22 December 1988 – East Street, Greenwich, Massachusetts

Jeff walked up to a Colonial farmhouse in Greenwich the following week. He shifted the items he carried in his hands, took a deep breath, and used the brass knocker on the front door to announce his presence. He heard footsteps approaching the door after a few moments of silence.

The door opened to reveal an attractive and familiar-looking older woman. Jeff realized this must be Mrs. Cavanaugh, Colonel Donnelly’s mother. Despite the scowl on her face, it was easy to see where both younger women got their looks.

“You must be Mr. Knox, the wayward, young paratrooper my daughter and granddaughter have been yammering about,” Mrs. Cavanaugh said with a clear tone of disapproval.

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“Not very impressive, for a paratrooper to need to have women come to your rescue.”

“Well, I’ve heard many women find vulnerability in men attractive, Ma’am. Therefore, one must allow one’s self to be rescued by the damsels rather than the other way around once in a while mustn’t one, Mrs. Cavanaugh?”

Alice Cavanaugh couldn’t maintain the façade any longer, nor could she help but laugh at the response. This young man didn’t take himself too seriously. She could tell by the good clothes he wore that he did take meeting her family seriously.

“I can see we’re going to get along just fine, Jeff,” Alice Cavanaugh laughed as she stepped aside, opening the door wider. “Please, come in!”

Jeff stepped into the entryway after wiping his feet on the provided mat.

“This is for you, Mrs. Cavanaugh,” Jeff said, holding out the poinsettia he had been carrying.

“Thank you, Jeff!” Alice said. “Please, call me ‘Alice.’”

‘This young man has been doing his homework,’ she thought. ‘Heather must have told him I liked poinsettias, and I’ll just bet that bag he’s holding has a bottle of scotch for Tom.’ She turned to place the plant on a side table before taking Jeff’s coat.

“You go on into Tom’s den, there,” Alice indicated a door on the other side of the family room. “I suppose he wants to talk to you before dinner.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” he muttered.

Jeff had expected Heather’s grandfather would want to talk to him, but he wasn’t sure he was looking forward to it. He knew Heather told her grandparents all about him, but she hadn’t told him much about them in return. He tried not to walk like a condemned man as he made his way into Mr. Cavanaugh’s den. He wasn’t sure he was all that successful.

Stepping into Tom Cavanaugh’s den felt like stepping into his company commander’s office. There were twice as many items on the ‘I LOVE ME!’ walls, though. Behind the oak desk stood an American flag, a U.S. Army flag, and a dark blue Army regimental flag. Moving as close as he dared, Jeff read ‘504th Infantry Regiment’ on the regimental flag’s scroll.

“Holy shit...” Jeff muttered.

Looking around, Jeff learned Tom Cavanaugh was once Colonel Thomas Cavanaugh. He’d been the final full regimental commander of the 504th Parachute Infantry. A quick tour around the rest of the room told him more about Tom Cavanaugh’s career: he started as an enlisted man, received a battlefield commission, had been awarded the Combat Infantryman’s Badge (three times – World War II, Korea, Vietnam), received a Silver Star, two Bronze Stars for valor, made a combat jump, and was wounded three times.

“All that crap just means I got lucky, son,” came a quiet voice from behind him. Jeff spun around and snapped to attention.

“AIRBORNE ALL THE WAY, SIR!” he barked to the older man in his best parade ground voice.

Tom Cavanaugh couldn’t help but smile at the young man standing before him. Heather was quite taken with him. Jane seemed to be keen on this kid, too. Alice gave him ‘The Look’ when he told her he would be talking to their guest. He decided he should take a softer approach with this visitor than the boys Jane and Heather dated when they were younger.

“All the way, son,” Tom answered, walking over with his hand out. Jeff shook hands and returned to the position of attention. “Relax, son, relax. Come, have a seat.” Tom noticed the brown paper bag in his hand as Jeff settled into his chair. “What do you have there?” Tom asked.

“I brought this for you, Sir.” Jeff held the bag out to Tom. Tom’s eyebrows rose when he saw what it held.

