Dirge of Eli

The cold, twilight night grasps hold of the day. The stars twinkle overhead. I walk through a graveyard of fallen soldiers. I can hear their screams. I walk through the columns and rows. White crosses dot the fields where the bodies of slain heros lay. Six feet underground and I can still hear their cries.
I halt at a headstone, watching my footing so I do not step on the grave. To step on the grave, is to show disrespect. I would never disrespect the dead. I kneel down in the frozen grass and place my hand near the headstone. Never touching it. Years had passed since I had witnessed the service. The name etched into the headstone now covered in weeds and moss. I do not try to remove the obstructing plants for it would only be a fruitless effort.
I bow my head as I hear the town's bell tower begin to chime. One... Two... Three... I am brought back to the place where it all had happened. Mai Lai. Vietnam. The massacre.

"On my mark, kill them all" I hear my commanding officer say.

He is rewarded with the confirmation of many of the troops in the unit. I try to speak up, but he does not listen. Bullets rip the air as innocent Vietnamese men, women, and children begin to scream out with cries of help. I tried to stop their fire, but I could not. I could not help save the innocents...
I return to the present. A few hours had passed and I see the light of danw breaking the horizon over the hill. I look to my right to notice a new plot had been dug out next to where I am standing. A headstone had also been set in front of the grave.
I shift my position to view the headstone. Tears begin to fill my eyes as I read the name etched into granite. A name that I have never forgotten. A name that I could never forget. Even after all of these years. Esther Eli. More tears begin to flow as sadness and joy fill my heart. Each tear lands softly on the frozen grass below. Never would I have thought that she would die. Death is inevitable. It had been so long since i had seen her. Today, I will. I hang around the graveyard for a few more hours. looking at the headstones of each fallen soldier and remembering each of my brothers.
At around noon I begin to hear cars pull into the graveyard. Automobiles have changed so much. I look on at the hearse and take a my spot a fair distance away from the plot. People begin to pour out of the automobiles, my family. None of them come to see me. I doubt that they could recognise me. They move around the plot as the Paul Bearers begin to slowly bring the casket down onto the lowering device.

"We come now, to this point in the service." I hear the preacher begin to say.

"Esther had been a woman brought up in the early thirties. She grew up on hard times and knew of these hard times. It helped the shape her into the amazing woman that you all had seen up to her untimely death. When she was ninteen years of age she moved from her loving state of Kentucky and went off to live here. In Georgia she found a man by the name of Justin Eli. Two years into their relationship, they were married. Unfortunately Justin had been sent to fight for the war in Vietnam. Where he would lose his life and never. Be able to watch his sons grow up." The preacher continues.

The casket begins to lower and I begin to see a figure appear outside of the large group of family members. It is a woman of the age of seventy nine. As she begins to walk towards me. Age begins to disappear from her face. Her wrinkles begin to fade. Her bright blue eyes regain their colour and her lovely brown hair begins to straighten out. A smile appears on her face as her own tears begin to push onto her cheeks. I walk closer to her and embrace her as she nears me. She is twenty one again. Her mouth begins to open and her words hit me like a soft serenade.

"I'm sorry for the wait, I've missed you." She says.

"It feels as though it was just yesterday that I had left for the war. I've missed you too" I reply.

We begin to fade from the world as our lips begin to join. Even after all of these years. I still love her and she still loves me.