The locket

The locket

Mommy there are men at the door that look like daddy my three year old Isabelle said. I rushed to the door sobbing and holding my breath, iss he dead I asked them thinking the worst. No mam he is alive and will be coming home soon, they handed me a medal of valor and honor and a black book that was bound in leather. They said your husband is a hero .When they left I opened the book and saw it was his diary since he graduated from officers school. I opened it and immediately began Reading it, too Isabelle. It stated.

May 5th 1810 We just graduated and it’s the first time we are allowed to put a pencil to anything or have any outside contact in three long years I am hoping that my short drafts will make it to my sweet wife Melanie I pray you are safe and warm. Today we graduated and to our astonishment none other than Napoleon Bonaparte came to see our graduation, and to pick a few good men to be under his charge. To my surprise he picked me. He said I had a lot of drive and took orders well. He worked with me all day.

May 12th 1810I have worked with Napoleon all week he has really taken the time to teach me leadership skills he said that there is a lot of me that reminds him of him and that I have a lot of raw talent, tomorrow will be the first time we will actually face the Turks. I am looking forward to seeing if these new leadership skills have paid off in a real scrimmage I can’t wait, all night I feel like a hero the way I am treated, top of the world.

May 13th 1810 what started out to be my best and greatest day has become the hardest day that I have ever lived. We were taking charge of what should have been a losing battle and the odds were against us. The men that were in my charge have taken orders well when I faced with a life or death situation. One of the Turks had hit sergeant Ambert and as I was seeing to his wounds when the Turk came charging at me I had to take his life right in front of me. I had to look him in the eye and then take his life. I know that I had killed other men this day however, seeing his life go devastated me.

At that point I had to stop reading I knew that reading this diary would be difficult and I was reading it to Isabelle however, all that Isabelle had to know was that her father loved her and that he will be coming home soon. In fact all that week I had a hard time reading as if something inside his diary would hurt us so,I put off reading it for a few more days however, once I accepted it and picked it up again I could not put it down.

May 17th 1810 All week long I have been grateful to be in this French army under his excellence Napoleon and my leadership skills even to me have gotten strong. Soon I feel anyway, I will be on my own to prove my worth to my country apart from my dear friend Napoleon although this would not be my wishes.

May 25th 1810 As I knew it was coming it did today Napoleon rode up to me with a concerned but trusting look in his face and he said Luke I am proud of the man you have become. I need you and feel you are ready for this assignment. My good friend Captain Riggs is in a most strategic spot in a meadow surrounded by mountains and he has been hit hard. He has about 500 men at last count and has been fighting off nearly 2000. I need you to pick 1000 of your best men and help him regain control. He handed me some letters that my dear sweet wife had written me and out of one of them fell a locket.

I opened the locket,only to see a picture of my beautiful wife Maria as well as one of our daughter Isabelle now three that I had not even known has existed. my heart dropped as I wiped tears from my eyes. “It would be an honor”,I said.

“ I continued reading”

May 27th 1810 although we have made good time in our pursuit, it has already been two days. My thoughts were mixed between my charge with these Valliant men and my dear sweet wife And daughter.

“Luke is what they call me now“

Luke stands for Luetinet Kriench It stuck even before officers school even before making luetinent because everyone knew I would.

“I’m the longer Known as David “

In these two days we have gone about 45 of fifty miles and my men are tired as well as myself. I have made a decision to camp for the night and to join Captain Riggs in the morning. It has been raining most of the time ,my men are cold and wet.

May 28th 1810 We rode the last ten miles hard and fast knowing that time was not our fiend,although we had no idea what we would face.

We arrived in the meadow on the Northside of the mountains about 12:00 it was beautiful. I could see what a strategic spot it would be when we captured it. There were mountains on the northside where we came in and mountains on the south side, 5 miles away. There were trees that line the east side, and the Westside from mountains to mountain. As I gazed out at the Meadow, I saw lush emerald green grass swaying gently in the breeze. I saw swampy areas that we need to avoid.There were numerous places that we can build a strategic fort Because of the 5 miles between the mountains, I could see how one would easily be alarmed if an intruder was to come down from either mountain range And between the trees ,there was at least 3 miles from east to west. Wild flowers of every color, shape and size grew rapidly throughout out the meadow including sunshine, yellow daisies and sky blue forget me nots. The sent in the air reminds me of lavender and the mountains were still dusted with snow caps. 2 miles into the center of the meadow, and I finally caught up with Captain Riggs

Odds were not good and Captain Riggs had already lost 50 men this morning although he was being devastated, he was grateful to see us arrive.

