East Bound West Bound

Chapter 52

Tropical Surprise

Mark checks in with Carol each have lives to live - apart. -- 1989

If there's something strange in you neighborhood,

Who you gonna call?

Ghostbusters!

If there's something weird and it don't look good,

Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters! –

Ray Parker Jr.– Ghostbusters Pentatonix – Ghostbusters Sound Track


East Bound West Bound

“Carol, It’s Mark, how are you?”

“We are all well. Where are you now?”

“I’m in New York. I’ve been here about ten days. I’ve been in Vietnam for most of the past four months. We’re rebuilding a diplomatic bridge between our nations. It is very preliminary.”

“An amazing change from the days of the war.”

“The Vietnamese people are ready to resume an open exchange with us; we have to be aware of our domestic politics or nothing agreed to will hold up in the Congress. The boys must be little men now.”

“They are excellent learners and have so much joy in their lives. Their exuberance is rather contagious. Did you know there are ghosts everywhere? Brent has been trapping them and Shiloh is assembling some sort of perimeter defense.”

“I may have to question my safety when coming back to Franklin, unless you assure me the spook patrol has been successful”

“The daily report is the ghosts are contained, but I think they must let them out again. As busy as Brent is catching them every day.”

“Carol, I have a more difficult issue to talk about. I have become involved with a woman.”

“Mark unless this woman is holding you hostage, and you need an escape plan. It is not a difficult issue. You don’t owe me an eternal commitment. I didn’t believe the foreign service was a monastery.”

“I have been cautious. When on assignment if an attractive a woman approaches me, it is likely she is a plant. This woman is an American we both have been working in Asia. She is a translator, almost as good as those universal Star Trek translators. Julie has been working with the tense Cambodia, Laotian situations. If I could do my job and be a husband to you, I would.”

“Mark it was my choice, I would love you coming home to the farm every night. It isn’t possible with your career. I won’t leave mine, either. Life with the boys and the close-knit families we have is the best life. No regrets.”

“Julie and I think we could make a marriage work. Our careers would require accepting some separations. She has decided on a career not children.”

“Are you bringing her home to meet the folks?”

“She’s afraid to come.”

“Cambodia sounds a lot more dangerous than Franklin.”

“Julie is African American, she asked me how many Black people lived in Franklin?”

“Mark that’s an easy answer. You can count on one hand with no fingers. People here are not going to be anything but polite. They would be filled with well-meaning insensitivity.”

“Julie is nervous about meeting my parents.”

“I’ve always found your parents to be reasonable and very decent people. You know them best. I would write a letter put in a photograph of you and Julie, then call them. She could stay here I would welcome the opportunity to diversify Shiloh and Brent’s life experience. Maybe she could translate for one of the ghosts, I was informed one of the ghosts didn’t speak English very well.”

“Julie was born in New York and grew up in the UN, she may even know ghost. Her mother came from Liberia to become a doctor and developed programs to expand African nurses and nurse practitioners. Her father was from the Congo. She knows people still are not used to mixed race couples.”

“I guess no one will find it normal, if people keep hiding themselves.”

“Carol you are always my best listener. You even tolerated all my lectures on the Civil War. I continue to love you like no one else, I have been honest with Julie. She simply says she has come to trust me like no other man. She adds there is enough love in me to light more than one candle.”

“Is that some kind of African proverb? I must say Julie isn’t the most African sounding name I have heard.”

“When her mother was going to medical school here, she loved Julie Andrews in the Sound of Music and Marry Poppins. Her birth name is Julie Iléo. I will write my parents, thank you Carol.”

“Julie sounds very accomplished; I hope you make each other happy. You will always be my most special love. In our next lives we can spend more time together.”





photo by Justin Hardecopf