chapter 14 ~ epiphany

                                    

                                          
THE NARRATOR
On the front lines of the War, James was fighting for his life. After sending Betty the letter, his heart felt a little less broken, a little more healed. But this was the War he was facing, and it did not have mercy.
The officer in charge of his barracks was yelling now.
"Keep your helmets on! We're heading out now!" He slapped James on the shoulder. "Keep your life, son. We've lost many a valuable soldier to War. Hang on." James nodded, gulping anxiously.
"Let's go, men! Low and fast assault!"
As they crawled up the beaches, James was shot within seconds, scarlet burgundy red rising up from the wound on the same shoulder the officer had touched earlier. James' buddy gasped, running to his friend and catching him before the fall.
"Sir!" He called the officer. "Sir, I think he's bleeding out!" The officer looked down, eyes wide.
"Jus-just a flesh wound. James, here's your rifle." James' head was pounding, and his shoulder felt like hell itself rested in the bone and blood.
James' friend brought him back onto the boat, went out and fought the Enemy, thinking of how he served with James, and how with him he would fall. 
In one room of the hospital, there was the soldier, barely holding on. In the one next door, a woman was dying. Someone's daughter, someone's mother, is holding their family member's hand through plastic, sobbing.
"Doc, I think she's crashing out!" A nurse yelled out, quick and short.
James' eyes fluttered open as another nurse quietly walked in.
"Hello, Private. You can get back to sleep. We believe you may only have 20 minutes." She drew the curtains and set a pitcher of water on the windowsill.
"Tell her...tell Betty I'm sorry." His voice was slurred by pain.
When James died, he melted into the beyond, dreaming of epiphany, one final single glimpse of relief.
And so with 20 minutes to sleep, he found his epiphany.