Say Hello to the Broken-Hearted (12 page)

No one budged. The objective
s were cut clear. They knew what had to be done, and failure this time was not an option.

“Good…Chopper leaves in 2600 hours…John!”

“Yes sir!” John answered and stood at attention.

“The love that you have is the
meaning of life and we will suffer, bleed and die defending that love. This is war!” The Major affirmed
and walked out leaving the men at standing salute.

The choppers landed at fifty yards south of the Strawberry field and the God Squad made their way to the target site by foot. The war is now and it is the last battle for unconditional love.

“Now listen up. The perimeter is surrounded with guards as expected. We cannot kill them all.
So we will make a breach just ahead, where those four guards are standing. Then make a straight path to the cabin. Do not make an alarm. If you do the entire platoon will be on our asses. Do you understand me men?”

“Yes sir-- Roger that!” They replied.

“We attack in sync. John take the one on the right.”

The squad screeched up on the guards, John, Major, Quaker, Cookie and Stinger nabbed the guards, covered their mouths and stabbed them in the neck. As Cookie covered his mouth, the guard instantly reacted, maneuvered his hands over his shoulders and grabbed Cookie’s head, slammed him hard to the ground and cranked the AK-47 to his face. In a small fraction of the moment two bullets from Quaker’s rifle shattered the guard’s marrow. But it was too late. Another soldier was dead, and now the alarm had sounded. The enemy line approached.

“Shit! He
is dead!” Quaker gave out over-looking cookie’s corpse.

“No time to
waste, the enemy is coming, stride forward--Move! Move!!”

They took path through the Strawberry field, maneuvering in between trees and maintaining pressure to the combative enemy line. Gashing lights and the sounds of heavy gunshots suspended in the atmosphere. Landmines exploded in the distance, the sky colored red and the ground was tainted with fresh blood. In John’s elated eyes, time had stopped. The moment synchronized down to a thousandth of a millisecond and all he could process was the vision of squashed strawberries, the hammering sound of the five point five six millimeter caliber rifle and the smell of gun powder and tri-nitro-toluene in the air. Then the synapses in his cerebrum kicked.

“Come on John, this is war! Squeeze the trigger--fly th
e hammer, let it burn! Its love! That is what we are fighting for.

John shifted behind a pine tree, reloaded and cranked up the rifle, then turned to face his target. A sudden fright and disbelief tantrum through his body. The gun was pointed at the enemy, his aim was center accurate, but he couldn’t do it. To kill your own brother for the sole sake of love.

“Drop your
rifle, don’t let me do this John!” Kevin Steelburg demanded, with his finger gently caressing the trigger of the AK-47 Machine gun.

He never thought of killing his own flesh and blood, but love is a stronger connection and without the slightest remorse he pulled the trigger and watched with widen eyes the blood spur
red from his chest.

“That’s the way it is brother. Love is not unsure.” John stepped over his corpse and proceeded.

“Alright men, we have reached the bottom of the hill. No turning back. Intelligence from the base said the satellites have located five guards outside the cabin.
I’ll take the two at the front, John you take the one at the back, and Quaker and Stinger take the ones at each side.”

“Roger that!” The
y replied.

“As soon as we reach the top of the hill, air-forces will set the strawberry field on fire. We have fifteen minutes to kill the General and retrieve the hostage until black eagle gets here for extraction. Now
let’s move!”

The fire of love burns so gloriously inside. It needs not to be quenched. It needs not to be restricted. What it needs is compassion and mutual fulfillment in order to garner unstoppable momentum. Just allow it to spread throughout the world and heal the broken hearted people.

As John turned to the back side of the cabin, he saw the guard marching towards the other end of the cabin. He screeched up behind the uniformed soldier, pointed his gun to the back of his head and demanded,

“Don’t move
! Drop the weapon or you will be dead before you could say if!”

“John, what are you doing?” Jennifer
Williams asked and turned to face her son. John overwhelmed with shocking dilemma, took a few steps back.

“Mother is that really you?” John asked.

“Yes it is me!” She replied and quickly pointed the semi-automatic glock forty to his face. “Put your rifle down or I’m afraid I’ll have to kill you.”

“What? Wait, are you serious?
You would kill your own son?”

“You heard me” His mother
assured.

Standing in front of a gun.
The woman behind the trigger is your mother. Drop your weapon or shoot for love?

“Love is not unsure,” He thought, “If
it’s not unconditional, then it’s not worth it at all.”

A man’
s heart is not made of iron. He recognized pain, even if he only shed a single tear as the bullet shattered the chest of his mother. The enemy must not stand in the pursuit of happiness.

John breached the door and thrust in sideways. He hadn’t enough time to raise his rifle to target. He would be dead if he tried.

“Drop it!” General Gibson ordered and he subdued.

“You are…” John began to say.

“Yes
it’s me, the same one and you have fought a losing battle.”

“This is wrong. The woman does not love you!”

“You know nothing! Her love for me is real and in my life she will remain, now say your last words.” Joseph raged.

