“Good morning, Major,” her CO’s deep voice greeted her.
“Morning, Sir. I’m calling to tell you I’m ready to come back. When would you like me to start?”
“That’s excellent news,” he replied cheerfully. “Would Monday morning be too soon?”
Her excitement came across in her voice. “That sounds perfect. I’m looking forward to being back on the barracks.”
“We’re looking forward to having you back, Major Holmes. You’ve been greatly missed. Meet me at my office at nine a.m. on Monday, I’ll walk you to your new office, and we can discuss your duties.”
“Yes, Sir.” She jogged slowly along the stretch of riverbank to the parking lot.
As soon as she reached the car, a loud noise echoed through the air. She spun around when a booming sound rang through the air once more. She gasped at what sounded like gunshots causing her to pause; she couldn’t breathe. Trying to catch her breath, she fell to her knees—everything around her spinning.
Shaking the sand from her hair, she took the opportunity to scan the area surrounding them.
“Major,” a strong male voice said from behind her.
“What is it, Davis?” she asked.
“We have intel that there’s enemy soldiers hiding in the field in front of us.”
“Everybody down,” she commanded. Her entire battalion hit the ground and took up defence positions, their rifles at the ready. When she hit the ground, she coughed as the hot sand filled her mouth. She brought her Browning .50 Machine Gun up, and scanned the area through the surveillance optics. A bullet hit a tree behind her. “Contact!” she screamed. One of her boys opened fire on the enemy targets moving towards them. Jackie used her scope to take two of them down. A jerking movement caught her eye, she swung her scope to the left. One of the rebels had taken a chance and stood amongst the hail of bullets, he was aiming a rocket launcher at the building behind them. Her eyes locked onto the red material of a bandana tied around his neck, as she yelled, “Move!” After giving the command, she dropped and rolled across the ground. The boys took up a defensive stance taking out the enemy in front of them, so they had a clear path to get out of the way of the building. After covering ten metres, she screamed again. “Down!” They hit the ground and Jackie raised her scope to watch the rebel holding the launcher. She took a steady breath as he squeezed the trigger, launching a missile directly at her and her team. She rolled to the side and brought her Browning up quickly, squeezing a couple of rounds off into the rebel.
The building behind them exploded outwards with a great cacophony of sound, showering them all with more dust and debris. More bullets were fired as they huddled down to avoid being hit by flying bricks or timber.
“Bastards,” Davis shouted. “They know we’re taking cover because of the building, yet they’re pressing to take us out.”
“Let’s do something about it then,” Jackie said, unleashing another round of bullets from her gun into the enemy. “Oh, yeah!” she heard as her battalion followed her actions.
“We have air support in one minute, Major,” Corporal Kinsey shouted to her.
“About bloody time. We could’ve used their help ten minutes ago when this started.” She coughed, clearing the dust in her throat. They continued defending themselves, and then the jet engines came in from behind them. “Yeomans, down!” As one, they all hit the ground, while the whirling noise of five bombs dropped from above. As they hit their targets, the ground under them shook. Another jet dropped five bombs a little further west to their position. When the reverberation stopped, Jackie took a deep breath and raised her gun again. She scanned the area, and punched the communication device next to her right ear. “Yeo one, to eagles one and two. Confirmation required of targets destroyed.” She waited and signalled to her men to keep their heads down.
“Eagle one to Yeo one, I can confirm that all rebels have been dealt with,” the pilot of the lead plane answered.
Jackie breathed a sigh of relief and asked Davis to pass the message down the line. When the message reached the end they all answered, “Raugh.” Climbing wearily to her feet, Jackie rubbed a hand over her face to clear the dust. “Take positions and be alert in case we have any stragglers,” she ordered.
The base commander’s voice came through the coms device. “Yeo one, this is command. Do you have any injured?”
Jackie walked down the line of soldiers and checked them all carefully. “That’s a negative, Sir,” she replied.
“Excellent work, I’m having a Chinook come in and air lift you back to base. Hang tight for twenty minutes.”
