Author’s Note: This story is a complete work of fiction from the get go and is intended solely for the readers to enjoy. My thanks to EasySpeak for the work of editing this story so that it makes sense and makes it easier to read and understand.

Author’s Note: This story was inspired by the Statler Brother’s song “Elizabeth”. The song and the lyrics can be found on the internet for those who would like to search for it.

I got home from work one Thursday night, fixed my supper and went in to relax and check my EMAIL. I flipped my computer on and was surprised to see a message from my younger brother, John.

In his message he said, “If this is the correct EMAIL address, Nick, you won’t believe the hassle I have had to go through to track you down. Still don’t know that I have really got in contact with you though. I may just be chasing the ghost of my brother and will still have to keep looking.

I think I have your correct phone number and I’ll try to call you Sunday afternoon. I want to talk to you but, I really don’t want to do it through an uncertain EMAIL address. If you don’t hear from me by Sunday evening after supper, you call me.” and he gave me his phone number in his EMAIL address.

I thought, ‘Hell, I’m not going to wait until Sunday. I’ll just call him tonight.’ I picked up the phone and punched in his phone number. On the third ring, what sounded like a tiny little girl’s voice that said, “Hellwo?”

It sounded like a little girl of four or five and I thought it was the cutest little thing I had heard in all of my life. I think I instantly fell in love with that precious little angel, sight unseen.

The thought of all the small children I saw on my two Marine combat tours in the Middle East instantly flashed back into my memory. The saddest memory was of small children who had been caught in the crossfire of a firefight with insurgents.

Really heart wrenching were those small children who were clinging to the dead bodies of their Mommas who had been killed in the crossfire. I just prayed to God that none of them died at my hands and the muzzle of my M16 or any of those of the guys in my unit or at the hands of any of our troops involved there.

I asked the little girl, with the tiny little voice, “May I speak to Mr. Davis, please.”

The tiny little voice yelled out, “Daddy, it’s for you.” At least she was old enough to have been taught her family’s full name. A minute or so later an adult male voice came on the phone which sounded like I was talking back at myself. He said, “Hello, this is John.”

I said, “Damn, John, if I didn’t know better I’d have thought I was talking to myself on a tape recorder. And you have the cutest phone receptionist I have ever heard. I just got your EMAIL message this evening and figured I’d call you tonight after I had my supper instead of waiting until Sunday evening. Now what is it that is so important you wanted to talk to me about so urgently on the phone?”

“Holy cow, Nick, don’t you ever think about home and what little is left of your family? We haven’t seen you since you left here to go join the Core. You have a Sister in Law and a Nephew and a Niece you have never seen. Not to mention me, your younger brother either. You didn’t even make it home when Mom and Dad were killed in that car accident.”

“John, you know that happened during my second combat tour in the Middle East, over 7,000 miles away. You ought to know full well the Core wasn’t going to break me out of a hot combat zone and heavy fire fights and away from my unit to travel 7,000 miles even for a family funeral.

And all the guys of my unit sure as hell wouldn’t have understood it if I just ran off leaving them in a hot combat zone to fend for themselves. We needed every dog face in our unit in that fight.

I sure as hell couldn’t have run out on the rest of the guys in my unit in an active combat zone. I sure as hell wasn’t going to have them look at me as a coward by bugging out on them to let them fend for themselves in a highly active combat zone leaving any of them to die because I wasn’t there to cover for them. That just ain’t something a dedicated marine would ever do.

And yes, I do think about you and home at times and I think I ought to get home and see you and go visit Mom and Dad’s graves. But, it always seems like I have something else more pressing that comes up that prevents me from getting there. But, other than that what did you find so urgent that you had to send me an EMAIL and you just had to talk to me on the phone?”

“Well, Nick, Leslie, my wife, your Sister in Law, and I were discussing that we haven’t heard from or seen you since you left out of here to go join the Core. And we thought that you would like to meet her and our two kids. So we wanted to invite you to come up here and visit with us for a week or two and renew our old family ties. She said she would like to meet you and we think the kids would like to meet you, too, Nick.

