Waiting for Her Soldier Read Online Free PDF

other hundreds of automobiles. I thought about all the other people here today to see their loved ones. Some of them would be getting good news, others bad. I remembered what the first nurse I spoke to had said, the phrase she had used: she though Darren was one of the “lucky ones.” How tragic that today some people would be getting the worst news of their lives.
    I tried my best not to think such glum thoughts, but it was hard to do as I pulled out of the parking garage and onto the streets of the town. It was pouring rain right now, the sky a dull, dark grey, despite the fact that it was before noon. The gloomy weather cast a foreboding tone over the day, one of solemnity, more fitting for bad news than good.
    It’s strange, I’d thought Darren coming home would be one of the happiest days of my life, but as it turned out I was plagued by doubt and fear, not because of my insecurities or worries about how Darren might react to seeing me, but because I was legitimately worried for his future back home. It seemed so unfair that a man who had sacrificed so much might have sacrificed his future overseas as well.
    As I came to a red light, I closed my eyes and said a silent prayer for him. All things considered, he was one of the “lucky ones”; he was alive and receiving top-quality medical attention. Many of his brothers in arms hadn’t even made it back to the country that they loved and fought for.
    Loud honks and beeps brought me back from my daydreaming as I realized the light had turned green and I was holding up traffic. I started driving again and pulled out my phone to check for any good breakfast places in the area. I needed something to kill the time, and it was still well before lunchtime. The only thing I’d had this morning was a coffee, after all. A solid meal might be a good idea.
    There was a place with good reviews a couple of miles away. I turned on the GPS and headed in that direction through the pouring rain and dull light of the late morning. Pulling into the parking lot of the small diner, I hopped out and locked the car doors.
    The inside of the establishment was warm and comforting after the nipping cold of the November rain. I found a booth to myself and opened a menu, looking over it thoroughly as I decided what to order. There was no rush, after all, it’s not like I didn’t have time to kill. A waitress came over and I ordered a cup of coffee to drink as I perused the menu for something good to eat.
    The atmosphere of the diner was great and everything on the menu looked delicious; it had exactly the type of atmosphere I hoped I could one day create in my own little shop, quality home-style food in a warm and inviting interior. When the waitress came back I ordered Eggs Benedict and home fries. I saw a discarded newspaper on the table in front of me, so I went over and picked it up, thinking something to read would help keep my mind off everything that was worrying me at the moment.
    Unfortunately, I opened the paper exactly to the world affairs section. More stories about casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. Iran was trying to obtain nuclear weapons. Terrorist threats scattered throughout the Middle East and Africa. I closed the paper and set it down next to me in the booth, nauseated by the headlines I’d read. The world was a dangerous place and it was up to soldiers like Darren to protect us.
    I sighed, knowing that things never change, that there would never be a time when all our soldiers could come home. We would always need people out there defending our country, serving with pride to protect the freedoms so many of us take for granted. After what Darren was going through right now, never again would I forget the sacrifices that had been made, never again would I ever be ungrateful for all that had been done to preserve our country in a world of hostile enemies.
    The waitress was walking back toward me with my order, steam rising from the home fries, the hollandaise sauce looking