A Little Mending

Oregon, October 1990: War is looming in the Middle East. How bad it will be, how long it will go on—who knows? Staff Sergeant Murphie Dawes made it home on a compassionate leave to get married before it all started for real over there—it was his idea. But she waited for her fiancé at the airport baggage claim . . . and waited . . . and waited. Maybe she should have seen trouble coming, but Murphie never did believe in superstitious things like omens in those stories told by her grandmother. Those were just native superstitions, right? It's only coincidence that Murphie had recently started to see such omens everywhere . . . or maybe this is just the first time she paid much attention. True, she's not the only soldier to come home to something like this, so maybe all she needs is time for a little mending.