part two

Part two.

There was a chilly rain that day. It seemed totally appropriate for the task at hand. There were less than a dozen people standing in the rain beside the flag draped metal casket. The flag was Gina's brother's idea. He had flown in from Iraq on emergency leave. He and his father walked through the wet grass toward the black family car.

I'm glad you came Bobby, just don't seem real," Gina's father said with a choking voice.

"I know dad, but it is. You don't know how I hate to be here like this."

"Can you stay a few days to help me sort through things?"

"Sure dad," Bobby said. Bobby stood tall and straight in his green army uniform. He wore the chevrons of a Sargent. Gina had been a first lieutenant while her younger brother was an enlisted helicopter door gunner. He and Gina had little in common, but brothers and sisters often were as different as night and day.

Gina's father almost collapsed as he bent to enter the family car. Bobby supported him, but felt an equally heavy weight. Gina had been the best of the children Bobby knew that. Her loss was going to cripple his father. It was so soon after Bobby's mothers death. It isn't fair, he thought. Not fair at all that his dad had to suffer the death of both the women in his life in less than a year.