Blood is thicker than water, a phrase that is supposed to bind families together. An interesting concept don't you think? Todger65 was the editor for this story, I liked his work so much I asked if he would edit this one for me as well. I do hope you enjoy your read.
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It had taken twenty six years for me to finally say my life was my own and I was damn well enjoying it.
Oh what it is to tempt fate like that because you know life is going to stick it to you in the most gruesome of ways it can think of. I was sitting in the officer's lounge reading some reports when my Base Commander's adjutant sat down next to me. Instinctively I stiffened, when the mountain comes to Mohamed you know the world is going to end.
"Martin I need you back at the office in twenty minutes."
With that he got up and left and that sinking feeling started. When I arrived I was sent straight into the base commanding officers office; the regiment's padre was stood to one side of my commanding officer and between them they tore my life apart.
My brother and his wife were in a car accident, and as he spoke he also slid papers across the table towards me informing me I was being placed on immediate compassionate leave. Neither of them knew what to do when I declined and asked if I could be dismissed. The soldier in him nodded and I saluted and left to return to my room.
The thing about the forces is that we look after our own, even when we don't realize we need looking after. The padre came by, my leave papers in his hands, and I listened to him as he gave me the speech about love and family. I then told him about my older brother and his bitch of a wife who spent their lives making mine as miserable as they could until I was old enough to get out from under and eventually join up.
He then played the only card he had left, Jodie.
"I have read your file; Jodie now has no one but you. There is no other living relative in her life."
He saw me waiver.
"At the moment Jodie is being looked after by a neighbor. She needs family at times like these."
I knew I was toast, so when I finished nodding my head in the right places I was on emergency leave. It still took me two days to get to my brothers house, and Jodie was sat on the porch as my rental car pulled onto the drive. I had watched her grow until she was six and then once more for a couple of weeks when she was ten. Now a fifteen year old, she watched as I left the car and sat next to her on the porch; we both sat looking down the drive like we expected someone else to turn up.
"You don't say much do you Uncle Martin?"
"I'm sorry for your loss Jodie."
This time she looked at me.
"It's your loss too Uncle Martin, he was your brother and my mom was your sister-in-law, nothing can change that."
This wasn't the time though for the conversation that should follow what she said. My brother was a bully he took me in when mom died, but only because felt he had too. The bitch he married resented me even more than he did and the efforts I took to keep out of their way were never enough.
We busied ourselves with the funeral arrangements and had the funeral a week later. His neighbors and work colleagues attended and shook Jodie's hand offering their condolences as best they could to a fifteen year old. They weren't sure what to make of me, as it seems up until last week no one other than Jodie knew I existed.
The reading of the will was quicker than even I had expected. Jodie got everything on her nineteenth birthday, that girl was going to be very rich at a very young age. All the administration of the will was to be handled by my brother's lawyers, and they made it clear that I was to be given an allowance for Jodie's upbringing and her education. Once Jodie had decided what University she wished to attend then the lawyers would get involved.
Come her nineteenth birthday the lawyer's would get involved again and that's when the rest of the estate would be handed to her. Jodie sat and listened although I'm not totally sure she took it all in. To me, a lawyers office isn't somewhere I wanted to talk to Jodie about her life, so I waited until we got back to the house. By the time I had got us a soda and a coffee Jodie had changed into a one piece swimsuit and sat with her feet dangling in the pool.
"Can you think of anyone who would take you in until college?"
The look I got from her made me think she was going to cry, what she said next made me realize how much I had hurt her.
"You don't want me?"
"Jodie you're fifteen and if not already then soon will be in need of a mother figure. I'm single and a career officer in the military, I would be dragging you from base to base, you would be living your life as an army brat."
Remind me never to play poker with this one, all she did was listen and wait for me to finish painting her a very realistic picture of what her future would look like for the next few years until she went off to college and then she lifted her hand towards me ready to shake on it and said 'deal'.
How I managed to back myself into this corner I will never understand and most of that night I went over it as best I could remember, and still didn't see it coming until she hit me with it. The next day Jodie either sat and listened or sat out by the pool as I spoke to the base admin people and sorted out a place for us both to live. The lawyers were pissed that I was taking their charge all over the country with me, but since she had agreed they had little choice.
The house was let and all the furniture was placed in long term storage. The lawyers refused to sell the house since it now belonged to Jodie and was considered an asset, they had no choice then but to let it out. When I brought Jodie back to base and showed her our new home she was like a kid in a candy store. I'm sure the padre had some input, because the day had not even ended before a steady stream of our new neighbors came on by with dinner in a dish for us both.
I still heard her cry herself to sleep at night and began to wonder if she was really going to be able to handle her new life and was she telling me the truth. The tour of the base and shops took her to a sort of comfort zone and we enrolled her in school that same afternoon. The base children her age soon came by and to them she was one of their own, I knew they had her back at school and for the rest of the week we just hung out, with me showing her the mall and other things she may need.
Over the week I did notice one thing and still kick myself for not noticing it sooner; not once had she mentioned her mom and dad at all since we had left California. Still being a male of the species it took a reminder from the base padre's wife that Jodie was growing from a girl to a young woman. She came on by and took Jodie shopping, when they came back she had two bags with the name of the local drugstore on it, everything else was in brown bags and she was bright red when she passed me and headed for her room.
With my leave up I returned to duty, Jodie was speechless the first time she saw me in uniform. For the first three months things went as smooth as I figured they could. Jodie had the padre's wife on speed dial and once a month they went shopping, I never asked and she stopped going red when she passed me with her bags heading for her room.
Orders came down for my unit; we trained hard and the neighbors closed ranks and looked after Jodie when my team needed to be away for a night or two. It helped that Adele Richards next door to us had a daughter the same age as Jodie and when I went away they took her in. The reason for the training became clear when I was called into my boss's office. When he was done I walked over to admin and signed everything I owned over to Jodie.
Three days later she watched as I placed all my personal belongings in my room, I said goodbye to Jodie and she wouldn't let go until she dragged a promise from me that I would come back. It was the first time I had seen the little girl in her, since we sat on the porch of her house before the funeral of her folks. We came back four months later, older wiser and one man down. Jodie never left my side throughout the funeral.
As I sat on the couch that evening she brought me a coffee and slid in next to me.
"Now I understand why my mom and dad's death didn't hit you so hard."
She had caught me in one of my more unguarded moments, I had just lost a very good friend and she was comparing her own father to my friend. Hell she was old enough, so I told her everything, from the death of our mom to the reluctance her father, my own brother, had to look out for me as I handled the loss of our own mother. The vicious vindictive things both said and the verbal but never physical abuse both gave me.
The pattern of abuse increased when my sister-in-law found herself pregnant. To them I was a worthless piece of shit that was taking up room and eating food and the sooner they could get rid of me, the better they could live their life and not have me under their feet. The happiest I had ever seen them around me was when I finished high school and headed off to college. It was my involvement in the ROTC course that eventually had me sign on the line.
Hell they even had a civil word to say to me. Goodbye.
It wasn't something that Jodie should have to hear as none of it was her fault. Yet she sat and listened to me talk and didn't interrupt me once. As the silence started to become uncomfortable for us both she leaned over and kissed my cheek, I felt her tears as she did.
"I'm not going to say sorry Uncle Martin since I was too young to know any of this. I'm glad you took me in though, and thank you from the bottom of this girls heart."
She never mentioned her folks again, I'm not sure if she stopped just around me or completely. I felt like shit that I had spoken out, and tried to make it up to her as best I could, even suggesting she talk to the padre's wife. Jodie just smiled and hugged me saying nothing. I watched her as best I could; going to each of the school functions to check how she was doing.
