Ghosts of the Siege

by Steven Abernathy

  John Grey has never been a churchgoer, he admits, but he remains active in helping Teddy and the monastic order for many years. After an absence of over fifteen years, he is invited back to the monastery, where he finds Teddy and other friends have departed from their earthly life and are now in Heaven. John is allowed to see and speak to them through a portal into Heaven that God had provided the monastery at the time of its founding. During the conversation, John finds his faith. Even though he is given the option of joining with God and his friends in Heaven, he makes the decision to remain in his mortal life, and spend the remainder of his years helping the monastic order to do God’s work throughout the world.

  Unspoken Valor

  Sometimes heroism is lost to history.

  Jack and Charlie are two of the millions of farm boys who dropped their bales of hay and joined the Army or Navy in 1943 because it was the right thing to do. The lifelong friends serve together in basic training, but are separated to pursue additional military training that fit their individual talents. Only a few weeks after their separation, Jack finds himself assigned to his dream job, gunner on a B-17 crew that makes regular bombing runs over Germany. Charlie is disappointed to be assigned to ‘company clerk’ school, but soon finds himself assigned to General Dwight Eisenhower’s staff at Allied Headquarters in London.

  A perfect confluence of events brings the two friends back together during a time of critical planning for the D-Day invasion of Europe. In the midst of a Nazi attack on the D-Day planners, the two young men carry out incredible acts of heroism that ultimately save the invasion plans, and, possibly, the entire war effort against Hitler and his Nazi regime.

  Medals for valor are considered for the two men, but a decision is made at the highest levels that public knowledge of the pair’s actions would be detrimental to the war effort. The two soldiers’ meritorious service to their country and the world is forgotten…almost.