“Jameson Black Barrel? Son, this is too much.”

“Just a token, Sir. Your granddaughter already means a lot to me, Sir, regardless of where our relationship may or may not go. I want to assure you that I am not looking for a quick score with Heather.”

Tom looked at the young man he just met. He was a good judge of character; his sense of Jeff was that he was being honest with him. Alice had already made her decision about the boy, as had Jane. Jeff wouldn’t even be in the house if either of them felt otherwise.

“I believe you, Jeff. What’s your sense of where this relationship is headed?”

“I’ve only talked to your granddaughter for a few hours, but I feel that I’ve grown very close to her. She’s an amazing young woman: smart as a whip, has a great sense of humor, and is absolutely beautiful. We only have ten days before both her semester break and my leave end. Our future goals don’t exactly line up at this point, but I’m hoping we both can relax and at least develop a lasting friendship in that time.”

Tom nodded as he listened to Jeff. ‘This kid gets it,’ Tom thought. ‘He’s well-spoken and has been taught good manners. Too bad he’s probably right about them being together long-term. I hope he sticks around, though, I like him already.’

“Boys! Dinner!” came the call from the other room.

“Come on, Jeff,” Tom said, rising from his seat. “Let’s not keep Alice waiting. She won’t let us have dessert if we’re late to the table.”

Jeff was a regular visitor to the Cavanaugh household over the next week and a half. Heather made similar visits to his house, where his family welcomed her in return. He spent the majority of his second week on leave in Greenwich getting to know her family. It neared the time when Heather would return to Amherst, and Jeff would head back to Fort Bragg.

He and Heather checked out a new ‘brew pub’ in Amherst center on December 30th. It wasn’t crowded when they got there; it was still early enough in the evening that the crowds hadn’t turned out yet. Tomorrow night, however, on New Year’s Eve, the place would be an absolute madhouse. The food was very good, and the pub’s beers were great, but the knucklehead behind him kept bumping into him. Jeff tried to ignore him.

“How’s the calamari?” Heather asked.

“Excellent. Your sliders?”

“The same.” Heather watched the man behind Jeff lean back in his chair, bump Jeff, and not say anything. Again.

Heather looked over at him.“Really?” her look asked. Jeff closed his eyes and shook his head. He was picking up his beer to take a sip when he overheard the jerk’s conversation.

“Oh, I played that naïve little bitch but good. She thought we were boyfriend and girlfriend.”

Jeff’s beer paused halfway to his mouth while the man’s friend asked something he couldn’t make out.

“I’ve been doing her for the past two months. I got what I wanted from her, alright. I dumped her ass today.” Another question. “Yeah, the little blonde bimbo from MIT. Her name? Alice? No, Allison. Allison Newbury, that was it. Yeah, from New Salem.”

Jeff saw red. Allison was one of his best friends. This asshole had used her and then dumped her without a second thought. Jeff slammed his beer down; it sloshed over the edge of the glass. He stood up so fast his chair shot backward, away from him. He wheeled around. The jerk was in mid-lean when Jeff’s hand grabbed the front of his shirt. He shoved the jerk back hard. The man’s eyes bulged as he lost his balance and Jeff slammed him into the floor. The man’s eyes also bulged because Jeff twisted his collar so tight it cut off his air supply. Only Jeff’s grip on his shirt kept the jerk’s head from bouncing off the floor.

Jeff knelt and put his nose in the jerk’s face.

“Wrong place, wrong time, asshole,” he growled. “Allison Newbury is one of my best friends.” Jeff saw movement out of the corner of his eye.

“Sit your asses back down!” he barked to the jerk’s friends. “Karma’s paying your friend here a little visit. You want some? There’ll be plenty to go around after I snap his neck.” He turned his attention back to the jerk. His face was turning blue from the restricted airflow.

“That ‘blonde bimbo’ has more brains in her pinky than you have in your whole body. She earned her way into MIT. She worked her butt off to get there and earn her scholarship. Did Daddy buy your way into Harvard? Be advised, dipshit, that if you ever come near her again, I will put my foot so far up your ass you’ll be able to smell my boot polish. I will then cut your dick off and make you choke on it. Then I’ll get angry.”

