Chapter 17 - LEARNING TO BE SIX
Maya had to learn how to be six again.
That sounded simple.
It wasn't.
She folded towels because she thought she had to earn dinner.
She woke when Eli cried and tried to climb out of bed before David could reach him.
She apologized whenever she spilled anything.
Her therapist called it parentification.
David called it heartbreaking.
One morning Maya dropped a bowl of cereal.
Milk spread across the floor.
She froze.
Her face went white.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
David crouched beside her.
"Hey. Look at me."
She couldn't.
"Maya."
Finally, she raised her eyes.
David dipped one finger in the spilled milk and tapped a drop onto his own nose.
She stared.
He did it again.
A tiny laugh escaped her.
"It's cereal," he said. "Nobody gets hurt over cereal."
Together they cleaned it up.
Not as punishment.
Just because floors get sticky.
Sarah's visits gradually improved.
She completed counseling, found full-time work and moved into a small apartment.
She stopped asking David when she could come home.
There was no home to come back to in that sense.
Their marriage ended formally.
She focused instead on rebuilding trust with Maya.
One afternoon, Maya asked to hug her first.
Sarah cried after she left, not during the visit.
That restraint mattered.
David transferred to a stateside Ranger training assignment.
He was still a soldier.
He was also at breakfast most mornings.
Eli began calling him "Da."
The first time it happened, David turned away so Maya wouldn't see him cry.
She saw anyway.
"Soldiers cry?"
"All the time," he said.
"Marcus said they don't."
David smiled sadly.
"Marcus was wrong about a lot of things."
Then the mail arrived.
Inside was a notice from the Army investigation.
The missing-person incident that had kept David from his family was finally closed.
May you like
But one detail remained classified even from us.
Someone wanted to know whether the ambush had anything to do with the stolen deployment data.