I have a vacation coming up in a couple of weeks and we would like to have you come up here to visit with us and meet Leslie, Trace and Shelly. And Shelly is my phone receptionist. By the way, where the hell are you anyway?”

“Hey, John, I think I can arrange to take at least a one week or two weeks of vacation to coincide with yours. I’ll have to talk to my boss and see if he can let me go at that time. Our office has been pretty busy but, he owes me a hell of a lot of compensatory time off for all of the extra hours I have worked for the company.

With the way things are going I may never get all my compensatory time off anyway. And I’m living and working in Fort Worth, Texas now. Have been here for several years now.”

“Ok, Nick. When you find out let us know if you think you can come up here and see us at the time of my vacation. It’s been a really long time since we have seen each other. We have a guest room you can bunk in while you’re here and I know that Leslie will love meeting and getting to know you when you get here, too.

The town has changed quite a bit in all of the time you have been gone. I’ll take you around and show you all of the changes in the town. You may not recognize some of the town the way it has changed. Call me when you have something to tell us, Nick.”

“Alright, John. I’ll give you a call back in a few days when I get the Ok from my Boss to take the time off.”

The next day when I got to my office I filled out a vacation request form to take a one to two week vacation at the same time to coincide with John’s vacation and I dropped it off on my boss’s desk for his review and approval.

Later that day my boss stopped in my office and said, “Hey, Nick. Do you mean to tell me you’re finally going to take a vacation?” as he had a big smile on his face. Besides we owe you a hell of a lot of compensatory time, too.”

He handed me a copy of my request with his approval signature on it. “Did you just find a new girl who wants you to shack up with her for a couple of weeks or something like that?”

I quickly shot back, “Yeah, I finally got my snoot full of work for a while and figured I needed to go get some R&R to regenerate myself and shack up as my reward and part of my R&R. It’s kind of like going home after a tour of combat duty.

And that new girl told me I needed to have my balls drained since they had gotten to be as big as basket balls. She said it would probably take two weeks to completely drain them.”

He knew exactly what I meant since he was a combat veteran himself and he hadn’t lost his military sense of humor or the military vernacular either. He knew the healing effects of R&R and getting your balls drained.

He was a really good guy to work with, kind of like he was the Captain of my unit. I continued, “Actually, I talked to my little brother the other night and he invited me to come up home and visit with him and his family.

When I called him the other night the cutest little voice answered the phone and I just fell in love with her sight unseen. I just realized that there was something missing in my life when I heard her tiny little voice.”

Having seen the same combat I had seen, he understood why I had such a soft spot in my head for a sweet little girl like that. He had seen some of the same shit I had seen on his combat tours, too.

He had seen little kids clinging to the dead bodies of their mommas’ caught in a cross fire between the marines and the insurgents. I know he had the same soft spot in his head and in his heart, too.

“So, I’m going to drive across country and go visit with him and his family. It’s only something like 700 to 800 miles up there and I think I can make the trip in a day and a half without beating the hell out of myself or my car.

I haven’t seen him in a really long time. And it’s time I got my ass up there to see him and meet his wife and his two kids. I may not stay the entire two weeks. I may hot foot it back here early in the second week and just relax for a few days, kick back and inhale a few beers here.”

“Well, Nick. Have a safe trip up there. When you leaving here anyway?”

“I’ll put my luggage in the car on the Friday morning before and leave out of here right after work on Friday. Then I’ll drive until about bedtime. I figured it’d take me a day and a half to make the trip. I should be in there mid or late Saturday afternoon. It’s mostly interstate driving and I should be able to make good time on my trip up there.”

I left work the Friday evening after work and drove till about ten o’clock when I began to get tired and was needing some sleep. Then Saturday morning I got up early and got to my brother’s house just about noon.

As I pulled up in the driveway of the address John had given me. There was a guy out mowing the front lawn and he was about half way through with his lawn. A little boy of six or seven was tugging at a garbage bag toward the curb. I figured the garbage bag was full of grass clippings.

