Taking the Reins

“That’s not true.”

Mary Anne got off the bed and began to pace the small room. “Don’t lie, Charlie. I saw that kid’s face. I saw all your faces when I took off my scarf. The first time my husband—sorry, my ex-husband—saw me in the hospital without my bandages, he ran into the bathroom and threw up.”

What could Charlie say to that? “I’m sure it was just the initial shock. Soldiers know what happens in a war zone.”

Mary Anne leaned her forehead against her window. “Charlie, he’s a civilian. An accountant, would you believe. I’d already enlisted when I met him. Bad enough I was a mechanic. Bad enough I deployed six months after we got married, but with the internet we stayed connected. We were in love! We had all these plans for when my enlistment was over. Then this happened.”

“Of course, he was devastated for you,” Charlie said. “But he didn’t stop loving you.”

Mary Anne leaned a hip against the windowsill. “He really tried. He took a part-time job close to the hospital to be with me. But the first time one of the nurses tried to teach him to change my dressings, he ran. When they let me out on a twenty-four-hour pass to be with him, he couldn’t touch me. We sat up all night crying. The next week I filed for divorce. It wasn’t his fault, Charlie, and it definitely wasn’t mine.”

“So you want to go back to the hospital to start more operations right now? I thought you wanted to take a break.”

Mary Anne flopped back down on the bed. “I did. I do. But nobody looks at me twice in the hospital.”

Charlie wrapped her arm around Mary Anne. “We won’t let you quit. And when you do have more operations, we’ll learn to change your dressings and you’ll come back here to recuperate.”

“You can’t promise that!”

“The heck I can’t. Now wash your face and let’s go groom horses.”

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