“Yes, Sir. Good work, boys. I want a five-man team circling the rest of us as we take a breather. We’ll rotate it every five minutes. Head back over to what’s left of the building.” She and Davis turned at the same time and walked back to the building. Something a few feet in front of her glinted in the sunlight, she squinted to see what it was, but couldn’t make it out. Just before Davis was about to step, Jackie saw the wires to an IED. “Davis!” she screamed, and pushed him out of the way of the device. Davis fell flat on his face and turned to look at her in shock. Jackie stepped back and her left foot rotated outward as it hit the side of something plastic.
“Oh fuc—”
The scene that had been playing out before her eyes melted away, as the parking lot and what looked like children running to catch up to their parents came into focus, yet she continued to flap her arms in the air. She knew she was safe, but the images still played in her mind. Jackie struggled to catch her breath, it took her several minutes to steady her pulse and put everything she had just seen into prospective. “Oh God,” she cried, closing her eyes tight, trying to block out the vision. She was no longer in Afghanistan, but she could feel everything as if it had just happened.
Focusing on the children playing in the distance, Jackie pulled herself up. Pull yourself together Holmes.
•••
Once home, she ran up the staircase to her room, opened the door to her wardrobe, and pulled out her standard green uniform. Wincing, she eyed the dusty, wrinkled suit, laid it on the bed and pulled out the others. This isn’t going to do, they have to be washed and pressed.
Gathering the pile of uniforms, she took them downstairs, and one by one, loaded them into the washing machine. She acknowledged it would be easier to drop them off at the cleaners, but she couldn’t risk they wouldn’t have them done in time.
In her pocket she felt her mobile phone vibrate. “Good grief, I’ve got far too much to do, I don’t have time for this,” she snorted, pulling the phone into view. Flashing across the screen was a text from Carrie.
Hi, Jackie, where are you? I was wondering if you could spare me ten minutes, I need to talk. Love Carrie. XX
Jackie snatched the home phone up from the hub, and pressed the speed dial number for Carrie’s office.
“Hello,” Carrie answered softly.
Jackie listened to the low timbre of Carrie’s voice, and she instinctively knew there was something wrong, and was instantly concerned. “Hey, is everything okay?”
“Not really,” Carrie sighed into the receiver.
“What can I do to help?”
“Just be there for me,” Carrie replied, with a catch to her voice.
“Always,” Jackie assured. “What’s happened?”
Carrie sniffled and stuttered. “I’ve been thinking a lot about my relationship with Toni, trying to figure out where things started going pear shaped for us.”
Jackie shook her head, appalled at the whole situation. Toni was brainless to treat a treasure like Carrie so bad. “I bet it was about the time she started drinking heavily?”
“It was…I’ve been wondering if there was anything I could have done to make things better, but I keep coming up blank. I’ve told myself I’ll give her one more chance, and if she kicks off again or treats either the boys or me like shit, I’m leaving her.”
Jackie ached for Carrie, she wished the
re was a way she could make it better. “Hey, there,” she said softly into the phone. Jesus, what I wouldn’t give to be there to comfort her. “I know you, Carrie, this isn’t something you’d decide on the spur of the moment.”
“I just don’t know what to do anymore,” Carrie sobbed.
“I think you’re doing the right thing, you’ve given yourself time, and I think you’re being more than generous giving her one last chance. But it’s your decision, and I’ll always be here for you if you need me.”
“I know. Thanks, Jackie. Thank you for calling me so quickly, I needed to hear a friendly voice today.”
“You’re welcome. You call or text me anytime you want or need to.”
“I know. I’m sorry, I need to go.” She sounded a little indecisive about ending the call. “I’ve got a new patient coming in soon, and need to get everything ready for him.”
Jackie relaxed her shoulders and lowered her head, while she let out a long breath. “Call me later?”
“I’ll try, talk to you soon.”
