5.
I had been reading for seven solid hours. All through one complete journal and the best way through another and one thing was startling obvious. This wasn’t no mere wartime infatuation. My grandfather’s entries had gone from descriptions of operations and patrols to being filled with thoughts of his lover. Dates, times and places. How they were counting down the days until my Grandpa’s tour was over and how when his lover rotated back to Earth they planned to find somewhere to live…together. It was all there. How they had their whole lives mapped out.
I also now knew who the mysterious ‘D’ of the e-mails was. Yet, would that make D my grandfather? I had just assumed that the journals were his, what if they weren’t, what if he was the lieutenant of the young soldier’s affections?
Then I came to an entry which must have brought them great joy and happiness.
07/22/06 It’s over. I can’t believe it – it’s finally over. The cease-fire has held, papers have been signed and in three weeks time I am out of here. A glowing recommendation from my squad’s lieutenant has ensured that all my previous misdemeanours have been considered paid for in full and I am a free man, free to pursue whatever course I wish upon my return to Earth. There is only one course that I wish to pursue and that is one with D. He is due to rotate in two months time, back to his nice safe desk job. My first task when I get home will be to find us a house and myself a job. I still can’t believe it’s all over and we will finally be able to be together.
*flashback*
‘What’s that?’
‘What’s it look like dummy? It’s a piano.
‘I know that, but what is it doing in our front room?’
‘I brought it for you.’‘for me? but why?’
‘Because silly I know how much you like to play, because I wanted only the best for you, because I love you.’
Appreciative hands were ran almost reverently over the smooth wood of the grand piano that now dominated one end of the sunny room.
‘It’s beautiful, how can I ever thank you?’
‘Oh I’m sure you will think of a way.’
‘Have I told you lately just how much I love you?’
A chaste kiss was exchanged, gradually becoming more heated. ‘What’d you say we christen it?’‘No way. That is far too good a piano for you, for us, to do that to.’
‘Shame, I quite fancied the idea. The floor it is then…’
As I read I also became aware that the dates were creeping dangerous close to my mother’s birth date. No, it couldn’t be possible but I had to know.
Jumping up I went back to the box of disks, a vague recollection returning. Tipping it upside-down I frantically searched for what I half-hope I wouldn’t find. But there it was, right at the bottom, the plain manila envelope I had seen previously and dismissed. With trembling fingers I reached in to find that it contained a single sheet of paper.
Drawing it out I audibly gasped. The document is my mother’s adoption certificate and there staring back up at me in stark black and white was the truth confirming my suspicions. The space for the adoptive mother’s name had a line put through it but the space for the father’s name… That space contained two names.
Daniel Jones and Darren Hayes.