Dorothy Garlock - [Tucker Family] Read Online Free Page B

now,” he explained. “There was a time when I had to make the same choice you did.”
    “You were in the Army?”
    He nodded. “When I first got out of medical school, way back in ’17, it was about the time the United States finally decided to get involved in the Great War. Everyone was so happy about it, all the parades and such, well, I got wrapped up along with the rest, and before I knew it I was on a steamer headed for France. I spent the next year up to my elbows in wrecked bodies and blood. I saw more devastation in that year than I reckon the Good Lord would’ve wanted me to see in my lifetime. I never could’ve imagined it. Still, like you, I knew I provided comfort and care, best I could. But when the time came to walk away, for me it wasn’t much of a choice to make.”
    “You served in France?”
    “Somme River valley…some of the worst fighting of the lot.”
    “My father fought there,” Christina said grimly. “He was badly burned by a shell that exploded close to him and had to spend months in a hospital. He bears the scars to this day. Who knows…you might have cared for him.”
    “I just might’ve. Seems like thousands of faces lay there beneath me on blood-soaked beds and tables. For a long while, after I’d come back home to Longstock, whenever I’d close my eyes to sleep, some of those boys would visit me. Chased me toward the bottle more than once, but it got easier to bear, day by day, till they were finally gone, back in the past where they belong and are resting in their graves.”
    “I’ll never know how my father was able to go on.” In Christina’s view, Mason Tucker had succeeded in leaving his past behind to build a new, better life in the war’s aftermath; she could only hope that every wounded soldier could do the same, though she knew it was wishful thinking.
    “Seems like the battlefields of France have a way of ruining men, not just in my and your father’s war, but in this last one, too,” Dr. Barlow said. “The same thing happened to me—,” he began, but stopped, suddenly.
    “What did you say?”
    The doctor’s jaw flexed, his eyes blinking behind his glasses, before he answered, “Nothing…nothing at all. Now let’s see about introducing you to your new home.”
     
    Longstock was visible to Christina from far to the north of the town; as the coupe sped down a decline, the thick canopy of elm trees parted and the valley below revealed itself. Houses were clustered around a curve in the Carville River, spreading outward for a bit until only a building or two dotted the few fields that led up to the woods. It looked quiet and quaint; except for the faint tendrils of wood smoke that rose from the occasional roof, it looked to Christina as if the town were sleeping.
    “It’s somethin’ to look at from here, isn’t it?” Dr. Barlow remarked.
    “It certainly is.”
    “Just wait till you see it up close. It’s not much in size, but it was the right place for me to put down my surgical bag and hang out a sign.”
    “I liked what I saw from the station.” She smiled.
    “The way we had to hurry out of town, you couldn’t have seen much. Let’s go down and give you a proper introduction.”
    As quickly as Longstock had appeared, it vanished, swallowed up by the woods. Having talked up the town, Dr. Barlow eased up on the accelerator, dropping the car to a lower speed. Winding steadily back and forth, the road dropped gradually before finally settling to run along the Carville River’s banks.
    As they approached town, Christina took a closer look at the fields outside of Longstock. Row after row of trees, all equally spaced from one another, dotted the land. Regimented like soldiers, they marched across flat ground, descended into shallow depressions, and rose up small hills. Some were large, with thick trunks, while others were little more than saplings, their small size supported by boards driven into the ground and tied straight with string. From