THE VISITOR
Dog had been with the platoon for a long time now. They were his pack and the old sergeant was the undisputed leader of that pack. Dog knew first hand because he had challenged him once for pack leadership. To Dog, the old sergeant was simply the man.
Dog was the most fear animal in all Iraq. He had been captured and tortured by the Haji and they had attempted to use him against American forces. It had not worked. And Dog had a chance to eat a couple of the enemy.
Dog was the biggest, meanest thing on the block---excepting the man.
The old sergeant was walking across the compound of their FOB when a truck arrived carrying new recruits. And it was a good thing too; they had some wounded to replace and had been short in the platoon for quite some time.
As the recruits piled off the truck the corporal assigned them to their squads and the squad letters would begin their training to make their transition easier for everyone.
The Padre was always present when new soldiers arrived; He felt his being there would calm the newbies and give him a chance to meet everyone. The old sergeant smiled as he watched the Padre work. He had come a long way since he first arrived and now the old sergeant trusted him even in combat.
He started to turn back but something caught his eye. The Padre had pulled a newbie off to the side and was talking with him. The old sergeant wondered if there was a problem but the Padre quickly turned and left.
The old sergeant was even more curious when Dog arrived to sniff out the newbies. He checked everyone of them but when he got to this particular soldier he lay down at his feet and whimpered. WHIMPERED? Dog?
Dog finally got up and ran into the old sergeant’s office. Curious the old sergeant followed.
“Dog? What’s up old friend?”
Dog came over and laid his head on the old sergeant’s feet.
Hummm. Must be feeling a little under the weather, the old sergeant thought.
He sat down, poured himself a Jack and lit a cigar.
Not two minutes later there was a knock on the door.
“Come.” The old sergeant said.
“Oh, hi Padre. Saw ya worken with the newbies. Is all well?”
The Padre just picked up the bottle of Jack and downed a huge swallow.
“Pappy. Something has---something is---I’m sorry.”
“Padre just calm down and tell me what’s wrong.”
The Padre just sat with his head down.
Finally he said, “Pappy we have known each other a long time now. You would KNOW if I was crazy right?”
“Crazy, Padre? You?” The old sergeant laughed.
“Pappy. That new replacement I talked with today? There’s ---something very different about him.”
Something wrong different, Padre, or just --- different?”
“No, no. Nothing wrong. Pappy I have been in the clergy for many years. But never in my life, not even as a novice, have I ever felt so—so ignorant. Not stupid, just ignorant in the Word. Ignorant in love and life.”
“You felt all this in about one minute, Padre? You met a private who literally just fell off the truck and you feel --- all this?”
“Yes. And I can’t explain it. But when I am around him I feel --- loved.”
“Well, Padre, uh. Nothing wrong with that right?”
“Pappy, you don’t understand. Forgive me I have to go.”
And with that he was gone.
Pappy shook his head. Well this private must be pretty remarkable to have this kind of affect on people and animals.
He thought no more of it because the next few days were a whirlwind of activity.
After a few weeks passed, the padre was back. He did not even knock but entered as a man does when he has something on his mind.
“Pappy, have you ever been afraid and then felt your father’s embrace? The fear just flows away? Like when you were a kid?”
The Old Sergeant leaned slowly back into his chair and listened while the padre paced back and forth.
“Like something comes over you—a presence maybe--- and right in the middle of pain and blood and war a peace comes that can not be understood?”
Padre sat on the edge of Pappy’s makeshift desk. “Go on, Padre.”
“That kid—he wears a cloth in his pocket all the time. When I asked him about it, he said it was the prayers of the people back home---a reminder that God his Father was with him.”
“Yesterday, when I went to the green zone to help with the wounded, that same private was there. I looked up and he was looking back at me. I remembered being a kid in a storm, a very bad storm, and I remembered feeling my father hold me and I was safe. It was so real—I could see him and feel him. The kid smiled at me---like he knew too.”
Pappy cleared his throat to cover the lump lodged there.
“Yeah, I have been there. Fear is not expected from an old sergeant like me, but one night I was there. I had killed my first---I was devastated, afraid and alone, and the Father came. At first, I thought it an illusion, but He was as real as you standing there now, Padre.”
“And this newbie: Everywhere he goes there is a peace that follows him.”
Padre looked out the window and watched the guys doing the duty they were called to do.
“Is he – an Angel Pappy? Jesus?”
Pappy sighed. “I don’t know Padre. But He is something ------ special.”
“You have known all along haven’t ya, Pappy?”
Just for a minute, Padre thought he had peeled a layer off the old Sergeant’s leathered skin.
“Well. I can tell you this. The newbie ain’t listed on our personal sheet. In fact he’s not listed any where. He don’t exist.”
“I wonder why He’s here?”
I don’t know why He’s here but I bet He’ll be gone soon.”
The next day while the platoon was on patrol, they stumbled across a big nest of insurgents. The fighting was fierce.
Pappy saw a third squad kid try to find cover across the road and he was cut down in the middle of the street, blood pouring out of him and running into the gutter.
Pappy was about to move forward when out of the corner of his eye he spotted the newbie. He was calmly walking toward the fallen soldier. In fact, He was walking slowly with His eyes focused only on the soldier. Bullets landed everywhere around Him but nothing touched Him.
When He reached the kid in the street he sat down and picked up his head to cradle it in His lap. He rubbed the kids hair like a father might. Pappy could see Him speaking but could hear nothing.
In fact EVERYTHING had stopped.
And suddenly Pappy could see it. Or it might have been the smoke: But he saw Angels surrounding the newbie and the dying soldier. Their mighty swords were drawn in a defensive position and nothing could get by them while the drama unfolded behind them.
The newbie continued to hold they soldier and speak to him in a quiet voice. Tears rolled down the newbies eyes.
Finally, the newbie stood. His eyes looked toward Heaven and He was gone.
The old sergeant felt weak in the knees.
Now they knew why He had come.
To take one of His home: The old sergeant wept like a baby.
By:
Steve Newton
Janie Orman
© 2009