Heart Themed Canvas [UsUk]

Homecoming

A/N:Based on Frequency

Arthur looked up at the sky, chilled by the night air. He couldn't believe he'd done it. He'd gone and done it.

The anniversary, the memoriam, was being held in the back field in two weeks. It had been held there for forty years. This one was special, though. Forty years. And the government told him that they were finally selling the house, they couldn't keep up its upkeep. Told him he could have two weeks to go through it, all the stuff still there like it were just yesterday, only major fixes having been done for structural integrity and safety of the building. Just as it had always been, and after this last service, the 'For Sale' sign would be in the front yard.

No one ever came here except for the service. Everything was just as it was left. The pillows, the sheets, the photos...there was an unmade bed upstairs, and Arthur, in his forty years coming, had never made it.

The only room that was different was the dining room. They'd cleared the table to put the coffin down. And there was a mound under the lone old apple tree in the backyard, a stone sitting next to the old tree for all to see. He had wanted to stay under that tree forever. Arthur remembered that. No Arlington for him, that was what he'd written in the will. That tree, in the middle of a field, in the rural Virginia terrain. The place that had been his solace, his eternal getaway.

"Artie, don't yah ever just wanna sit and stay here forever? Just watch the world pass on by, while yah twirl a piece a' hay between your teeth?" Alfred had smiled down at him, those loving blue eyes directed down over the old glasses that had adorned Alfred's face for over a hundred years. After running a hand through his golden hair, Alfred had turned his face to the sky. "I could watch those there clouds forever, just laying here under this tree. No wars, no meetings, no obligations. And of course, you'd be right here next t' me, 'nd Mattie'd come and visit, and we'd just sit here."

"Wouldn't that get boring after awhile, Alfred?"

"Never. 's long as you're here, together with me, my life will never be boring. Its for you I get up every day for. Its you I live for. And I'll.."

"I'll always be there for you. Always. Because I..I love you." Arthur fell to his knees in front of the grave. "You told me that, and I never realized until they told me...you knew you'd been entered for the draft, and were so high on the call list...oh god. You only had a month, and you didn't tell me. All you said was that you wanted to stay under this tree with me. Vietnam, Alfred. You could have said no. They wouldn't have made you go." Arthur stood, droplets of rain coming down. "You could have draft dodged, gone to Canada! I would have taken you in!"

Arthur leaned against the old tree, the field around him swaying in the slight breeze, the only thing stretching for miles tall grass. The house was visible from where he was standing. The moon shone down upon Arthur's tearstained face.

"But that isn't you, wasn't you. You fought next to your countrymen. You died for them. It was who you were. But to have your life torn away in a Vietcong ambush...and you saved everyone else...oh Alfred..."

Going into the house, he couldn't believe that he'd gone and agreed to be the one to go through all of Alfred's possessions to pick out what to keep and who to give it to.

He ran a hand through his unruly hair, and looked around him. The kitchen, clean as Alfred had left it, except for a coffee pot on the counter that they used for the services. He reached for the handle of one of the wood cabinets, well aware that Alfred was probably the last person to touch it.

That first year, for the service, Arthur remembered nothing except standing in the doorway of the dining room, staring at the coffin, not believing it to be true. Alfred couldn't be in that. Alfred would never be tamed into a coffin, into death. He was vibrant, full of life, not a corpse.