It was a chilly morning in Thomasville. The Colonel’s old Chevy truck struggled to fire up for the 8 a.m. wake-up call. After several attempts the engine finally came to life and the truck shuddered and vibrated as Seven pushed the gas pedal to the floor. The old truck exhaled a loud belch and a cloud of smoke and settled into a steady, consistent idle. Upkeep on the truck had lagged since the Colonel’s stroke but the old girl shook off the rust and announced that she was ready to travel.
Seven felt nervous excitement as he rubbed his stump and checked the connection to his artificial limb. Not since the military mission that had taken his friend and his leg had he felt such energy. He had not told Gran so as yet, but he had forgiven her and the Colonel for the lie they told him. As he reflected on it, he knew that it was only done to protect him from what they assumed to be a harmful event in his life. He spent a few sleepless nights considering everything that he had come to know of the situation. He accepted that his grandparents had done what they thought to be the right thing and he considered that they were probably in fact right, at least at the time. He could not recall any time throughout his childhood where he did not feel safe, secure, and loved. He actually felt pity for his grandfather as he considered the burden that the Colonel carried. He was a man of honesty and truth. That was the core and frame from which the great man was built. He recalled that the Colonel fought off the comfort of death long enough to gather enough strength and willpower to emerge from the dark to give him the truth. It was one last heroic battlefield rescue. Seven began his new mission as he did his last. He taped a small scrap of paper to the rearview mirror of the Colonel’s old truck: “Big Bev will always get you home.”
Thoughts and scenarios raced through Seven’s head throughout the two-and-a-half-hour drive to the hospital. The last letter was sent about five years prior. The final letter was barley legible and bounced around multiple crazy theories about secret government missions to kill the author. His father