Chapter Eighty-Three

It was a day the world would never forget. A day the world had been waiting for... and a day that the world rejoiced. 

There were a few who also marked it as the day that Josh broke his cartwheel record. They couldn't quite believe their eyes, just as they couldn't believe their ears... the squad was in England on that day, in the middle of an enormous army encampment, and awaiting orders to the Pacific. But as they sat gathered around the radio one Tuesday evening, they heard the unmistakable, earth-shattering news that... Japan had surrendered. 

The camp went wild. Josh let out a blood-curdling whoop and cartwheeled right down the middle of the tent and out the door and... kept going. He might have gone farther than he got too, if he hadn't been chased down and tackled by the squad en masse. 

The overwhelming roar that filled the army camp that day reached as far as the nearby hospital camp and echoed back again. Perhaps they were even heard in London, and who is to say it didn't reach all the way across the Atlantic Ocean to faraway America where the inhabitants thereof where rejoicing equally as loudly? The air fairly rang with the cry of freedom. This time, there was no more fear, no distant sense of the ominous... it really was over, really and truly over... and the world could breathe again. 

When Emma heard the news, she pulled herself away from Marci, who was shaking her wildly, jumping up and down, and screaming. Emma only felt stunned. With tears in her eyes, she fell to her knees and tried to pray... but oh, she couldn't... the only words that came to her lips were "Thank you God, Abba Father..." over and over...

Katie was with Mac when she found out, walking through the courtyard of the hospital as they had done a thousand times before. She couldn't manage any more than a shuddering sigh while Mac went nearly as wild as Josh had. She simply sank into the grass... and promptly burst into tears. 

"It's over... isn't it..." she whispered as Mac lifted her to her feet, wrapping her in his arms. "It's... it's o-o-over..." and she collapsed against him, crying harder than she ever had in all her life.

And at home, Mickey was likewise crying, sobbing against his mother's shoulder while she laughed and cried at once. It would be many long years yet before Mickey would fully understand the horrors of war, but still he felt the intense relief that was rocking the world and he wept in gratitude. Ronnie was coming home, everyone was coming home, after all those long, miserable months of praying and waiting... and Mickey could scarcely cope with the joy of the thought.

But Ronnie was in France on that day, still searching... and the realization that it was over at last barely reached him. He was still fighting the war inside of himself and the surrender hardly seemed real. He wondered vaguely if it ever would. And he knew that he couldn't rejoice... not now...  not until he found them...

He was a man in love with a memory... a shadow... a dream of a girl he barely knew. At times, it seemed to him almost ridiculous that he should cherish a dream like this... but then he would remember how in the darkest times of his life... that very same dream had given him hope. No... it was more, much more, than a dream. He could feel her prayers... even now, months later... he knew she was still praying for him. God must mean this to be, or else he wouldn't feel this way. His determination grew with every passing day. He had promised himself he would find her... and somehow... he was going to. Even if it took him half a lifetime of searching. 

And if and when he finally did find her and her little one... then what? What would he say? He thought about it over and over... almost obsessively. It was simple... this dream of his. Simple... and yet... it was his everything. 

"I love you..." he would say. "I need you. Both of you. Please... come with me... I'll take you home."

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Josh and Emma were the first to make it home again. Katie was still finishing up her work in England, and Mac refused to set foot in the United States without her. Ronnie could not be moved from France, no matter how hard his family begged. He would go on searching France, and then Belgium, if he had to. And on into Germany, and wherever else Rachel and Benjie could possibly be. He was relentless in his search, thinking and speaking of nothing else, and at times they were afraid he would never come home again.

It was October and little Jefferson was dressed in its best, prepared to receive again the weary and wandering who had been gone far too long. The fields were ripe and golden, the trees ablaze with colors. And all along the road home, the birds were singing. 

Josh and Emma had sent word that they would be home soon, but they never gave a day or time. Thus no one was at the station to greet them when they stepped off the train, hand in hand. They had wanted it that way... and together, they walked the five miles from the station, down gravel roads and cutting across pastures, remembering as they went. It was all just as they left it, not one difference anywhere, and oh, was it good to see something that hadn't changed! Change had torn their lives apart and already they were healing, just seeing home again. 

Mickey was in the front yard when the two distant khaki figures rounded the corner, half-hidden by the shade of the willow tree. But he knew... oh, he knew instantly who they were. Perhaps Josh was the one known for cartwheels, but Mickey firmly displayed his own ability thereof as he hurtled across the lawn, screaming incoherent things, and at last flew straight into the arms of his sister. 

"Oh, you grew up," Emma sobbed, finding a change after all as she clung to her little brother. "Look at you, how dare you get taller than me... how'm I s'posed to pick you up now?" 

"Easy, it just takes two," Josh laughed and seized Mickey. Howls of protest amidst shrieking laughter brought Donna and Myra, who had been over to help with some late garden processing, flying wildly out into the yard. 

Josh promptly dropped Mickey when he saw Myra and stood still in sudden shyness as she ran to throw her arms around him. It had been a long time since Josh had cried... he never had cried easily... but now he wept, clinging to Myra for all he was worth.

"Mama..." he whispered, and his voice broke. "Mama... I've come home..."