“When you’re the assistant night manager at some Quicky Mart somewhere, and you’re begging the armed robber not to shoot you in your pathetic, shit-filled head, that girl will literally be figuring out the secrets of the universe. Fat lot of good your Harvard ‘education’ will do you then. You’re not smart enough to learn anything.”

Jeff slapped the man on the side of his head. A wet stain spread across the front of the man’s pants. A different, fouler odor made its presence known as well. He let go of the man’s collar and stood. The manager and bartender of the pub stood next to a startled Heather.

“I apologize for the disturbance, gentlemen. I’ll put some money on the table and we’ll leave.”

“It’s fine, just go,” the manager replied.

“I’m paying for our drinks, our food, and making sure Sandra gets the tip she deserves,” Jeff insisted before he dropped fifty dollars on the table. “Everything was excellent. Again, I apologize to you, your staff, and your patrons.” Jeff looked down at the jerk still quivering on the floor. “Well, most of your patrons. Heather?”

The pub was silent while they left. Heather said nothing during the walk back to his truck. Jeff unlocked the passenger’s door before holding open it for her. She hesitated.

“Heather, if you’re uncomfortable being with me now, I’ll pay for a cab to take you back to Greenwich.”

She ignored his offer of a cab. “What happened back there?” she asked.

“That jerk was bragging about a conquest of his at college. That ‘conquest’ is one of my best friends from Thompkins. I’ve known her since her family moved here in 1985, and we dated during our senior year. I’m sorry, Heather, but I need to go check on her tonight.”

“Where does she live?”

“New Salem.”

“May I come with you?” Jeff looked a question at her. “What? I was startled, that’s all.”

It was just after seven in the evening when Jeff and Heather pulled into the Newburys’ driveway. He escorted Heather to the door and knocked. Don Newbury answered.

“Hi, Jeff,” the man said in a tired voice.

“Don, we just heard what happened and came to see Allison.”

“She’s up in her room. Dottie’s trying to help her calm down. You two come on in out of the cold.”

Jeff let Heather enter first. He introduced her to Don.

“Jeff, you bring your girlfriend to check on your ex-girlfriend?”

Jeff and Heather shared a glance and smile. “I don’t know if Heather and I consider ourselves boyfriend and girlfriend. We are friends, though. As I explained to Heather on the way here, Don, the operative word is ‘friend.’ Allison was my friend long before we started dating, and continues to be even though our relationship is over. I don’t forget my friends.” Don Newbury nodded at his words.

“Mr. Newbury, would it be okay if I stayed here while Jeff goes up to see Allison?”

“That’ll be fine, Heather. It’ll give me a chance to learn about the intriguing young lady Jeff brought to my doorstep tonight. The one who would go to another woman’s house, her date’s former girlfriend, while on a date with him.”

Heather smiled at Jeff. “Go check on Allison, Jeff. I’ll be fine.” She kissed him on the cheek. “Go.” Don Newbury nodded.

Jeff climbed the stairs, trying to keep himself from running; there was no sense scaring the poor girl upstairs. He heard sniffling when he approached the half-open door to Allison’s room. He poked his head in slowly.

Dottie Newbury sat on Allison’s bed rubbing her daughter’s back. Dottie caught the movement of a head peeking into the room and gently rose. She padded to the door, passing through it while looking back at her daughter. She shut the door and then turned. Dottie gasped when she saw who stood in her hall.

“How’s she doing, Dottie?”

“Jeff? Oh, Jeff!” She wrapped him in a hug. “Jeff, he hurt my little girl! He broke her heart! How could anyone be that cruel?”

“He won’t be doing that again, Dottie. I had a little talk with him tonight.”

“What? How? How did you hear already? We haven’t left the house or spoken to anyone since Allison came home and told us!”

“Heather and I were at the Amherst Alehouse and the jerk was right behind me, bragging about what he did. Or he was until I got in his face and threatened to snap his neck if he ever comes near her again.”

