The Navy and Marine Corps Medal.
I hadn’t put the uniform on since Danny’s funeral.
I’d stood at Arlington in it. In the rain. I’d watched six sailors fold the flag off my son’s coffin. I’d watched a Navy captain kneel down in front of Jess and hand it to her and say, On behalf of a grateful nation.
Caleb was two. He sat on Jess’s lap and played with the zipper on her coat.
I came home that night and put the uniform in the garment bag and zipped it shut.
I didn’t think I’d ever wear it again.
I took it out of the bag.
I laid it on my bed.
Then I called Jess upstairs.
She stood in my bedroom doorway. She looked at the uniform on the bed. At the ribbons. At the gold stripes on the sleeve.
