Here’s the winner of the Ladies’ Home Journal’s first-ever essay contest:
Sunrise is poised on the horizon, but in this small room, darkness still holds sway. Beyond my home in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, on a pine-dotted, red-dirt range, soldiers are already training with the artillery. I’m on the verge of falling back to sleep when I hear glass shatter on tile. I sit up, but no other sound comes from upstairs, and worry takes over. I hurry from the room and take the stairs two at a time, my cotton gown billowing behind me, trepidation gathering. I reach the stair landing and hurry down the hall, where bathroom light spills into the hallway.
I open the door and the scene slices through the last of my morning haze. Scott is on one knee in his ACUs — shorthand for army combat uniform — towel in one hand, wiping the floor. The smell of spilled cologne permeates the small room. He looks up at me, eyes darting from the shattered glass on the floor to my face. His hands shake. “The artillery startled me and the bottle slipped….” His voice trails off. I nod understandingly, and the truth hangs heavy in the room, unspoken.
War is hell, even if you survive.
Winner Tammy Dominski has written of war at home before. Few do it as well. Read the full piece here.