The garbage bag was about as big as he was and he was having a heck of a time moving it. When he saw me pull up in the driveway he stopped and ran over to the guy and grabbed his elbow. He said something to the guy just as I shut off my engine and was getting out of the car and I started out across his lawn toward him.

I thought it was John but, I couldn’t tell for certain who he was since he had his back to me. He shut off the lawn mower, turned around and started walking toward me. As I saw him walk toward me I thought I was watching myself walking in a mirror. When he saw me his face and eyes lit up with his recognition of me.

As he walked toward me he stuck out his hand and said, “Nick, man, it’s good to see you, Brother. I really didn’t expect you until about supper time this evening or maybe even tomorrow.” I took his hand and we man hugged each other for a few long moments.

“Well, John, I made pretty good time and it was pretty easy driving. Man it’s good to see you, too. Is this your Son, Trace?”

He turned and looked at his Son and said, “Trace, this is your Uncle Nick. Say hello to your Uncle Nick, Son.”

I reached down and shook his hand and said, “Hello, Trace.”

Trace replied, “Hi, Uncle Nick.”

John said, “Come on, Nick. Let’s go inside and you can meet Leslie and Shelly.” as he led the way into the house with Trace walking close behind him. When we got into the house John called out, “Leslie where are you, Hon?”

“I’m here in the kitchen making some lunch for us. Come on in here, John.”

We walked into the kitchen and she had her back to us making sandwiches at the kitchen counter. John said, “Honey, this is Nick. I knew you wanted to meet him when he got here. So say hello to Nick and you’ll need to make a couple more sandwiches for him.”

Leslie turned and looked at me and said, “Hi, Nick. We’re happy to have you here in our home to visit with us. We weren’t looking for you until about supper time and you’ll just have to eat sandwiches with us for lunch. Now that you’re here I’ll need to make a couple more for you. I know if you can’t eat them there are a couple of little kids who will devour them anyway.”

“I’m very happy to be here and to meet you too, Leslie. And sandwiches are just fine for lunch, Leslie.” That’s pretty much what I generally have for lunch anyway. Standing on a chair at the cabinet next to her Momma was who I figured was Shelly. She appeared to be about four or five years old and I said, “And who is your little helper here with you, Leslie?”

She said, “Oh, this is Shelly, Nick. She really likes to help me make lunch and sometimes she even helps me make supper for us, too, if she isn’t too busy playing with her dollies. Say Hi to your Uncle Nick, Honey. He came here all the way from Texas to see us and visit with us for a few days, Honey.”

Shelly turned to look at me and said in her tiny little angelic voice, “Hi, Uncle Nick, are you going to have a sandwich for lunch with us?”

“I’d love to have a sandwich with you if you will let me sit next to you at lunch. Are you the precious little angel who answers the phone when I call to talk to your Daddy on the phone?”

“Yeah, Momma lets me answer the phone when it rings. You sound just like my Daddy when you talk and you even look like him some, too.”

Leslie said, “Shelly you need to get down from the chair. We’re just about ready to have lunch, Ok, Honey?”

“Ok, Momma.” And she started to crawl down off the chair.

I said, “Can I help you get down from the chair, Shelly?” She stood up and held her arms out to me to pick her up. I reached over and picked her up by her waist and she immediately put her arms around my neck and kissed my cheek.

I held her in my arms and I told her, “Well, Shelly, you’re just about the cutest and sweetest little girl I have held like this in a very long time. I’d love to take you home with me when I go back to Texas but, I don’t think your Momma and Daddy would let me take you with me.”

I figured she put her arms around her Daddy’s neck and kissed his cheek like she did for me. “Is this your chair you sit in to eat your lunch, Honey?” Shelly nodded her head yes.

Leslie told me, “Yes that’s her chair and it belongs over here next to mine so I can help her with her lunch. Without putting her down I grabbed the chair and brought it over to the table where Leslie had indicated.

As I started to set her in the chair Shelly said, “Thank you, Uncle Nick.” and she kissed me on the cheek again.

Leslie just smiled and beamed at me and said, “You can sit in that chair right next to Shelly then, Nick. I think you have made a new little friend this morning.”