“You will never keep us apart!” John said.

The general cocked the chrome Smith and Wesson revolver and smiled. “It’s over!”

As he squeezed the trigger, John thrust to the ground, on his way do
wn he pulled the Heckler and Koch nine millimeter from his hip and fired two shots, one to his head and the other to the left atrium of his heart.

John stood over him and watched the blood drained from his body. “Love is powerful, it honors and it destroys, you found yourself on the wrong side of the bullet.”

He heard a mumbling from
behind the closed door. Without further a due he opened it and at the center of the room, Karla Steelburg was tied to a chair with her mouth gagged.

He released her bondages. The two lovers reunited in arms and passionate kisses, rekindling the fire of unconditional love they had found.

John lifted her chin in order for her eyes to meet his “I missed you so badly Karla.”

“I thought I would never see you again John--I thought you were…” Karla stressed,
“Oh My God look--You are bleeding John! Are you ok?”

“Yeah I a
m fine,” John placed pressure to the wound on his left side, “The General couldn’t shoot for shit…and baby, nothing, I mean nothing can ever keep me away from you, Ever!”

“I love you John.”

“I love you too… now let’s get out of here.”

Chapter 16

      
The
day was rather still. The zephyr humbled the trees and the wicked sun evaporated all the energy out of life, leaving the evening to mourn over the stiff corpse of boredom.

Maybe it was the torturou
s heat, but it took John twenty-five minutes, rather than the usually fifteen minutes to arrive at Karla Steelburg’s house.

“Nice hat!” She uttered on seeing him approach the patio with his face three quarterly covered with a straw hat.

“It’s no use!” He admitted.

“Neverthe
less it makes you look like a chivalrous country man from the nineteen seventies.”

John smile
d at her witty compliment, and held the hat to his chest.

“Well thank you Mam, you are extremely gorgeous if
I may say so, and your usually well-kept attire is ravishingly exquisite. Make a cowboy’s heart races if I might add.” John remarked in a musty deep southern country accent.

“Stop, please stop. That’s the worst country accent I have ever heard.” She laughed, “Sit down silly and give me that hat.”

She tooted the hat and sunk it to a tilt fit on her head.

“Now how do I look Master Steelburg?” She asked in a much refined country accent than what John could ever afford.

“You look stunning Madam. Perhaps this evening I will trod my way to your
mother’s house,” He stood and stretched his hand for hers, “And with utmost pride and not a single shred of prejudice, ask your mother’s permission for your hand in marriage.” His forced accent was a bit more smooth but still not eloquent enough.

Her phone rang. Louise
Watson came up on the caller ID.

“Speaking of the devil.
What a coincidence! She hardly ever calls.”

“Well answer it. See what it is about.”

“Hello! Yes mother.” She edged through her teeth, whatever it was she had a slight notion that it wasn’t welcoming.

“Hey Karla, How is my daughter doing?” Miss Watson asked.

“I am fine.” She abruptly replied. It’s obvious she had no interest in her wellbeing.

“What have I ever done to you?” She asked, “Why don’t you ever call?”

“Well I figured you are doing fine and frankly, I just don’t have much to talk about.”

“Well if that’s how you feel, I
guess I have no business calling you then.” The ambivalence in her tone was rather pitiful.

“What is it mother?” I know you didn’t call to just chit-chat.”

“Well to be honest…I heard some rumors…”

“What rumors?” Karla asked in a voice that carried a feisty connotation.

“Well let me finish. I know it’s practically none of my business and you are a woman now. Nevertheless, I think it would be, as my mother would say, a travesty and a down right scandal if it’s true that you are dating your cousin.”

“Now hold it right there mother!” Karla interjected strongly.

“What’s wrong?” John’s curiosity pleaded.

“Nothing, nothing really.”
She deflected.

“Karla
listen to me.” Her mother pleaded for her attention.

“No mother! This is not the time.
Look, I plan to come by the house for some of my stuff later. We will discuss this when I get there, ok?”

“Ok, if you insist…later then.”

“Ok bye.” Karla flatly ended the conversation.”

“Wow! That seems
provocative…” John implicitly begged for enlightenment.

“
It’s my mother. She only calls when it’s about money or rumors, more often money than rumors.”

“Oh…ok, and what was that about?” John asked.

“She knows about us…Thought it was necessary to give a grown woman relationship advice.” She shrugged and rolled her eyes, “This woman that calls herself my mother had not contacted me in five months,” She stressed, “Five months! And now she wants to meddle in my affair, oh please…”

“Well, I guess asking her permission for your hand i
n marriage is out the window huh?” His dry humor didn’t cut the tension.

“Don’t worry about her…She is not important.” Karla afforded.

“You know it’s funny, I had a weird dream last night.”

“Yeah, what was it about?”

“I dreamed that I was a soldier apart of a special task force. My mission was to rescue you from the enemy line that held you hostage for months.”

“So did you rescue me?” She subtly asked.

