I Returned For Thanksgiving To Find My Parents Gone—And My Father Waiting

two of us again—me and the commanding officer.

The house settled into deep silence, the kind that comes in the hours before dawn when even the wind stops blowing.

Victor was awake but barely, his eyes tracking things I couldn’t see—maybe memories, maybe visions of what comes next.

“Peaches,” he whispered suddenly, the word barely audible.

I leaned in close.continue reading …