He took out the photo of Cassie and Molly and studied it under the moonlight.
Time did not heal all wounds for him. It barely touched them, in fact. It was like pouring iodine on a cancerous tumor.
I don’t miss you less and less. I miss you more and more. And I’m so sorry there’s absolutely nothing I can do about it.
Decker put the photo away and started to walk on, but then stopped.
In his mind’s eye were the images of his wife and daughter.
He just stood there, frozen for a few moments. They seemed to be talking to him, somehow communicating something he already knew, but simply refused to acknowledge.
And then Jamison’s last words came back to him.
You still have a family.
Decker slowly reached into his pocket, took out his phone, and punched in the number.
“Renee?”
“Amos, what’s wrong?”
“I just wanted to tell you that... that I’ll be there.”
Author’s Note
The idea for this story came from three things I learned about North Dakota. First, the Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex is an Air Force eye-in-the-sky installation near Grand Forks, North Dakota. Second, the Air Force auctioned off some of the adjacent land in 2012. Third, the auction was won by a sect of Anabaptist Hutterites, who established a community there.
Then I created my own Air Force installation, which I set on the opposite side of North Dakota, amid all the fracking operations, and the plot took off from there.
Hope you enjoyed the story.