The Soldier Came Home and Froze When He Saw His Wife
Surrounded by 10 Soldiers Outside Their House
The Georgia sun beat down mercilessly on Staff Sergeant Michael Torres as he stepped off the military
transport bus at Fort Benning. After eighteen months deployed in the Middle East, the humid southern
air felt thick and unfamiliar, almost suffocating compared to the dry desert heat he’d grown accustomed
to. His desert camouflage uniform was still dusty from the long journey, and the weight of his duffel
bag seemed lighter than the exhaustion that pressed down on his shoulders.
Michael hadn’t told anyone
he was coming home early.
The original return date was set for next week, but an administrative
miracle had cleared him for immediate departure.
He wanted to surprise Emma, his wife of seven years.
In his mind, he’d replayed the moment a thousand
times during sleepless nights in his barracks, imagining walking through their front door in Columbus. He
pictured seeing her face light up and holding her close without the grainy delay of a video call between
them.
The Uber driver who picked him up from the base was a chatty veteran himself, going on about the
Braves’ latest season and the new barbecue place that had opened downtown.
Michael offered polite
responses, but his mind was elsewhere. He was calculating the minutes until he’d pull onto Maple Street,
until he’d see the small brick house with the blue shutters that Emma had picked out three years ago.
«You got someone waiting for you at home, soldier?» the driver asked, glancing in the rearview mirror.
«My wife,» Michael said, and even saying the words made his chest tighten with anticipation.
«She doesn’t know I’m coming,» the driver grinned. «Those are the best kind of homecomings, brother.
The look on their faces, nothing beats it.»
As they drove through Columbus, Michael watched the familiar landmarks pass by: the Chattahoochee
River glinting in the afternoon sun, the old courthouse downtown, and the shopping plaza where Emma
liked to get her coffee. Everything looked exactly the same, frozen in time while he’d been thousands of
miles away, living in a completely different world.
It was disorienting, this collision of his two realities.
His phone buzzed with messages from his unit’s group chat, guys already making plans to hit up the
local bars, comparing notes on their homecomings.
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