Read Online Letters from War by Mark Schultz - Free Book Online

of course it’s easy for them to be influenced by me.”
    â€œHe sees the world through your eyes.”
    â€œI think Emily does the same through her father’s eyes. Sometimes something she says or does reminds me of him and it will be this bittersweet moment… that is ultimately too painful to dwell on.”
    â€œI wish I could have known him.”
    She takes Britt’s hand and squeezes it. “I wish you could have known—that you could
know
James better.”
    â€œI believe I will. I truly do.” Britt smiles, but a bit sadly.
    A squeal from the kitchen interrupts them. They both go to find Richie on his hands and knees playing with Bailey’s food.
    As she watches Britt prevent Richie from eating the dog food by picking him up, Beth wants to tell her daughter-in-law she always believed that even though Richard was diagnosed with cancer, he would never leave them. Or perhaps he would leave them when the children were older and married and had moved on. But no—this had been her belief and she was wrong.
    God had another plan.
    That wonderful saying about God and His “plans.”
    â€œI know what other people think,” Britt says. “But I still believe he’s out there. I mean—it felt like we married and then boom, he was in Afghanistan.”
    â€œHe was. Do you know that when James was born, we’d only been married a year?”
    â€œHow old were you?”
    â€œI was barely twenty-one. A couple years younger than you two.”
    â€œWow,” Britt says. “I felt like we married young.”
    â€œYou did. A lot of our friends married a lot later than we did. But Richard always had a grand plan: marriage, army, children.”
    â€œSounds like James.”
    Beth reaches over and again takes her daughter-in-law’ssoft hand. “The master plan has a way of changing, doesn’t it?”
    â€œYes it does.”
    â€œDo you remember the first time James brought you over to our house? Do you want to know something?”
    â€œWhat is it?”
    â€œI can’t believe I never told you this,” Beth says. “When we were in the kitchen and you were talking to Emily, James whispered to me that he was going to marry you.”
    â€œHe told me.”
    â€œYes, but did he ever tell you what I said?”
    Britt shakes her head, smiling. “Do I want to know?”
    â€œI said not to rush. I told him that you shouldn’t rush marriage, that you have to be certain. It wasn’t anything against you. It was just that he was in high school, with plans of going into the army. I always thought,
Just wait. Just wait because I know that road for the wife.
I know how difficult it can be.”
    â€œWhat did he say to that?”
    â€œHe said that you never know how much time you have in this life. Then he said, looking into the room where you were, that he wasn’t going to take any time for granted. Not with someone like you. James said that once you know, you know, and then you fight to keep knowing. Even if you have to fight the rest of your life.”
    For a moment, the young woman across from herseems lost. The freckles drizzled across her nose are barely visible under the soft glow of the kitchen light. Richie is making grunting noises as she holds him.
    â€œWhat’d he mean by that?”
    â€œYou know, at the time I didn’t know. He was just eighteen. But over the years I’ve come to believe that he meant that if you find something in this life that you believe in and love, you need to embrace that thing and then fight to keep believing and loving it.”
    â€œHe really said that?”
    â€œMy teen boy,” Beth says. “And that’s when I knew. I knew that this beautiful little redheaded girl he brought to my door had suddenly turned him into Shakespeare, romantic and all.”
    The tears no longer hide in the edges of Britt’s eyes. She silently wipes her