“Yeah, and I couldn’t have a prettier and sweeter friend than this little tyke, Leslie. I think she takes after her Momma.”

Leslie just smiled and said, “Come on, John and Trace. Let’s sit down and let’s eat our lunch. Trace you sit on the other side of your Uncle Nick next to your Daddy. Shelly wants your Uncle Nick to sit next to her.”

We all sat down to our lunch and chatted with one another. John said, “Nick, after lunch I’ll show you around the town. There have been a lot of changes you haven’t seen.” He looked at Leslie and asked, “Do you want to go with us, Honey?”

She looked up and said, “No, there are some things I need to get done around here and besides Princess probably needs to take a short nap especially since we have company here in the house to visit with us. You and Trace go ahead and show Nick around while Princess and I get some things done here.”

We continued to chat and visit and when lunch was over John asked, “Nick, are you ready to take a little ride with me?”

I nodded my head yes and Trace asked, “Can I ride along with you and Uncle Nick, Dad?”

John replied, “Yeah, you can, Son, but, I want you to ride in the back seat and let your Uncle Nick ride up in the front seat with me.”

As we got up from the table I told Leslie, “Thank you for the delightful lunch, Leslie. I sure have enjoyed eating something that I didn’t have to buy in a restaurant or make for myself.” Shelly held out her arms inviting me to pick her up which I did. She immediately put her arms around my neck and kissed my cheek again. That nearly melted my heart.

I told her, “Thank you for helping your Momma make us such a delightful lunch, Princess. And thank you for letting me sit next to you.” She just wiggled in my arms and I lifted her down to the floor to stand her on her feet. Shelly turned and immediately ran out of the Kitchen to some other part of the house. I suppose she went to her bedroom to play with her dolls or her other toys.

John, Trace and I walked out the door and got in his car. He drove us up to our old high school and said, “This is no longer the high school, Nick. They have built a brand new more modern high school out at the edge of town.

They don’t really know what to do with the old high school buildings. I just hope that they don’t demolish it. This old high school was built in the early years of the 20^th century and it would be a shame to see it demolished.”

Then he drove us out to the edge of town to show me the new high school and the new football field and bleachers. After that, he drove us out to the city park where the old steam engine was still on display. I told him, “John, I remember watching them move that old steam engine out here when I was in high school. You may not remember it.”

John pointed out a brand new Walmart that had been built a few years ago. “Walmart sits on the land that the old drive in used to be on, Nick. It has been good for the town with the lower prices and more employment but, it has put a lot of the local guys out of business, too. So it has been a double edged sword for this town.”

Then we drove through downtown pointing out all of the old businesses that have been closed up. As we drove through the downtown area John said, “We have a new bar and grill there, too.

John pointed out the new modern hospital that had been built not long ago. The old hospital was so old and inefficient it had to be replaced. Later it had been demolished and a service station and real estate office stood in its place.

After driving around town for about an hour John said, “Nick, I think I need to get back and finish mowing my lawn. I’ll get you a lawn chair and a beer and you can enjoy watching me slave over my lawn while you enjoy your beer. After I finish we can sit in lawn chairs and suck down a couple of more beers.

When we got back to the house John stepped inside and called to Leslie, “Honey, we’re back.”

Leslie and Shelly came out of the bedroom and she asked, “John, are you going to spread the Trip 13 on the lawn after you finish mowing the grass? There is rain forecast for tonight which will water it in.”

“Oh, Honey, I meant to do that but, I forgot to drop by Walmart and pick up a couple of bags for the lawn. And we just drove right by there a little earlier as I was showing Nick around.

Maybe I can persuade Nick to drive up to Walmart and pick up a couple of bags of Trip 13 for us while I finish mowing the lawn.” John turned to me and asked, “Nick would you mind going up to Walmart and pick up a couple of bags of Trip 13 for us?”

“John, pardon my ignorance but, just what the heck is Trip 13?” I said in my most non-objectionable non Marine English. I really didn’t want to use coarse Marine language in front of Leslie and their kids.