Jackie put the phone down and stared at the hub for a few minutes. It infuriated her that Carrie was hurting. If Carrie was mine, she would never know a sad day. She was attracted to Carrie, but there was no mistaking that the feelings building in her heart were developing into so much more. Now, keeping silent was getting harder, and to hear the pain in her voice only added to her wanting to wrap her arms around Carrie and protect her. Her thought was broken as the phone rang. “Hello?”
“It’s Ben. Can you come and get me please, Mum? I can’t stand being here with him. I want to come home.”
Hurriedly slipping into her shoes, Jackie asked, “What’s happened?” Her heart filled with a mix of concern and dread. What’s Dave done now?
“It's dad, he's been driving me mad since we got here. Jess wants to come home, too.”
“Okay, I’ll be there in ten minutes.” She slipped her phone back into her pocket and rushed to her car. She drove as fast as she could, a little over the speed limit, but not too fast to get herself into trouble with the law.
Within minutes, she pulled to a stop in front of her ex-mother in law’s house, and before she could put the car in park, the front door flew open, and Ben stormed out of the house with his bag over his shoulder, ready to make a quick getaway.
A small figure filled the doorway behind him. Hesitantly, Jackie got out of the car and hugged her. “Hello, Elsie.”
“Hello, Jackie, come on in.”
Ben stepped up to his mother’s side and took the car keys from her hand as she continued into the house, but appeared to re-think his options and joined his mother and grandmother.
Jackie studied her son intently. His jaw was rigid, and his deadly stare piercing. She followed him inside, and was almost knocked off her feet as Jess flew into her arms. Jackie kissed the top of her head and stroked her back to comfort her. She released her as the huge, ominous, looming figure of her ex-husband filled the living room door.
“Oh, look who it is,” Dave drawled drunkenly, as he leaned against the doorway, holding a green beer bottle and sloshing it around. “Mummy, the war hero freak is here to save the day.” He took a swig of beer.
Jackie’s back straightened as she clenched her teeth to fight the rage building inside of her. “What did you call me?”
“I called you a freak,” he shrugged nonchalantly, then took a step toward her and laughed loudly. “With that mangled leg of yours, that’s exactly what you are.”
A menacing growl came from deep within. Her chest tightened as her rage grew. Wanting to take a step forward and smack the smug grin from his face, she held her stance, and remained rooted to the spot. “My leg isn’t mangled, David, your bloody brains are.”
“David, I can’t believe you said that. Now you apologise right this minute. That’s no way to speak to Jackie,” his mother demanded.
Jackie placed her hand on Elsie’s arm. “It’s quite all right, Elsie, I’ve grown to expect this sort of behaviour from him. He’s just pissed off that I’ve cited his adultery in the divorce.” Turning to fix her stare on him, she added, “The truth hurts…doesn’t it, David?”
Dave put his beer bottle down and stalked towards her. He stopped a foot away and got right in her face. “Ever since you lost your leg you’ve turned into a right bitch. Do you know that?” he spat, trying to intimidate her.
Jackie wiped his spittle from her face, then clenched her fists at her sides. “No, Dave, I’ve always been this way. Is it my fault you’ve turned into a back-stabbing, cheating pig? Now, I suggest you get out of my face, or you won’t like what is going to happen!”
The red darkened in Dave’s face. He took a step back, but he wasn’t finished with his rant. “Afghanistan changed you. You left me and the kids here while you went off globetrotting.”
Jackie turned to the twins and put an arm around each of their shoulders. “I think it’s time we left.” She walked them to the door fully, intending to leave David to his drunken stupor.
“That’s right, run away, Bitch!”
Jackie spun so fast, she nearly lost her balance. “Don’t push me,” she rasped out, taking a step closer to him. “As for your comment about me globetrotting, if you want to call me protecting your rights to live, then I guess I was.” She raised her hand and pointed her index finger in his face. “I’ve seen things that would make you piss your pants and come running home to mummy. So don’t tell me I’ve changed. Now, if you’ll excuse me…I need to get my children home.” She turned on her heels and stormed out, with the twins following closely behind her.
