Traveling Soldier

Andrea's Intro

Charleston, South Carolina. It was one of the most busy weeks that anyone could imagine in that city. People would travel to that one city for Restaurant Week because the really expensive places would be relatively decent priced. Restaurant Week was also one of the two weeks that the Army Dogs got a break.

I can remember being so happy when my father came home on leave. The first time he did it, he surprised me by sitting down in a booth at the back of the restaurant I work at and ordering two vanilla milkshakes for us to share. It became our tradition for a few years, but this year will be the first year that I won't get to see him sitting in that corner booth. A month after he went back, he was shot in battle.

The day the letter confirming his death reached my house was the day my heart broke in two.  My mother received the letter in the afternoon, and when I came home after my shift, I saw her crying in the kitchen clutching the letter to her chest. The only things we have left of him are his combat uniform, dog tags, and a folded up flag.

My mother soon shut down completely. She shut me out and moved away the second I turned eighteen. She didn't want anything that reminded her of him, and apparently I was too much like him for her to handle.

I live in the same house where I lived in when my father, mother, and I lived her. My mom helps pays for some of the bills, and I have a steady income so it's not too difficult to keep the house. However, I did kiss college goodbye to keep this house.

The house is beautiful. We designed it as a family when I was sixteen years old. I'm nineteen years old now and living with my German Shepard named Allie. She was a puppy when my dad got her for me when I was fifteen. She's been my best friend since. It's hard to let people in after my father passed, but I just really miss him. He was the one I looked up to most in this world besides God. I prayed for hours and hours that he would just walk in one more time and sit down in my booth once more. Maybe this year will be alright though. I will smile and be the happy girl my father would want me to be, and I will make it through these next two weeks.