I figured they’d hear it soon enough in school but, I didn’t want them to hear it from me and I don’t think that John and Leslie did either. Kids have to grow up much earlier than they used to have to do when John and I were in school but, I didn’t want to introduce them to that kind of language any earlier than they ordinarily would hear it.

“Ok, Nick, years ago when we were kids on the farm with Dad it was called 12-12-12 and also called it Triple 12. They upped the composition to 13-13-13. I don’t know why but, they did.

I guess they must have thought it was a better formulation for fertilizing field corn which it was mostly used for until the home owners took it over for their lawns. You know what it could do for corn and it does the same job for lawn grass, too. Corn is nothing more than a particular form of grass anyway.”

“Ok, that makes it clear but, do you really need 160 pounds? Wouldn’t one 80 pound bag be plenty?”

“Well, they have changed that, too. They no longer put it out in 80 pound bags. We can only buy it in 50 pound bags. I imagine they thought that the consumer market could only handle the 50 pound bags easier than the 80 pound bags like we used to do when we were still on the farm and we were helping Dad and living with Mom and Dad. And they probably make more profit off of the 50 pound bags anyway since the average consumer can handle it better and they sell more of it that way.”

“Ok, John. I’ll run up there and grab a couple of bags for you and I’ll be back with another 6 pack or two in the process. I have a feeling that the beer you have in your refrigerator won’t last very long.”

I got in my car and went up to Walmart to the garden center where he told me that it was sold. We used to buy it at the grain elevator but, we bought it by the truck load when we were planting corn.

I walked around looking for the Trip 13 when a very pretty young woman who looked to be about my age asked me, “Can I help you with something, sir?”

“Yes, Ma’am, I’m looking for a couple of bags of Trip 13. Do you have any here?” She showed me where it was and I pushed my cart over to where she showed me it was located. I thought, ‘This young lady sure looks familiar to me.’ and I asked her, “Miss, are you from around here because you sure look somewhat familiar to me.”

“Yes I am and you can call me Elizabeth like it says on my name tag.”

“Ok, Elizabeth. You kind of remind me of a girl I went to high school with, whom I haven’t seen in many years. Did you go to high school here, too?”

“Yes, I did.” And she told me the year she had graduated.”

“Well, Elizabeth, I went to high school here and graduated the same year you did but, I don’t remember a girl by the name of Elizabeth in my graduating class.”

“When I was in high school I was known by my middle name of Dolly and after I graduated I started using my first name because I began to think that Dolly sounded a little too juvenile and I got tired of people coming up to me saying ‘Hello, Dolly’.”

“I remember a Dolly Malone who was homecoming queen our senior year and she was going steady with the star quarterback of the football team. Are you Dolly Malone, Elizabeth?”

“Yes, I’m Elizabeth Dolly Malone but, I don’t recognize you, sir.”

“You will probably remember me when I tell you. I’m Nick Davis, Dolly or rather Elizabeth.”

“Oh, Nick, I haven’t seen you since graduation day. It’s been well over ten years since that time and a whole lot of things have changed here in all that time, too. Where have you been all of those years?”

“The day after graduation I was inducted into the US Marines and was sent to boot camp. Then I was sent on two combat tours in the Middle East. After that I didn’t re-up for a second hitch and I went to school in West Texas where I got my Engineering degree.

After I graduated from college with my Engineering degree I went to work for an outfit in Fort Worth, Texas and I have been there for close to five years. And that is the story of my life in a nutshell, Elizabeth.”

About that time, another customer asked Elizabeth for some help and she said to him, “I’ll be right with you as soon as I finish with this gentleman, sir.” Turning back to me she said, “I need to take care of this customer, Nick, but I’d like to talk to you some more later, Nick.”

I paid for the Trip 13 and pulled one of my business cards out of my pocket and asked her to write her phone number on the back of it. I told her, “I’ll call you in a day or two and maybe we can get together and visit over a drink or go out to get something to eat somewhere convenient.”

I left Walmart and stopped in a grocery store and bought a couple six packs of beer and went back to John’s house. He was just finishing up mowing and edging his lawn when I got back.

