Read Online One September Morning by Rosalind Noonan - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Rosalind Noonan
Tags: Fiction, Domestic Fiction, Disclosure of Information - Government Policy - United States, Families of Military Personnel, Deception - Political Aspects - United States
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will definitely require some fine-tuning when he returns home. It’s time to make some adjustments, shake things up a bit.
He’s already broached the topic of change with Delilah during their few spare phone calls, his attempt to seed their inevitable parting but, typical of Delilah, she only picks up what she wants to hear. And right now all she seems to want to hear is the “C” word. Commitment…it’s the bane of Flint’s relationships. Nothing can make him feel like he’s looking down the dark barrel of the rifle of unhappiness quite like the prospect of having to sign on with one person for a lifetime. Not that he’s ever cheated on Delilah or any of his girlfriends before that. He’s a monogamous guy, just not ready to sign it all away for eternity.
Why do women want the big commitment? They want you to promise something that no person in their right mind can truly guarantee. Forever and always…like those songs played at friends’ weddings, right around the time when Flint grabs a glass of scotch and heads out to the terrace to join the cigar smokers. He hates the smell of old stogies but even the scent of burning rubbish is preferable to the glaze in a woman’s eyes when she’s smitten with the notion of idyllic love.
Yes, he’s going to have to end it with Delilah. Even if it means ending up a lonely old crone, as Fanteen always threatens.
Flint leans forward and blows dust from the keyboard, then tries turning the laptop on one more time. At last, an Internet connection. His fingers moving deftly over the keyboard, he e-mails the piece to the Seattle Trib, and it uploads quickly. Done.
He lets out a grunt of relief, then lets his eyes scan headlines on the server’s homepage. John Stanton’s name catches his eye, and he clicks on the link to find just a few lines of copy, reporting that John was killed by a sniper’s bullet just outside Fallujah. He was with Camp Desert Mission, a Forward Operation Base some forty miles west of Baghdad.
Shit.
John Stanton can’t be gone. He’s one of those guys you expect to see going on forever, charging through life with voracity and determination just as he’d charged through linebackers on a football field.
Flint knew Stanton through Abby Fitzgerald, one of his suitemates in college back in New York. Ancient history, but they were good friends back in the day. For a time, Flint and Abby had a little flirtation going, but Abby fell hard when she met John Stanton, her Scarlet Knight. Suddenly Abby was a football fan, coaxing them on a road trip to see a Rutgers game. It was a beautiful fall weekend and they had papers due back at the Wag, but who could stand to hole up in the library all weekend when you could kill yourself late Sunday night? Abby, Fanteen, Hitch, and him—they’d been inseparable until John came along and stole Abby’s heart. Once she got an eyeful of him in a football uniform, Abby never looked twice at anyone on campus, Flint included. If anyone was destined for a happily-ever-after, it was John and Abby.
And now this.
It sucked. It was the shorthand of the newsroom: shit happens.
Hopefully, you can find some meaning along the way before everything goes bad.
Flint searches for more information about the incident with John, but so far details are sparse.
When was Abby and John’s wedding? He counts back to a year ago June when they walked together under the crossed swords of John’s fellow soldiers. It was the last time they’d all been together, Abby and Hitch and Fanteen and him. Fanteen was pregnant with her second, and Hitch kept joking about how he was going to quit his job and become a househusband. Flint had brought Delilah to the wedding, and Abby had joked that she wanted an invitation to their wedding. Ha-ha. Again, the commitment thing. Delilah had loved hearing that, though she was still waiting. Waiting for Flint to become the marrying kind? Waiting for freakin’ Godot.
John’s death here in Iraq is going to
He’s already broached the topic of change with Delilah during their few spare phone calls, his attempt to seed their inevitable parting but, typical of Delilah, she only picks up what she wants to hear. And right now all she seems to want to hear is the “C” word. Commitment…it’s the bane of Flint’s relationships. Nothing can make him feel like he’s looking down the dark barrel of the rifle of unhappiness quite like the prospect of having to sign on with one person for a lifetime. Not that he’s ever cheated on Delilah or any of his girlfriends before that. He’s a monogamous guy, just not ready to sign it all away for eternity.
Why do women want the big commitment? They want you to promise something that no person in their right mind can truly guarantee. Forever and always…like those songs played at friends’ weddings, right around the time when Flint grabs a glass of scotch and heads out to the terrace to join the cigar smokers. He hates the smell of old stogies but even the scent of burning rubbish is preferable to the glaze in a woman’s eyes when she’s smitten with the notion of idyllic love.
Yes, he’s going to have to end it with Delilah. Even if it means ending up a lonely old crone, as Fanteen always threatens.
Flint leans forward and blows dust from the keyboard, then tries turning the laptop on one more time. At last, an Internet connection. His fingers moving deftly over the keyboard, he e-mails the piece to the Seattle Trib, and it uploads quickly. Done.
He lets out a grunt of relief, then lets his eyes scan headlines on the server’s homepage. John Stanton’s name catches his eye, and he clicks on the link to find just a few lines of copy, reporting that John was killed by a sniper’s bullet just outside Fallujah. He was with Camp Desert Mission, a Forward Operation Base some forty miles west of Baghdad.
Shit.
John Stanton can’t be gone. He’s one of those guys you expect to see going on forever, charging through life with voracity and determination just as he’d charged through linebackers on a football field.
Flint knew Stanton through Abby Fitzgerald, one of his suitemates in college back in New York. Ancient history, but they were good friends back in the day. For a time, Flint and Abby had a little flirtation going, but Abby fell hard when she met John Stanton, her Scarlet Knight. Suddenly Abby was a football fan, coaxing them on a road trip to see a Rutgers game. It was a beautiful fall weekend and they had papers due back at the Wag, but who could stand to hole up in the library all weekend when you could kill yourself late Sunday night? Abby, Fanteen, Hitch, and him—they’d been inseparable until John came along and stole Abby’s heart. Once she got an eyeful of him in a football uniform, Abby never looked twice at anyone on campus, Flint included. If anyone was destined for a happily-ever-after, it was John and Abby.
And now this.
It sucked. It was the shorthand of the newsroom: shit happens.
Hopefully, you can find some meaning along the way before everything goes bad.
Flint searches for more information about the incident with John, but so far details are sparse.
When was Abby and John’s wedding? He counts back to a year ago June when they walked together under the crossed swords of John’s fellow soldiers. It was the last time they’d all been together, Abby and Hitch and Fanteen and him. Fanteen was pregnant with her second, and Hitch kept joking about how he was going to quit his job and become a househusband. Flint had brought Delilah to the wedding, and Abby had joked that she wanted an invitation to their wedding. Ha-ha. Again, the commitment thing. Delilah had loved hearing that, though she was still waiting. Waiting for Flint to become the marrying kind? Waiting for freakin’ Godot.
John’s death here in Iraq is going to
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