Semper Fi

Semper Fi

Here, is where your heart will shatter and crumble into millions of tiny pieces. This is what Madeline Carter was doing.

She was making dinner for their daughter, Sarah, just like she did every night for the past ten months. Sarah was only five months old. Madeline was on the brink of losing it all. It wouldn’t take much for that to happen. She made the same dinner almost every night for the past week and a half; chicken with potatoes and asparagus. Of course she was the only one eating it. Her daughter wasn’t old enough to go off of baby formula, and her husband had not been home for ten months. He was a soldier in Afghanistan. She didn’t mind having the same meal every night. She was used to it.

Later, she scrubbed and rinsed the dishes and put them away. After that she would go to the food pantry and sob for sometimes up to hours at a time. She went to her bedroom and put her pajamas on, then continued on to the bathroom and prepared herself for bed. Usually about four or five hours later, she would wake up to the sound of Sarah, their daughter, crying. It takes her about forty- five minutes to calm her down. She then would cradle her sweet, innocent baby girl in her arms and sit down in the rocking chair, which her husband built before he left. She looked into Sarah’s dark brown eyes and tried not to form any substantial tears. It didn’t work to her advantage, though. Sarah looked so much like her father. Madeline didn’t want to admit it, but she had more physical qualities from her dad then she did from herself. She missed him so much, she almost couldn’t bare it. It still wasn’t normal to her; to not have her husband with her, raising their daughter, together. It was what she had to do.

All she could think of was Tony; her husband’s name was tony. They went to elementary school together and years later, they started to reconnect. He was the love of her life. She thought of him every day. What life would be like without him.

In ten days she knew she would finally get to see her best friend again. She was so excited. When she saw him she was so happy. She knew they would be together forever.