Do Over

Do Over

Private First Class U.S. Engineer Corps Frederick O'Reilly stepped down the steps of the train onto familiar ground. Eighteen long months from the time he left. Basic training and special engineer training followed by a heart rendering tour of duty behind front lines shuffling the wounded and the dying from wrenched trenches to overcrowded tent hospitals left him a changed man. The war to end all wars was finally brought to an armistice on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. American troops in Europe were sent home. Frederick arrived just in time for a new start in a new year in South Dakota.

His seven-year-old little sister, Maggie, came running to him, her red-golden curls tied up in a ribbon flying behind her. He had to drop his duffle bag to catch her as she flung herself into his arms. “Oh, Freddie! I couldn't wait for you to get home. I'm too glad to see you. I missed you so much!”

He gripped her as he kissed her temple. “I missed you so much, too! You have grown a lot! But you feel so good.”

“Adeline and Mama are here, too. They haven't grown but I bet they will feel good.”

“So I see. And I can't wait to feel them, too.” He let her slide down to the ground as his mother approached and he held his arms out to her.

Leona stepped into his arms and clung to him. “Oh, Son. Thank God you made it home all in one piece. How are you? You look so manly but maybe too thin. You must have been through so much.”

“Yes, yes, I have been through a lot. I've seen things I wish I didn't have to see. But you have been through even more. I finally got your letter telling about Pa's illness and death. How are you managing? Are you okay?”

“It's been hard but we are getting along. We'll tell you all about it when we get home. Adeline is waiting patiently.”

The dark-haired son looked over his mother's golden head and saw the smile with the twinkling dimples that had sustained him through countless cold nights and days filled with relentless artillery bombardments. He released his mother and held his hands out to the raven-haired girl of his dreams not sure if she was still his. She eagerly took his offered hands and pulled him toward herself. “No need to be shy with me. Greet me like you're glad to see me after all this time.” She entwined her hands behind his neck as he stooped to claim her lips.

Oh, how often he had remembered her sweet lips from that day he went away! Now he was back he never wanted to be separated again. Will she agree to go back East with him as he completes his engineering education?

They piled into Adeline's small Buick coup for the thirty mile drive to the ranch. Luckily this winter was nothing like last year's record setting snow fall so the narrow roads were passable. Chatty Maggie couldn't wait to share every scrap of news she could remember since he joined the army. She filled him in about her brother's antics and the hard work they did tending the crops and animals. Adeline offered a quip now and again and asked about his experiences. Frederick answered as decorum allowed considering his audience but he kept a leery eye on his silent mother.

How much wasn't she telling him? How distressed was she at the loss of her husband, his stepfather? How overwhelming were the demands of the homestead and the children now there was no man to shoulder the burdens? Would he even be able to return East or should he stay to ease her stress?

“Oh, and Blue Bird and Clifford are in lo-o-ove! He wants to marry her and move into Mr. and Mrs. Lammert's house and milk the cows. You know the poor old couple died of the sickness, right?” Maggie barely took a breath between her stories but Fred had been thinking about his mother's worries so had tuned out some of her endless stream. But this was news.

“Do I know who Blue Bird is?”

“She's the laundress my father found to help with the chores. She's been helping everyone on the ranch and when the Lammerts passed last winter Clifford Miller, one of the sheep herders, started helping with the milking and they got to know each other better. His dad and brother still are able to care for the sheep. Blue Bird brought her father, Black Feather, from the reservation with her because he has the same affliction Hattie had at the end and couldn't be alone. Still, he is learning how to milk the cows and even look after the sheep at times.” Adeline clarified.

When they arrived at the homestead Fred's four half-brothers, Daniel, Hugh, Ralph and Stuart, came spilling out of the farmhouse eager to greet their brother and hear of his adventures. Following behind them came a smiling Raymond McCormick, Adeline's father and owner of the large ranch their farm sharecropped on. Seldom had Fred ever seen the dapper gentleman inside their home.

After the tall man hugged his daughter and shook Fred's hand welcoming him home he wrapped his arm around his mother's slender shoulders to lead her into the house.

Once everyone was settled into the for-company-only parlor Mr. McCormick addressed the shocked look on Fred's face.

“Don't be so alarmed, Young Man. You see, once Patrick sacrificed his life caring for Jan and Hattie Lammert though their unfortunate illnesses and deaths from the Spanish flu last winter and fell victim to it himself, I started to watch after your family a little closer. I became increasingly attracted to Leona's charms. Her strength through all of the trials has been astounding.

“The boys certainly stepped up to the challenges and have grown into fine young men. I know about Adeline's interest in you and I heartily approve. As the man of this household, it is yourself that I should address to ask for your mother's hand in marriage. I believe she is in agreement.

“So what do you say? Could we have three new beginnings here on the ranch? Clifford and Blue Bird over at the dairy farm, Leona and myself up on the hill with the boys and Maggie, and Adeline and you right here once we fix the place up a bit and the two of you return after your schooling out East.”

Frederick, the would-be-heir to the house of Habsburg in Austria, looked over to his mother, Leona, the one time princess of Austria, and discovered a rare smile gracing her aristocratic features making her even more beautiful and matching the portrait of her Archduchess grandmother hanging above the spinet piano next to her. “New nations have been created, empires have crumbled. Even the cousin I met overseas no longer has a throne waiting for him. Yes, I believe we all could be reinvented and are overdue for a renewal.”

The youngsters all jumped up and down shouting, “Yeah! We're getting a do-over!”