Finding True Love

Chapter 1

Somewhere on a military base overseas, it was a good day for a lot of the marines. A month ago, the men were told that they'd be going home soon. Today was finally the day they were returning to the US. Twenty-eight-year-old Sergeant Hansen Hayworth was happy and couldn't wait to surprise his family. 

Hansen was a respected man on base. Not because of his rank, but because he was brave, looked out for the welfare of his subordinates, and was an expert in hand to hand combat. He joined the marines at the age of eighteen and served in the military for ten years. 

Whenever people asked him why he enlisted, he'd tell them it was because of his father Dan. He joined the military because his father was a marine as well. Dan Hayworth was a marine through and through. He and a childhood friend had joined the military when they were twenty-one. Dan served in the war against Vietnam in 1955, and was honorably discharged due to a bomb attack in Vietnam, losing both his legs in the incident. Hansen and his father were very close. Some would say thicker than thieves. 

With his bags all packed and ready to go, Hansen headed toward the large military airplane to fly back home to the small town of Oakstine in Alabama. Hansen, along with other marines loading onto the airplane, sat down, pushed their bags underneath their seats, and strapped their seatbelt in. Everyone on the plane was eager to get back home to their friends and families. Hansen reached into the pocket of his uniform to pull out his wallet, which contained a picture of his wife on their wedding day. Finding the picture, he held it tenderly and smiled. A beautiful woman with golden blonde hair and blue eyes smiled back at him.

"Hayworth, are you excited to go back home?" asked a fellow marine sitting behind Hansen. 

Tucking the picture back into the pocket of his wallet, Hansen turned around and replied with a grin, "Aren't we all?" 

 A marine named Jim Kala sat on the seat next to Hansen. Jim was another well-respected sergeant on base. He and Hansen had trained in hand-to-hand combat and knife fighting for a month with the South Korean Special Forces. He was born and raised in Hawai'i on the island of O'ahu. He had always been Hansen's closest friend. When Hansen, Jim, and a few other marines were walking towards a small village to give them food, a terrorist had hid behind one of the homes and had his gun aimed towards Jim. Hansen saw the man and quickly shot the terrorist before he could take Jim out. He saved his life. 

"You should come to Hawaii," Jim said to Hansen. 

"Yeah, one day," replied Hansen. 

"You always say that. Come and visit. I'm serious. The island is beautiful, the beaches are beautiful—" replied Jim, but was cut off by another marine. 

"The women are beautiful!" the marine butted in with a grin. 

"He's right," agreed Jim, pointing his thumb backwards towards the marine, who wiggled his eyebrows and nodded. 

Both men laughed and shook their heads. Hansen loved being married to his wife Hannah. They both grew up in the same small town, lived right next door to each other and had been together since high school. She decided to work as a nurse at the Oakstine Hospital and he decided to join the Marines. It was hard for them both because of the distance, but they had always made it work. He couldn't picture his life without her. 

"I'll talk to Hannah and give you a call later, okay?" replied Hansen. 

"Okay," said Jim. As he pulled out a picture of his five-year-old daughter from the front pocket of his combat uniform, he looked at Hansen and asked, "As I was leaving my room yesterday to go to the chow hall, I got this in the mail. It's a picture of my daughter. She's in kindergarten and this is her school picture." 

"She looks just like you," commented Hansen as he looked at the picture. 

Jim grinned and replied, "Yeah, more me, than her mother." 

"I didn't get any mail," said Hansen as he gave back the picture to Jim. 

"I'm sure you did. They probably just didn't get to you yet," replied Jim.

 "Crap. Well, they'll send it back to my address since I'm not there in the camps with everyone else anymore," said Hansen. 

"Yeah, it's probably a letter from Hannah. It's fine, you're going home anyways," said Jim. 

Hansen nodded and leaned back in his seat. Jim was right. Whatever Hannah wrote, he'd hear about it when he got home. Last time she wrote to him about how she was doing, and that the new neighbors across the street had their housebroken into. Luckily, no one got hurt. Phil McKeey, the sheriff of Oakstine and a childhood friend of Hansen, had come and taken the intruders to jail. 

The engines started, the doors closed and the plane started to take off the landing strip. Hansen was finally going home. He looked out his window as the plane was in the air. Everything looked so small; including the military vehicle carrying the mail, as it drove onto base. 

"John Smith!" shouted the marine carrying the mail, as he went one by one calling out the men's names. "Here!" answered John.. The marine gave him his letter and moved on to the next one. "Andrew Maxwell!" the marine shouted again. 

"Here!" said Andrew. He stepped towards the marine and grabbed his mail. 

The marine pulled out a large thick brown package that contained a heavy-duty clasped envelope. 

"Hansen Hayworth!" shouted the marine. Hearing no reply, he called out Hansen's name two more times. "Hansen Hayworth! Hansen Hayworth!" he said louder in the end. 

"You just missed him. He's on the plane that just took off," said another marine as he was reading his mail. 

Unbeknownst to Hansen, Jim was right about Hansen getting mail. In fact, Jim was right about the letter too. Hansen got a very long letter from Hannah. 

And divorce documents.