Fortunate Sons

Chapter 50: Dragon's Keep

The days that passed in Korea were good ones, much more peaceful than those in previous days. Taylor and Sue had finalized plans for being able to travel to America along with Tri's official adoption papers that Sue had cleverly obtained shortly before leaving. Everything fell into place quicker than expected and with this string of luck came the excitement Sue and Taylor both felt as their journey home neared its end.

Word soon came from Dr. Pearlman that he was still safe in Saralam but within three days he would be going home to Israel. "I'll be relieved to be going home," Dr. Pearlman wrote. "Maybe now Hannah and I can write the next chapter in our lives....a much more peaceful one. Stay safe my friends. Kol Tuv, until we meet again."

Taylor and Sue had also heard word from Duc and the girls sometime after Dr. Pearlman. They had jumped a boat traveling the same route Sue's had, going deep into Laos and heading north into Thailand. Ma Ahn and Thom were ok but were desperately looking for a way out.

Taylor was relieved to have heard that all of them were alive. He wrote them as often as he could and when he couldn't anymore, he turned his focus to going home. He and Sue had almost a week left before they would head for Tokyo, hopping from one island to the next until they reached the mainland.

"You see this?" he asked Tri one evening as he pointed to Korea on a large fold out map. "You, me and Mommy are here.....and over here is where we'll be going."

Holding Tri's tiny hand in his, Taylor helped her trace out the route that went from Korea to Japan and eventually to Guam. "What's that one?" she asked.

"That's the island of Guam," Taylor explained. "Daddy had to go there before he met Mommy. And this right here......this island was where Grandpa was a long time ago."

"I can't see it," Tri chirped.

"Right there," Taylor pointed out. "It's really tiny."

Taylor had hardly noticed Sue standing in the doorway until he looked her way. Just the look on her face alone made a happy grin crawl across his face. "You showing her where America is?" Sue asked.

"Yeah, she's enjoying herself," Taylor replied. "Better she draws on this than the walls."

Sue laughed and sat on the edge of the bed. "Four more days and it's on the road again," she sighed. "She's going to need shots before we go."

"You want us both to take care of it?"

"No I'll take her," Sue replied. "Sonwha said there's a hospital not too far from here where they can do it."

Taylor shuddered at the thought of having to receive any more vaccinations. Sue hadn't failed to inform him that he had been given one for malaria, lyme disease and a host of other illnesses while he had been asleep at the base hospital. He hated the pins and needles sensation in his skin that came before the ache in his arm afterwards. Now poor Tri would have to suffer, but in the end he knew it would be worth a few seconds of pain.

That night, the three of them all huddled together with Tri between her mother and father. The room was ice cold and the windows shut with the muffled noises of the city creeping through the cracks. Her small head rested above Taylor's heart and her black hair was pulled back into a messy braid as she lay still against him, clinging to him as though Taylor were her lifeline.

Taylor was just beginning to fall asleep when Tri suddenly awoke with a start, burying her face into his chest. "Did you have a nightmare?" Taylor whispered, not wanting to wake Sue.

Tri didn't look up but nodded a coherent 'yes'. Taylor moved her so that her head was resting against the front of his shoulder. "Daddy has nightmares sometimes too," he said. "But you know what? They all go away in the end."

"Like when it rains and the sun comes out?" Tri asked him.

"Just like that," Taylor replied.

"And when you made the bad men go away?"

"Just like that."

Tri lay her head back down and closed her eyes and after what felt like forever, Taylor did as well. Not in over a year had he been able to sleep this well. It was the first time he had never been plagued with visions of death, despair and suffering. No more visions of the Tet Offensive, no more nightmares of the battle in Cambodia or in the villages.....no more dreams of blood and ghastly injuries.

He didn't know if it was his overactive second sight, but as Tri lay still against him Taylor's mind wandered off to a place that almost didn't seem real. He felt the warmth of the sun on his face and the cool breeze stirred up from the seas. The cliffs jutted out from the turquoise waters like ruined pillars with the greenery of the jungle spilling from the crests down to the sea. Up on one of the rocky ledges was a huge nest made from rock and moss where a pair of golden dragons rested against each other, their young nestled safely in the crooks of their front legs.

Taylor neither awoke nor stirred as this peaceful dream crossed his mind. He smiled in his sleep, knowing exactly who the dragons were and what they wanted him to know. We are safe and so are you......from this day, until the ending of the world.