“I have more shirts, Amanda.”
Truthfully she was just stalling, as she knew what she needed to do. Mustering her courage, she walked over to the end of the row of seats and knelt next to the man and woman who were still seated. Most of the crowd had shifted toward the road that led to the chapel.
With her knee pressing into the lawn, she could feel the dampness in the mown grass as her stocking soaked in the morning dew. She looked up at the man and woman, people whom she had only recently come to know.
The woman was wearing a modest black dress with shoes that matched but somehow seemed less elegant than the occasion demanded. The man wore an off-the-rack dark suit that fit, but was perhaps a shade too tight, as if he had purchased it years ago. Amanda noticed the woman had a clear countenance in her round face, as if God was escorting her through this time and space. The man’s wrinkles and weathered skin revealed a life of working outside with his hands.
Placing a hand on the woman’s knee, Amanda paused until Mrs. Eversoll looked at her. Amanda noticed Mr. Eversoll turn and look at her as she knelt in front of the dead soldier’s mother.
Amanda looked at the American flag sitting in Sergeant Eversoll’s mother’s lap in a perfect triangle.
“I’m so sorry your son died fighting to help my father,” Amanda said through tears that were sliding freely down her cheeks. “I promise I will never forget the sacrifice he made.”
Mrs. Eversoll looked at Amanda with the clear-eyed confidence of a woman who believed so entirely in God, whose faith was so strong, that she knew her son was in a better place.
“Your father was the best thing that ever happened to Lance.”
Those words, spoken by the parent of a dead soldier, were perhaps the most profound words she would ever hear. Their son had died in combat trying to save her father. Their son was in the casket behind them.
She finally understood that life was about more than serving materialistic desires and hedonistic pursuits. No, serving a cause larger than herself would be her calling. Even if her father could not be present, he would be a part of it, forever.
She stood, leaning over to hug the Eversolls.
“Thank you, Amanda, for coming. This has meant more than anything else, your being here.”
They hugged for longer than she could remember, the three of them, bonded as one forever by this most unlikely of events.
I’m a part of you; you’re a part of me too.
CHAPTER 65
She had bid farewell to Matt. There would be more news about arrangements for her father, Matt assured her as he climbed in a black SUV headed to Andrews Air Force Base where he would board a Gulfstream G5 and fly directly to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.
Mary Ann Singlaub had proved a good companion for the return trip. She had helped catch Amanda up on some of the details that had been missing, and, in turn, Amanda had given her some good background on her father. All positive.
After landing at the Charlotte airport on an earlier flight, they had taken a cab together to her office at the Charlotte Observer, where Amanda had arranged for the attorney, Harlan, to meet them.
They chatted briefly in Mary Ann’s cubicle, which was as unkempt as a college professor’s office.
“Need to do some spring cleaning, lady.”
“Don’t get sassy with me,” Mary Ann shot back, picking up a stack of The Economist magazines and moving them out of a chair, “or I’ll make you read these.”
Amanda glanced down and smiled. “I’ll be quiet, trust me.”
Mary Ann’s phone beeped, and a mechanical female voice announced, “Visitor.”
They walked to the front desk and met Harlan. Amanda waved from a distance as they approached, but she noticed that he did not return her gesture. For a moment fear struck in her belly that perhaps something had gone wrong.
Her concern melted when her teenage girl instincts reengaged and she noticed that Mary Ann’s and Harlan’s eyes were securely locked in the type of stare usually reserved for high school kids who recognize love at first sight. Amanda could have fallen through a trapdoor and they would not have noticed, she thought, smiling. They were smitten with each other.
As she watched them introduce themselves, she began to think about all the positive emotions and encouragement that she had been able to experience since her father’s death. The two NCBI agents had altered their course because they knew him. The UPS guy had hugged her and grieved with her. Even Harlan had said he knew of him. Where had these positive reinforcements been in the past? Now she could feel his strength and positive energy. Karma, perhaps.
“Hey, guys?” Amanda said and smiled, waving her hand at the pair.
“Yes, Amanda, how are you?” Harlan acknowledged, pulling a business card from his wallet. He looked back at Mary Ann, handed her the card, and said, “In case I forget.”
“Like I would let you,” she replied.
“Oh, please, I’ve heard better lines in my school plays,” Amanda interjected. “Now let’s go before my mom gets suspicious.”
They entered the conference room, which was dominated by a large dark wood rectangular meeting table surrounded by high-backed black leather chairs like the Praetorian Guard standing watch.
They each took a chair, Amanda at the head of the table and Harlan and Mary Ann facing one another on either side of her. She figured they had engineered this seating arrangement quickly so that they could continue looking at one another while she tried to understand all of the paperwork in front of her.
Instead, Harlan immediately began. “Amanda, I’ve checked all of the documents, and they are in order. You are completely protected in every sense of the word. I’ve talked to Major Ramsey, the casualty assistance officer who’s been working with you. He gave me all of the paperwork, and I am representing you on this matter.”
Amanda looked down uncomfortably. “How do I pay you?”
“We’ll discuss that later, but don’t worry about it now.”
“But what if I can’t afford it?”
“That sounds remarkably like worry.”
“Amanda,” Mary Ann interrupted, placing a hand on her arm while looking at Harlan. “Trust us, okay?”
Us? Since when were these two an “us”? she wondered.
“Not a real strong suit of mine, this whole trust thing. I found out one of my teachers is the guy who burned Dad’s house down. For all I know, he probably beat up Riley.”
“Your uncle called me last night after you told him. We’ve got his name, Amanda. I think the police will watch him for a day or two and then move in,” Harlan said.
“Okay, but don’t wait too long.”
“They know what they’re doing. And, you know, you might as well find out now that you cannot count on yourself to do everything that has to be done in life.”
She turned toward Harlan as he spoke.
“You have to learn to trust people. The primary issue is learning which people to trust. You’ve been double-crossed as a young girl, and so your foundation is shaken. You don’t know what to believe, or more importantly, who. Now here you are with two nearly complete strangers, and we are asking you to do something that you at this moment are not able to do with your parents. So, I understand it’s a challenge, but one you have to rise to over the next couple of days. The closer the Americans came to Germany, the tougher the Germans fought.”
Amanda furrowed her brow. “I was following you until the whole German thing.”
“I think what he’s saying, Amanda, is that the closer you get to your goal, the more resistance you will face,” Mary Ann explained.