“I killed everyone that tried to stop me. In the dream, when I found you, it was the happiest day of my life.”

“A
ww…that’s cute, but when you found me did we do anything?”

“What do you mean?” John asked, “Do what?”

“Do you want your hat back?” She teased.

“Of course.
As a matter of fact that hat belongs to my grandfather.”

“Well if you want it
, come and get it.” She replied and ran to her room.

John walked to the room door and realized it was locked. There was no way to get in.

“Can I have my hat back please?”

“Come and get it if you really want it!” She uttered.

He walked to the rare side of the room opposite the garden and saw her standing at the window in the straw hat and nothing more than an unbutton white silk shirt.

She held the hat to the back of her head and with her right hand she
twirled her nipples, walked her fingers to her clit then licked the pussy juice from her pointer finger, then turned and walked out of sight.

“I need my hat!” John uttered, looked to the ground then instantly realized that there was
a handy enough boulder right at his feet.

The window glass shattered. The splintering
sound triggered a shocking ‘aww’ in her disposition and before she could gasp for air, he lifted her into his arms and electrified her body with kisses to her lips. The prince gently laid her against the bed, flung the hat to the ground, and removed her silk attire.

“
Let’s do it all again.” John subtly demanded with a smile.

“As if it never happened.”
She delighted.

“As if
it’s our last….”

Chapter 17

         
The
dusk poised a sincere tranquility. The twilight rays refracted the glass window and below the rainbow the two lovebirds chattered away.

“You are the best John, E-V-E-R”

“What are you talking about Karla?” He flattered, “That was nothing.”

She laughed, “You are so cocky.
I am going to have to take you off your high horse.”

“I am the high horse--real stallion here baby.”

The pep talk and laughter transcended into a prolonged silence after which Karla finally opened.

“John--”

“Yes?”

“I am worried about the baby.”

“What’s bothering you?” He asked, “Is something wrong?”

“
It’s just that we are cousins--what if…”

“What if it comes out
retarded?” John finished.

“
It’s not impossible. I heard somewhere that when a child is conceived by close relatives the chances of deformities are higher.”

“Honestly, I have thought about it too,” John replied, “But don’t worry about it. We are only second cousins, the baby will be fine…trust me.”

“I trust you John.” She sighed, “I have faith in you and I. Everything will be ok.”

“That’s my baby.” John encouraged.

“I think it’s a girl John.”

“
No way, it’s a boy and we are going to name him after me--John Steelburg Junior.”

“More like John
Steelburg the second. Since we are acting like the English Bluebloods. Karla jeered and he laughed.

“Good one.
A royal family, how about that?” John alluded.

“Very
farfetched,” Karla asserted, “Besides I am positive it’s a girl and her name will be Katherine Steelburg.”

We will see….we will see.”

Beep--beep---beep.

“What’s that?” John asked.

“Oh, that’s my alarm snoozing.” Karla affirmed.

“I promised my mother I would come by the house.” Karla confirmed, “I have to
go John. It’s already six o’clock and it’s only getting darker.”

“Sure, no problem, you want
me to drop you around there?”

“No, I am fine, besides I wouldn’t want another--you know what.”

“Confrontation?”

“Yeah, that.”

“Ok, I understand, so I guess I will see you tomorrow then?”

“Yeah, most definitely.”
Karla affirmed.

“Ok, call me…Later.” John replied as he opened to leave.

“Hey! Don’t forget your hat.”

“Yeah thanks…How could I forget my hat…
”

Chapter 18

Karla
Steelburg arrived at the door of the wooden house that she spent most of her adolescent years. Suddenly flashes of memories of being raped reconciled in her head. It felt like it happened yesterday.

When Karl died, life for Louise had taken on a complete
ly wrong direction. The sufferance had become a miserable ordeal which toppled the distress in both their lives. They were in the depth of despair when Louise started to get close with Steven Richards. A friend of Karl, who was just another small time farmer in the remote civility. He had been generous enough to take them into his small but suitable two bed room studio.

Karla gazed at the withered orchids in the flower bar hanging by the window panel. She re
membered when they were young and had purple blossoms.

“Life goes on, things change, sometimes we lose our essence but we keep walking anyway.” She thought.

Before she could knock, the door went open and a five feet three inches, one hundred and twenty pounds woman with a face carrying wrinkles of a sixty two year old that had more than her fear share of hardship approached her.

“Hey!” Louise gave out in a semi-excited tone.

“Hey… I am here.” Karla struggled and managed a light smirk.

“I never thought you would.” Louise continued, “It has been so long since you left.”

“I know…For a long time I convinced myself that this house doesn’t exist, that it didn’t happen.”  She walked pass her mother, went to the center of the living room and sharply stared at the walls and furniture.

“The wall wa
s still painted blue, the shattered mirror was still hanging below the broken clock…The burgundy couch, and the loud screams were miles away from open ears. The tears were dried but the pain was still an unbearable agony.” She was still feeling sorry for what had happened.