“Duke,” a male’s voice interrupts the silence that had filled the waiting room for the past several minutes and I glance up to find a small thin doctor standing a few feet away. Forcing a smile at him, I slowly stand up with Daisy to walk up to him to find that he stands a couple of inches shorter than I with thick gray hair and penetrating dark blue eyes. “I’m Doctor Aggle, I’ll be Luke’s doctor.”

I nod as I once again fight back the emotions that fight back and forth within me as they have been through the couple of hours that we have been trapped within the waiting room, waiting on word on Bo and Luke. “How is he, doctor?” I slowly ask, afraid of the answer he will give us.

“Well, I’ll tell you this first, Mr. Duke. Luke is a very strong and lucky man to still be alive after what he had just went through and the injuries he had suffered,” he pauses to refer to his clipboard and back at us, “With that said, Luke is badly beaten and bruised. He had been shot in the lower stomach and with the degree that it had began to heal, had been shot some time ago before he was able to receive the help he needs. Meaning he lost a lot of blood and the area is pretty badly infected. Lucky for him his captors wanted him alive and had tied a cloth to that area to cut off the bleeding, otherwise he would have bled to death,” he pauses to let what he had said to sink in, “though as I said, he did lose a lot of blood from his shot wound and from other cuts. He’s also lucky in the fact that the bullet didn’t hit anything vital or damage anything vital within him. In other words, his captors are smart and knew what to do to injure him enough to stop him, but not to kill him.”

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Staring out through the open window, I silently feel the warm spring breeze blow in while my thoughts jump back and forth within me to stir the thick emotions that has been boiling thickly within me through the past couple of days. Emotions of fear and sadness as my imagination constantly works within me to draw vivid pictures of what the bleak future may hold for my oldest nephew. Of what the future holds for all of my family as they continue to roughly digest the unspeakable news Luke had told us only a few days ago. That he was being deployed to Iraq. The thought sends chills running rapidly up and down my body in fear even though I knew there was a large possibility that this could happen ever since he had joined the Marines. But it was something he wanted to do, something he felt like he had to do in order to fight for something that is right. Afer all we all live freely and happily in America, shouldn’t he, who his healthy and fit, be willing and ready to defend it? For the past three years he has trained and worked hard at being the Marine he is today, and yet here I stand still in shock at the truth. That Luke’s leaving within an half hour to travel half way around the world to fight in a violent war to face and look death in the face daily. Giving us with a little ray of hope of ever seeing him alive again, meaning I may lose my nephew to a war I know little about.

“Oh Jesse,” Daisy comes up from behind me to give me a tight hug from behind, “Luke is trained and ready for this. This is something he feels he needs to do.”

“I know. But I’m not ready,” I shake my head as I glance at the clock, “Where is he? We need to get going.”

Daisy shrugs. “He was looking for Bo. He went to the barn to check,” she finally replies, “you know he likes to hide there if he’s going through a hard time.”

“And he’s going through a hard time,” I sigh remembering the fight they had last night, “I don’t know how he will handle it when Luke leaves. I mean he has a hard enough time when Luke is on base here in the U.S. not alone knowing he is fighting in a war half way around the world.”

Daisy nods. “Cooter says he’ll try to take him out tomorrow to the races. Perhaps get him thinking of something else. Though I doubt that will work,” she pauses, “if it is like it was when Luke moved on base, he’ll lock his self in his room, refusing to get out.’

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