Lights Out

The Soldier Coming Home

No one could believe their eyes when a garrison of soldiers started to march across our fields. I called for Mama, seeing Daddy and David among the dead. Daddy died before I was born, Mama said he never got to meet me, but I'd seen his picture hung in Mama's bedroom. I've heard her cry and shout for him while she sleeps. David was my brother and he wanted to follow Daddy's footsteps. He didn't make it a fortnight on the front line.

Mama hid me behind her skirts while our neighbor Missy Mae brought her shotgun. Missy Mae just turned fifteen, and her husband Jeremiah walked with a limp next to the other dead men. The war took a lot from us, but Missy Mae lost her whole family as they fought the south. Her mama died giving birth to her, her daddy up and deserted at the start of the war, and her husband died before they could make babies. She fired a warning shot.

"Jenny, go in the house. Lock the door." Mama pushed me backward and I stumbled, almost falling into the mud but Mama didn't see. I didn't wanna hide in the house like some baby. But I knew better than to cross Mama so I did as she asked. But I kept the door cracked just enough to see, taking off my bonnet that I hated more than anything.

Missy Mae stepped in front of the other women, making the dead soldiers stop at the edge of our corn rows. "You got three seconds before I unload this gun into your bellies!"

Daddy came forward. This close I could see the bullet holes already in his belly and that his uniform looked worm-eaten. He had a blank, milky stare that chilled me. Missy Mae shot twice, one found a home in Daddy's chest and the other slightly higher by his throat. Blood didn't ooze from the holes. Alma, a kindly spinster lady who sometimes watched me, left the group to round up the children hiding in their houses. There weren't many in our little village.

Missy Mae cocked the shotgun again, aiming for David and her husband who stood side by side. "Leave or die again. Get away from us!"

As if Missy said the magic words, the dead soldiers fell on the women. I watched as Missy Mae was torn apart by David, her shotgun dropping to the ground and firing off the next bullet. It ripped through another soldier but he paid it no mind. Daddy went after Alma who had returned with the children.

I couldn't wait in safety any longer; Alma and the younger kids needed me. I took Daddy's shotgun from Mama's room and raced over to Alma. She saw me and screamed for me to go back but I slammed the butt of that gun as hard as I could into Daddy's back. He grunted and dropped but didn't stop. I slammed the gun over and over into his rotting body until I made contact with his head. It split like an over ripe watermelon, brains dripping from the gun onto my frock.

"Jenny you better get back to your mama. It ain't safe out here, you go on now." Alma took the scared and whimpering kids into her home. I heard the lock slam down on it's cradle.

The soldiers were coming from every direction but all I wanted was to cry for my Daddy. I hadn't wanted to hurt him but he was going to kill those babies and Alma. I ran for Mama and she promptly took the still dripping gun from my hands, giving me a swat.

"I told you to stay in the house. And you know better than to handle a gun, what if it went off on you?" Mama was shaking she was so angry. Or maybe she was scared. I couldn't tell on account of my own fear. I wanted to run and never look back.

Mama took my hand and ran with me back to the house. I stopped in my tracks, almost pulling her over I stopped so fast. Mama stared at me like she was going to whoop me if I didn't follow her but I couldn't.

"Mama, I can help. Someone has to protect the younger babies; Alma can't do it on her own, she's too old."

"You are too young, Jennifer. What are you going to do?"

I ripped my hand from Mama's and ran, ignoring her screams for me to come back. She had to fight, we didn't have many menfolk left, but I had to save the kids. I leapt over a fallen dead soldier, squealing when I felt his fingers touch my ankle. I yanked my skirts up out of the way and continued my beeline for Alma's cabin.

Alma was still outside, holding a gun and trying to steady her shaky hands. "What are you doing, girl? Get back home, protect your own."

Behind me, I heard another soldier come down but female screams echoed as well. We were losing the battle. "I'm here to help, Alma. Please let me help."

Alma leveled the gun and fired a shot. It barely missed my shoulder as it embedded itself into Alma's son behind me. I watched as he dropped to his knees, his face still handsome in death, and then fall before my boots. My heart was nearly pounding out of my chest and I ran for Alma. She gave me another shotgun to use.

The young ones whimpered and cried behind the front door. The older ones held the babies while the younger kids hung onto skirts with teary eyes. Some of them were seeing their fathers and siblings dying on the field with their mothers. One, Iris, cracked the door to see outside. I shuffled her back inside and then went back to shooting down the soldiers.

Alma ran for the fence, and I followed seeing Mama cornered by an older soldier. His hair was gray and patchy and a huge mottled scar ruined his smooth face. It was Edward, General of the Northern army and grandfather to Iris. He practically raised her when her mother fell ill after birth. It made me sick to see him like this.

I fired a shot into his skull and watched as it tore through bone and flesh easier than an axe to wood. But he fell forward when he died, crushing me under the weight of his body and gear. "Mama, I can't move!"

Alma and Mama lifted his shoulders so I could wiggle free, but Edward wasn't quite done with me. Like a viper, his mouth opened and clamped onto my thigh. I screamed as blood gushed from in between his teeth. Mama took a piece of wood broken off the fence and wedged it in Edward's mouth, prying open the stiff jaws. Alma took me and ran me inside our house, Mama not far behind.

And just like that, the other soldiers fell dead. Some collapsed on top of the fighting women but others just fell face first into our corn rows. Mama stopped running, looking around at the damage. Missy Mae had a vulture picking at her face and another young girl was almost completely beheaded, a dead soldier still attached to her flesh. Everywhere were casualties but we couldn't understand why they stopped.

My leg had to be amputated by Alma, and Mama told me my fever ran so high she was afraid I'd burn up into ash. But after I was well again, Mama looked at me differently. I couldn't walk very well, but it never mattered. I always somehow was able to get whatever I needed, and I never got sick anymore. I was safe from all harm, even nicks and cuts from firewood. One night, I heard Mama praying by her bed and she called me "bewitched".

Alma never saw me again. The last time she saw me, while I was still bedridden, she took one look at me and made the sign of the cross over my sleeping body. She said I screamed so loud it shook the house. She thinks I'm the Devil.

Maybe I am.