Chapter 11 - THE FATHER I NEVER EXPECTED
My father died when I was nine.
At least, that's what I'd always been told.
He had served overseas.
My mother said he never came home.
I grew up with a photograph of him in uniform and a folded flag in a wooden case.
One afternoon, Evelyn invited me to lunch.
Nathaniel joined us.
He brought an old photograph album.
We sat in a quiet café.
Nathaniel opened the album.
He pointed to a photograph.
Three soldiers stood beside a helicopter.
One was Nathaniel.
One was Jonathan.
The third was my father.
I stared.
“That's him.”
Nathaniel nodded.
My eyes filled.
“You knew my dad?”
He signed slowly.
Very well.
He told me that my father had served alongside him during a difficult deployment.
He'd been a medic.
Kind.
Stubborn.
Always the first to volunteer when someone needed help.
I began crying.
Nathaniel waited.
Then signed:
Your father saved my life.
I stared.
“What?”
He explained that during an evacuation, my father had helped carry him to safety after the explosion that damaged his hearing.
My father was injured during the same mission.
He died months later from complications.
I covered my mouth.
Nathaniel reached into his bag.
He removed a small envelope.
Inside was a photograph.
My father holding a baby.
Me.
On the back, he'd written:
NOELLE, MY LITTLE STAR.
I began sobbing.
Nathaniel's eyes filled.
I tried to find you after the war, he signed. Your mother had moved. I didn't know where.
I looked at him.
For years, I'd wondered whether my father had remembered me.
May you like
Now I knew.
He had.
