Me and my wife uh we're having a baby and we're gonna name him or her Carter." He smiles. "You're a great man, Jason. Ever thought of joining the army yourself?" My eyes go wide. "No way. I could never leave my family like that. It's just a scary proposition for a Georgia boy." "I understand, Jason. Plus ya got a baby on the way. That baby is gonna need his father." I force a smile and stare at the plaque that reads Carter Williams 1983-2008. "He'd be 30 in July." I whisper, staring at it. I salute my fallen brother and Todd says he'll get back to me on when the funeral will be. "Thank you Todd. Today has done me a world of good." "Anytime, Jason. I um I've got a favor to ask though and this is kinda weird me saying it but my daughter Annie is a huge diehard fan. Maybe you could come say hey to her, make her day." "Oh sure dude, I love my fans, personally meeting them is my favorite part of the gig. How old is she?" "Ten. But the thing. She's got leukemia and most likely they say she won't make it." Oh man. "Jeez Todd I'm sorry man."

*later*

Miranda's pov

"So how was the talk with the sergeant?" "Very helpful and when I say very I mean life changing. He was the last person to see my brother alive." That sends chills down my spine. "Our baby is gonna know all about his brave uncle." I say. He smiles. "I can't wait for the little one to get here."