“Jeff! You didn’t!”

“I can find other places to eat when I come home, Dottie. Friends are harder to find. Like I told Don, I don’t forget my friends.”

“No, you don’t, Jeff,” Dottie admitted. “I thought you weren’t coming home this Christmas? And who’s Heather?”

“My lieutenant granted me two weeks leave back on the thirteenth. I have to head back Monday. Heather’s someone I met when I got home, a friend. She’s downstairs now, probably charming the socks off your husband. You should get down there.”

Dottie smiled and put her hand on his cheek. “Allison’s lucky to have a friend like you, Jeff. Thank you.”

Jeff smiled back. “Thanks, Dottie. I’ll go check on my friend now. Be down in a bit.”

Dottie patted his cheek and headed downstairs. Jeff walked to Allison’s door. He opened it to find her still laying on her bed, facing away from the door. Her sniffles told him she was still awake. He walked to her bed. Sitting on the edge of it, he stroked her long, blonde hair. He used to do this when she was upset.

“Mom, what should I do?” Allison asked.

“You can stop calling me ‘Mom,’ first of all.” Allison sat bolt upright and spun around. “Hey, Brainiac,” he said, smiling at her. She threw herself at him, crushing him in a hug. She began to sob, then cry. He stroked her hair again. “It’ll be okay, Allison,” he promised her. “It’ll be okay.”

“No! It won’t!” she wailed.

He pulled out of the hug. “Hey. Allison, hey. Look at me.” She looked him in the eye. “Have I ever steered you wrong?” She shook her head after a moment. “Trust me on this. He’ll never come near you again. We ran into him over at the Amherst Alehouse tonight and I had a little ... discussion ... with him.”

“‘We?’”

“My friend Heather and I.”

“‘Heather?’” Her face fell farther. “I’ve lost you too, then.”

“Hey.” He lifted her chin to look her in the eye again. “I’m here, aren’t I? You’re my friend and have been for years. As soon as I heard what he did, I dropped everything to come and see you. I was ready to drop Heather at her house before I came here, ending our night together. You’re better off without that idiot from Harvard. You haven’t ‘lost’ me, not by a long shot.”

“But I ruined your date!”

“‘Ruined?’ Allison, Heather came with me. She’s from Greenwich, so we’re not far from home, either of us. She’s downstairs talking to your parents.” Allison stared at him. “She asked to come with me, told me to come up here and check on you before she sat down with your dad.”

“She is? She did?”

“Yes. Go wash your face. We’ll go down and I’ll introduce you.”

It was New Year’s Day 1989. Jeff and his family had just finished dinner with the Cavanaugh clan. Jeff and Heather now walked through Alice’s back garden together. Jeff would fly back to Fort Bragg in the morning. Heather would return to Amherst tomorrow night. The night was clear and cold, but they were both New England-born and -raised and were dressed for it. Both were quiet, each lost in their thoughts. Jeff bumped Heather with his hip, causing her to look up.

“What’s up, Beautiful?”

Heather sighed. “I’ve been having such a good time being with you over the last two weeks, Jeff...”

“But that romantic spark isn’t there, is it?”

Heather smiled sadly. “No...” she sighed again.

“So, the question becomes ‘where do we go from here?’”

“Yeah...”

Jeff guided her to a bench and sat next to her.

“We stay friends. That’s what I’d like to see happen. There’s a definite connection between us, Heather. I already know that I love you, though I don’t know if that would ever progress to me being in love with you. You’re rapidly becoming the big sister I never wanted.” Jeff sighed. “Plus, you’ve got a plan for your life – graduate school and a professorship. I’m starting to think of staying in the Army and going to OCS as people have suggested. You followed your mom around for a while before coming to live here, and you don’t sound like you’re eager to do it again.”

Heather smiled sadly again and leaned into him. Jeff put an arm around her and gave her a small kiss on the top of her head. Jeff looked up at the dark sky, picking out the constellation Orion.

’Hey, old friend,’he thought to the ancient grouping of stars in the southern sky. Jeff had taken to talking to Orion when he was younger and felt alone. ’I could use your help on this one. I don’t want to lose this girl as my friend, she’s too special.’

