Like I often do when I write, I've thoroughly explored the thoughts of the characters in this story, which means it's fairly long. There is consenting sex, but it takes a while to get there. In other words, this is not a quick-jerk story. If that's what you are looking for, this probably won't be your style. It is a soft and gentle look at a very unusual request, and how that request was handled.
As always, my stories are complete works of fiction, and all persons are of legal age. Your votes and comments are important to me, so after you read it, please share with me!
It was a day just like any other -- a normal Friday in the normal life of a normal man. I pulled in the driveway after working all day in the same factory I'd worked for 25 years. There was very little advancement possible, but the money paid the bills and allowed me and my wife some of life's pleasures. We certainly weren't rich. The car I was driving had well over 100,000 miles on it. But it got me to work and back Monday through Friday, and I really didn't need more.
My wife Janelle would have come home about thirty minutes before me from her job as an English teacher at a suburban high school. Again, not much chance for advancement, but she loved her job, and in particular hearing from former students who had done well in life and given her partial credit for their success. She's a very particular teacher, working hard to draw the best from her students. She teaches because she loves kids, and I don't see that stopping anytime soon.
So we really were your average couple with an average income heading into an average retirement in less than twenty years. Her state retirement and the program that I had with my job meant that we would be able to enjoy our golden years together without too many financial worries, and while I didn't dwell on retirement time at all, I knew it was a good goal which helped keep my normal life focused.
I walked in the door of our 3-bedroom home and hung up my jacket. Janelle came out of the kitchen and greeted me with a kiss. She's still beautiful to me even though we've both gained more than a few pounds since we first met as college juniors. It hadn't taken me long to fall really hard for her, and I was lucky that she felt the same way. We had gotten married as soon as we received our degrees -- right before she started teaching and I started at the factory. I love her more now than I did then, if that is possible. I couldn't imagine spending the rest of my life with anybody else.
We had the usual small talk about our day and what was for supper, the kind of boring married talk that I love. I headed back to our bedroom to change out of my work clothes and into something more comfortable for our relaxed evening ahead. When I returned, I sat in my recliner and put my feet up. Janelle came back into the living room and smiled at me, telling me that the mail was on the lamp table between our two chairs.
Sometimes I would wait until after supper to check for bills and unwanted advertisements, but before she slipped back into the kitchen, Janelle stopped and looked at me. "There's a letter for you from Jason. Has he sent you any letters before?"
That statement got my attention, and my mind shifted gears. Jason was our son-in-law, married to our only daughter Denise for two years. He was on active duty in the Army, and was currently deployed in the middle east, performing what he would only tell us were "peacekeeping missions." He was an outstanding young man, following in a long line of relatives who had all served proudly. His plan was to do his duty for our country for a few years, hoping the skills he learned in the Army could be put to use in the job market when he was ready to retire from the military.
Janelle was right -- Jason had never sent me a letter before at any time, whether deployed or not. Several different scenarios went through my mind as I looked through the stack of junk to find the letter, and none of them were very good. Had he been injured and wanted me to tell Denise instead of hearing it from someone in the military? Was it something that he'd already shared with Denise and she didn't feel like she could tell me so he was telling me in a letter? The possibilities in my mind were becoming far-fetched before I could open the envelope.
It was larger than a regular envelope, with all kinds of stamping that I guess was from being sent from a military unit. I carefully tore it open and pulled out the contents. Inside were two items -- one was a handwritten letter, and the other a smaller enveloped with the words, "Do Not Open" printed in large letters along the front.
I looked at the letter and saw that it was indeed from Jason and was indeed addressed to me. I opened it slowly and focused my eyes on the rather sloppy handwriting, which made me wonder if it was written somewhere out in the field:
Dear Dad --
(I had told Jason early on that it was fine to call me David, my given name. But once the wedding ceremony was over, he had dropped that, and I'd been "Dad" ever since)
I know that it probably seems strange to receive a letter from me. I want to assure you that things are fine here, although certainly hectic most of the time. We are always keeping eyes out for surprise attacks, but I'm with a good team and we watch each other's back 24/7.
I'm writing because I'm worried about Denise.
(With this, I stopped reading and thought about my beautiful daughter, our one and only child. As normal as Janelle and I were, she had inherited all of those genes. She wasn't super-model beautiful, but she was pretty and very attractive with no real outstanding features. She didn't qualify for any college academic scholarships, but she was worldly, the kind of young adult that you knew was going to be fine in life.
She had met Jason while working as a waitress to earn some spending money while she was in college since it was all her mother and I could do to pay the tuition, room and board. She was a great waitress because she had a shining personality, and one evening Jason and some of his friends had come into the restaurant where she worked and they had hit it off, to the point where he wrote his phone number on his bill [and left a large tip as well]. She had called him, and soon they were best friends, and we were thrilled to learn that they were engaged shortly after she had accepted his proposal.
The greatest thing in the world to happen to me was marrying Janelle, until I laid eyes on my daughter on the day she was born. I was hooked that instant, and pledged my life to do whatever I could to make hers better. I made sure to try and be at every dance recital and school program and concert and anything else where Denise was involved. Once in school, she and I would go through her backpack every night to see what homework she might have and to see how she had done on tests and papers in class. We remain extremely close to this day, and while I was a little sad to lose some of the attention when Jason came along, I knew he was a fine young man and I was pleased that the two of them were wonderful together.
I went back to the letter...)