John said, “Hey, Nick, you made it back just in time. I just finished mowing and edging and now I’m going to take a break and get us both a beer. There’s another lawn chair just inside the garage door. Will you get it out while I go get us a cold one?”

“Ok, John, but, let me get a couple of beers for you to take into the house with you to stash in your refrigerator.” as I handed him the plastic sack with the two six packs in it. He took the two six packs in the house and came out with a cold one in his hands for each one of us.

During the time he was getting us a beer I got the two sacks of Trip 13 out of the car and sat them just inside of his garage. I sure didn’t want to haul two sacks of fertilizer back to Fort Worth with me in the trunk of my car when I left. Grabbing another lawn chair I brought it outside and sat it next to the one already there.

When John came out of the house he handed me a beer and we sat down in the lawn chairs to talk. John said, “Nick, Walmart must have been pretty busy this afternoon. It took you long enough to get those two sacks of Trip 13 and the two six packs of beer.”

“No, it wasn’t all that busy, John. I ran into a lady in the garden center who I graduated from high school with and we talked for a while before I got the Trip 13 and left. She still looked as good as she did all those years ago when we graduated and of course, I haven’t seen her since I left here as you well know.”

“Are you going to go see her again while you’re still here in town, Nick?”

“Well, I plan to. I got her phone number and I plan to call her in the next day or two. I told her before I left I’d love to get together with her over a drink and talk about what has happened with us since we graduated from high school. She seemed very happy to see me and I’m sure she will want to go out to have a drink with me or even supper one night next week.

“But, tomorrow I’d like to go out to the cemetery and visit Mom and Dad’s grave. I want to take a bouquet of flowers out there with me to place on their graves. We both know I didn’t come home for their funeral but, I was in the middle of a combat operation on my second tour and I sure as hell was not going to run out on my buddies in the middle of that combat operation. I sure as hell didn’t want them to think I was a coward who bugged out on them during combat.

Not only that, I had seen so much killing and death in combat zones that I didn’t think I could take the deaths of Mom and Dad and keep it all together. I know if I had just been deployed to a rear area and not in a combat zone, I would have jumped at the chance to boogie out and come home on bereavement leave.

But, it is drilled into a marine that you never run out on your unit and leave them shorthanded especially in combat. The overriding motto of the US Military is: Duty, Honor and Country.

And I know that a lot of people probably thought I didn’t care about my Mom and Dad but, I couldn’t help it. I have never explained that to anyone else but, I thought I owed you an explanation of why I wasn’t here for them, John.

If anyone else wants to know they need to talk to me about it except for Leslie. You can tell her if you would like to or I’ll explain it directly to her. I think she will understand my reasons.”

Just as I had finished my sentence Leslie came out of the house and Shelly was running just ahead of her. John got up and got another lawn chair out of the garage for Leslie and as she sat down Shelly saw me and loudly squealed, “Uncle Nick, you came back. I thought you had gone back home already.”

She came over to me and I lifted her up to sit on my knee. She threw her arms around my neck and kissed my cheek again. I thought, ‘Lord, she is such a sweet loving little girl and she has just stolen my heart. I’d sure love to have a sweet loving little girl like Shelly. But, I’m going to have to find a sweet loving woman to give us that little girl first.’

“I came back here to see you, Shelly. I would never leave and go home without telling you good bye before I left. Your Momma and Daddy have asked me to stay here with them and you for a while and visit with all of you.”

“Uncle Nick, will you come out and play catch with me in the front yard, please?”

I started to decline but, Leslie quickly spoke up and said, “Shelly, your Uncle Nick is visiting with your Daddy and me. You go play catch with Trace.” Shelly jumped down and went to play catch with Trace.

We sat there and visited a little while longer and John got up and said, “Well, I need to get that Trip 13 spread on the lawn since Leslie says it is supposed to rain tonight. It won’t take me more than about an hour to do that. Do you want another beer, Nick?”

“No thanks, John. I think I’ll just sit here and enjoy the pleasant afternoon and watch my industrious brother sweat over his beautiful lawn and watch the kids play catch.”