A moment later, a movie line popped into his mind. It was a way to break the tension he knew Heather would understand.

“‘Your destiny lies along a different path from mine,’” Jeff quipped. Heather barked out a laugh, hugging him tightly. Her eyes shone with tears when she looked up.

“You geek,” she said, shaking her head. “You’re lucky you’ve met one of the few women who would recognize that line. But you’re right, Obi-Wan, at least partially. We may not be on the same path any longer, but I do want us on parallel ones. I’ve always wanted a little brother, too, but I never had one.”

“You’ve got one now, for as long as you’ll have me. Your boyfriends will have one hell of a gauntlet to run – your mom, your grandparents, and then me.”

“It’s a deal.”

Jeff and Ken re-entered their barracks room one morning at the end of January. They had a rare weekend off coming up, even for Support Cycle, and prepared for a trip off-post. They weren’t going too far, though. They were only going to Myrtle Beach, a two-and-a-half-hour drive away.

Jeff carried the large box Heather sent him. He told Ken all about her when he returned from Enfield. He hoped to introduce his friends to each other at some point. He made short work of the tough packing tape used on the box. He hadn’t shaken it to try and get a hint at what the box contained because she’d written ‘FRAGILE’ on the outside.

‘Must be Italian,’ he joked to himself.

Jeff noted the two layers of bubble wrap on top of whatever the objects inside were. Bubble-wrap lined the sides of the box as well. Removing the wrapping revealed three separate picture frames. Jeff lifted the frames out of the box, stunned to silence. Ken came over to investigate. He let out a low whistle when he saw what the box contained.

“Wow,” Ken said in Japanese. “You were right, she is beautiful.”

“Yes, she is. She should be up by now, according to the class schedule she gave me. Do you mind if I call to thank her before we go?”

“Are you going to put those somewhere I’ll be able to look at them?”

“Um, yeah?” Jeff replied, not following his roommate.

“Then I’ll wait as long as it takes!”

Jeff shook his head. He picked up the phone and dialed Heather’s number.

“Hello?” came the now familiar voice, one that filled him with a touch of regret.

“Hi, Beautiful,” Jeff said, switching back to English.

“JEFF! How’s my little brother doing?” Heather asked happily in return.

“Much better, now that I’ve seen those photographs you sent me, especially that one of you in the bikini. Wow!” They both laughed. “That was a very thoughtful gift, Heather, thank you.”

“Hey, I figured it would help you get through the cycles a bit easier. You’re on Support now, right?”

“Yeah, for another week or so. Then we’ll be on to Training.”

“Did Ken say anything about the gift?”

“Well, the word ‘beautiful’ did come up. He’s a smart man.”

“You say the nicest things,” she said.

“Sometimes I wonder how I keep finding beautiful women hanging out with me.”

“And, he ruins it, folks. Why should that be a surprise to you? You’re a great guy!”

“Sure, and I couldn’t hold on to a great girl. Again. I know I’m not even twenty yet, but still...”

“We tried, you dumb-ass! The spark just wasn’t there, you know that!”

“Sorry, Heather, but sometimes the regret hits me a little hard.”

”’Regret?’”

“Heather, any man would be lucky to date you, especially long-term.”

“Dufus, any woman would be lucky to date you, as well. Don’t you forget that!”

“Thanks, Heather. I don’t know why I’m putting so much pressure on myself.”

“Just relax, Jeff. I saw something there, as did Pauline and Allison, obviously,” she said, mentioning Jeff’s high school girlfriends. “You’ll get the timing right eventually. Just don’t settle for some floozy!”

“Did you ever try tracking Pauline down, like you said you were going to try to?” Pauline would graduate from UMass in the Class of 1990, as would Heather.

“No, but I think I’ll try to after mid-terms. Now, cut this ‘I’m-feeling-sorry-for-myself’ crap out, or I’m coming down there to kick your ass.”

“Yes, Miss Donnelly.”

“Oooh, now you’re saying that just to piss me off.”