Embarrassed for her son’s actions, Elsie followed them out to the car. She hugged, then kissed Ben and Jess. Jackie could see the sadness in Elsie’s eyes.
“I’m sorry this happened. I’ll bring the twins over whenever you want to see them. You’re also always welcome to visit.”
Elsie hugged her hard and kissed her on the cheek. “Thank you, I’m sorry about all of this, too. I really don’t know what’s gotten into him.”
“Me either, and I don’t particularly care anymore. I’ll call you next week and we can arrange for you to see Jess and Ben.” She kissed Elsie on the cheek and got into the car.
As soon as they were on their way home Jackie reached over and tapped Ben on the leg. “What exactly happened there?”
Ben sighed heavily and shifted sideways in his seat, so he could look at her. “From the minute he walked through the door, he saw us, and started bad mouthing you. He called you all sorts of horrible names. I’m sorry, but I wasn’t going to sit there and listen to him belittle you.”
“Nana Elsie told him off, too, but he wouldn’t stop,” Jess added.
“That’s a surprise. I never thought she would do that. Your dad’s her favourite, she always defends him.”
Jess suddenly gasped loudly. “Oh my God, Mum, your hair.”
Jackie smiled in her rear view mirror at her daughter. She’d forgotten to tell them she was visiting her hairdresser. Hopefully, they liked the new shorter style. Before meeting Dave, she’d always kept it short, it was at his request that she’d grown it long. Now he was out of her life, she was free to do whatever she wanted. “Do you like it?”
“I think it suits you.” Ben stroked the back of it to see exactly how short it was.
“Me, too,” Jess piped up from the backseat.
As they stepped through the front door, Jackie set her keys on the table and tapped the button on the flashing answering machine. “Hey, Jackie.” Carrie’s soft voice filled the room. “Can you join me for lunch on Monday? I thought we could go down to the café. Text me to let me know.”
Jackie smiled to herself as she pulled her mobile out and began texting a reply to Carrie, to confirm. When she turned back, her heart plummeted, the toll of the day was etched on the twins faces. Taking them by the hand, she led them into the living room and sorted out a movie for them to watch. They needed the distraction as much as she did.
&
nbsp; •••
Jackie found herself flat on her back on the brown leather sofa in her counsellor’s office. Dr. Nash had positioned her hands, one on her stomach, and the other on her chest. Today’s session was about relaxation techniques.
Thank God! I need to start trying to get back in control of what I’m feeling.
Dr. Nash took a seat next to her. “Are you ready to begin?”
Jackie nodded. “What do you need me to do?”
Dr. Nash patted her arm. “First, concentrate on your breathing. I want you to inhale deeply through your nose. The hand resting on your stomach should rise as you inhale.”
Jackie frowned, then shrugged, before taking a long breath.
“Okay, now exhale slowly through your mouth. If you find yourself becoming dizzy, resume taking normal breaths.”
Exhaling faster than she wanted to, Jackie coughed, and sat up quickly, reaching down to her side for the water bottle she’d placed on the floor. Getting herself under control, she looked sheepishly at Dr. Nash. “Sorry, I’m not sure what made me do that.”
“That’s okay, if you resume the position I had you in, we can continue.”
Jackie lay back down and squirmed around until she was comfortable.
“Now let’s try that again. If it helps, close your eyes and visualise something that you consider relaxing. Like a beach, lying on the soft golden sand, sunbathing. Try to feel the hot sun warming your body. Or it could be relaxing in the forest, laying on your back, staring up at the tree tops.”
Closing her eyes, Jackie pictured herself sitting on a wide-cushioned window seat, with a book open in her lap. Her breathing calmed and she took a deep breath in, then slowly released it out through her mouth. She could feel her face muscles relaxing.
“That’s great, Jackie,” Dr. Nash praised. “Okay, do that twice more, then return your breathing to normal. Once you’re ready to go back to the slow inhale and exhale exercise, go right ahead. But I want you to stop after three or four, and return your breathing to normal. This is to stop you from getting light headed.”
Hero Page 12
