Until the End (1996) by Coyle Harold

Author:Coyle, Harold [Coyle, Harold]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

It wasn't until Edward had moved farther around the corner of the shelves, into the little cubbyhole where the bed was wedged, that he saw his son, sitting in a worn high-back dining room chair. Edward was taken aback by the appearance of his younger son, sitting at the bedside of his love staring vacantly out of a dirty, narrow window. The face that had always tormented him so because of its likeness to his dear Mary was ashen and haggard. Though he was clean shaven and apparently well cared for, the ravages of war had aged and marked the boy's face almost beyond recognition. As tears began to well up in his eyes, obscuring further inspection of his son's torn body, Edward called out to his son. "Kevin."

Though surprised by his father's voice, Kevin turned his head slowly, almost hesitantly, to face him. In another place, at another time, that voice would have caused him to jump. But too much had transpired since those days, too much had passed before Kevin's eyes for him to be concerned with his father's presence. Without changing expression, Kevin looked at Edward, and blinked once. "Father, how did you . . ."

Edward nodded toward Harriet. "She cabled me. Told me that you were wounded, that you were . . ." Overcome by regret for not having come sooner, for the years of neglect, at seeing his son like this, and for many, many other things, Edward was unable to finish his sentence. Instead, dropping his hat and reaching out with his arms toward his son, he moved across the room. "Oh, Lord," he wept, "I can't tell you how happy 1 am to find you alive."

Barely able to react in time to receive his father's embrace, Kevin's effort to stand was greeted with pain that drove him back down into his seat and caused his head to spin. The crushing grip of his grieving father did nothing to relieve the pain that emanated from each of his wounds. Still, as his father wept with joy, and Kevin felt the warmth of his father's arms about him, he somehow managed to ignore the physical discomfort of the moment.

Slowly, almost hesitantly at first, Kevin let go of Harriet's hand with his good hand and wrapped it about his father's waist. When the two were joined, they hugged each other for the first time and shared the affection that only two people who have suffered and found peace can know.

Harriet rebounded with the same resilience she always managed after a major battle. "Sometimes," she explained apologetically to Edward on the way to dinner at Willard's, "the horror of it all simply becomes too overwhelming." And though Edward stated that he understood, he knew he never would know the full measure of what this woman had endured in her service with the Army. But he could appreciate the manner in which she threw herself back into her routine of helping in the ward despite the ever-present scowl of Doctor Gillespie.

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