{"id":1393,"date":"2022-10-20T15:09:55","date_gmt":"2022-10-20T15:09:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1393"},"modified":"2022-10-20T15:10:00","modified_gmt":"2022-10-20T15:10:00","slug":"back-from-the-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/back-from-the-war\/1393\/","title":{"rendered":"Back from the war"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I feel the air in the room change suddenly, like the slightest breath of a breeze on a summer\u2019s day. The candle flames flicker briefly, almost imperceptibly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s here. Soft, silent, catlike, he crosses the floor, and I pretend to ignore him, pretend he\u2019s not there. After all, I\u2019m not expecting anyone today, least of all him, who I sent off to The Great War many months ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019d promised to come back, in that way that young soldiers often do, filling the hearts of those they leave behind with love and hope. Hope that, sadly, is all too often dashed on the rocks with a letter from whichever Government minister it is these days who\u2019s happy to send others out to die, whilst he sits in restaurants with carefully curated menus spending public funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The arrival of the mail each morning is a daily exercise in dread for all of us. Even those who get their loved ones back find them altered somehow \u2013 the horrors to which they have borne witness see to that without exception. Everyone dreams that their husband, father, son, will return the same as they left, but they never do. Some heroes sit quietly, others lose their tempers at a moment\u2019s notice, or turn to drink and other substances. Settling back into civilian life isn\u2019t easy for any of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of writing letters, I should finish this one to his mother, but I cannot. Not whilst he\u2019s here. I set down my pen, align it with the blotter, and pause. I carefully turn over the paper; not even he should see what is written here, its contents should remain private.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s behind the chair now, I can feel his presence there. Slowly, I sit back, my head coming to rest, and his fingers brush my cheek so gently I could almost believe that it was my imagination. I smile, overjoyed he is back, but not wanting to give away just yet that I know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through the bay window in front of me, the tree is barely moving, but I watch as a golden orange leaf lazily detaches and falls to the ground. Autumn will be in full swing soon, then Winter. It will come too fast, and I shall go through the heartbreak when he leaves again, the perpetual worry that he may never come back. I want to revel in this moment, make it last forever. Home at last, together at last.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I close my eyes and turn my head toward his caress, but there is nothing there anymore. My smile widens, he always knew how to be the perfect gentleman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad you\u2019re back,\u201d I say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A faint hint of a whisper comes back to me: \u201cI\u2019m so sorry, my love.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I open my eyes, there is no-one there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No-one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t fast enough,\u201d the whisper says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tears form, and I pick up the paper again. With heavy heart, I retrieve my pen and gaze at the telegram labelled \u201cMinistry of Defence\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I feel the air in the room change suddenly, like the slightest breath of a breeze on a summer\u2019s day. The candle flames flicker briefly, almost imperceptibly. He\u2019s here. Soft, silent, catlike, he crosses the floor, and I pretend to ignore him, pretend he\u2019s not there. After all, I\u2019m not expecting anyone today, least of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[597,676],"tags":[302,8,118],"class_list":["post-1393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-597","category-oct-2022-the-visitor","tag-back","tag-he","tag-they"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-mt","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1393"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1395,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1393\/revisions\/1395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}