Captain Riggs was burley man with a red beard and huge hands and chest. He had a smile even in a crisis.and made me grateful to be in his service; Captain Riggs, what is a battle hardened veteran, and the lines on his face seemed to express the heat and the cold that he had endured for many years. The scar on his left cheek was a story all it’s own. His piercing blue eyes seem to bore right into my soul. His worn leather gloves seem to show-years service and sacrifice

We fought like dogs today and seemed to hold our own. At the campsite we bragged on each other and we really got to know each other he said that he had been under Napoleon’s charge for about ten years. He told me that there has never been any greater man to fight this man’s war and I agreed.

June 2nd 1810 For the last two days we have fought well and have taken advantage of our enemy, to the point we feel that any day now we will be the victors.

The thing I look forward to the most is the campsite at night with my dear friend Captain Riggs we talk about our future and brag that Napoleon will always keep us together once he sees our strengths together.

We are now down to 800 men and are facing 700 at most Captain Riggs said the odds have not been in our favor since he first took ground here. Captain Riggs brags of his family as I brag on mine. Tomorrow he says, we should be able to end this scrimmage

I was grateful that Luke, found the locket and that he now knows of his little girl Isabelle And I was grateful that he found a good friend in Captain Riggs.

June3rd 1810 We wake ready to take our prize when to our devastation and dismay the Turks have joined with 3,000 more men devastating our chances of survival.up until this day we have fought with honor the way our hero had taught us both although our odds were more than three to one. Upon recognizing deceit, we hurried back to camp.We were ambushed by a band of Turks and one of them jumped in front of my horse and cut right through the flank of his shoulder throwing me to the ground. I jump to my feet embarrassed and ashamed swinging my sword at anyone that came near me. I was surrounded by at least ten Turks and felt like I would soon die, when all of the sudden Captain Riggs came racing on his horse and he leaped from his horse landing on a least five Turks. He got to his feet, swinging his sword and killing many. I swung my sword and it looked like we would survive when all of the sudden Captain Riggs fell to his knees he had been stabbed from behind. The Turk that stabbed him smiled as he jumped on his horse and rode off I remember his gold tooth the most.

After he left I said, hold on buddy I’ll get you safe. Just then sergeant Ambert came by with camp blankets and helped me to get Captain Riggs on his horse and to the campsite where he could be looked over. I continually told him to hang on, “reminding him how we would be together fighting off enemies in the future and how far we had come. Captain Riggs would gain and regain consciousness only to say a few words and then passed out cold again.

I knew I would soon be burying my buddy and saying good bye would be hard I propped him up and said “stay with me Captain Riggs”

His last words to me were “my friends call me Steve” ,and then he died. I had to bury my new friend that night it was one of the hardest things I ever had to do.

Although we all knew we would be dead in the morning, everyone at our camp acted like we would be the victors. It was a somber celebration, although, everyone was in good cheer. However, that night when everyone was asleep I lay there in my cot, holding the locket to my chest ,thinking,I broke a promise to my sweet wife. I would not make it home alive. Tears rolled down my face. As I went to sleep but, “that night I did go home,at least in my dreams.”

She was standing by the porch when I arrived It was about 6 o’clock at night, blue sky, and clouds Awesome I distance. There were yellow and red leafs for 100 yards from the trees that lined our drive way. She dropped the cloths on the porch and we ran towards each other, leafs flying out from under our feet until, we met in the middle, embraced and fell to the ground and the leaves blew out from under us.

June 5th 1810, The men in our camp woke up with courage and valor. No one mentioned defeat. They shot off the first cannon right in the heart of the Turks camp, killing many and that gave us more courage. We charged at full speed towards them as it would be our last effort.

All of the sudden from out of nowhere my hero Napoleon charged with 2,000 men from behind us. Riding with my hero again brought tears to my eyes and I told him about how Captain Riggs died last night and what a good friend he had become as well as how hard it was to bury him. We flanked up through the trees on each side of the Turks and positioned men in most strategic places in order to fight the battle of a life time and what would seem like a losing battle with them having over 3,500 and us with only 2,600 or so until, we hit them from behind surrounding the Turks and gave them battle.

The Turks fought back hard although. It had become our day and we now had Napoleon on our side. A day where we should have surely died if it weren’t for our rescue.

Finally they surrendered and we would be building our fort. I asked Napoleon if he would mind if we named the fort after the bravest man I ever knew Captain Riggs. Napoleon said that would be an excellent idea so fort Riggs it became. I am coming home honey.

I woke to the same day Luke described in his dream. The same sky and the same leafs lay on the ground and all day long I stared out the window hoping and praying he would be there soon. Three days passed and I frequently looked out the window, and still nothing. Then about six o’clock that night I saw him arrive.I dropped the cloths and went running towards him, as he ran towards me.We embraced and fell to the ground holding each other close and the leafs blew out from under us and I never let him go.