Finding Jack by Gareth Crocker

Finding Jack by Gareth Crocker

Author:Gareth Crocker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press


Forty-one

Fletcher closed his eyes and tried to tune out the drone of the helicopter’s rotors. He could no longer bear the sight of Craig Fallow’s bloodied corpse. Instead, he imagined he was sitting on a perfect golden beach, the early morning sun shimmering off the ocean. The image evoked the memory of a holiday he and his girls had shared only two years ago. He remembered Kelly, who had built an elaborate sand castle too close to the shoreline, working furiously to build a moat to protect her handiwork.

“Mommy … Daddy … help me! Quick, the water’s going to wash away my castle!”

Abigail, who was tanning, stood up and rushed to her daughter’s side. “C’mon, Fletch, help us defend the kingdom.”

Fletcher reluctantly set aside his newspaper and joined his girls. Together, the three of them dug a deep moat around the front and sides of the castle. But no matter how hard they worked, the waves kept coming, each onslaught filling the hastily dug channel. Eventually the incoming tide overwhelmed the castle, melting its sculpted edges and reducing it to a blurred, indistinct mound.

After watching her creation be destroyed, Kelly looked up at her father. She never said anything, but Fletcher saw it in her eyes. She was disappointed in him. She was upset that he wasn’t able to save something of hers.

He was her father: He was supposed to protect her.

That innocently conceived but accusing expression had haunted Fletcher since the crash. The sand castle became a natural metaphor for her death. Just as he could not protect her sculpture, so he had failed to save her from that nightmarish December morning. Sometimes, just that single thought threatened to consume him.

A familiar weight pressed against his thigh, rousing him from his daydream. It was Jack. In his first assignment, he had performed far beyond everyone’s expectations. Fletcher couldn’t help but feel proud of how well he had fared. As he watched the Labrador drift off to sleep, familiar questions swirled around in his mind.

Where had he come from? Was he truly a Vietnam war dog?

He couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that Jack was somehow lost, as if he had been headed elsewhere, but then for some reason strayed from his path.

Trying to avoid the depressing sight of Craig’s inanimate frame, Fletcher stared out the cabin window. The jungle passed below in a familiar brown and green montage. A herd of water buffalo marched across a wide shallow river. Young boys rode on their backs, seemingly oblivious of the war or the sound of the helicopter above them. Fletcher imagined a comparison between them and boys of their age in America. They may as well have been a species from another planet, such was the gulf between them.

From deep in his thoughts, he felt Jack move away from him. He watched with interest as Rogan fished out two biscuits from his pocket and offered them to Jack. Unsure of the lieutenant, the Labrador edged forward and gently accepted the treats from him.



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