Years of risking his life in service for his country came down to one moment for Weston Smith. An entire lifetime after the Second World War, his small home town banded together to create the perfect memorial showing their appreciation and pride. The streets were lined with red, white, and blue streamers, traffic blockades were in place, and the biggest stage he had ever seen was erected in his honor.

            In his humble mind, all the fuss was a little too much for Old Man Weston. The Mayor of their little slice of Heaven drug him from his family and home at sunrise the day of the ceremony to show him all their hard work. They walked through the streets of the town talking about the stage built by Weston’s longtime friend Jimmy Walton, the decorations set up by volunteers from the local technical college, and the picnic table as long as the Mayor’s very own house (which was rumored to be the landing place for 12 pie plates full of Mrs. Picket’s Triple Cherry Doozie Pie).

            Walking along, admiring everything in sight, one thing caught Weston’s eye in the glowing morning sun. A picture of a soldier returning home met with the loving arms of someone he’d left behind made his heart flutter. For a moment, he remembered the feeling of anticipation, coming home with fantasies of huge gobs of people with thankful tears in their eyes as he stepped off the ship. The face of his beloved Nora Parker stayed etched clearly in his mind the entire way home. Despite all that had happened, he still held a tiny shred of hope that she would have a change of heart. Within the same instant, he also recalled the stabbing pain of arriving amid a crowd of strangers.

            The Mayor excitedly pulled Weston along the sidewalk to some other display of old war photos and ribbons and decorative paper but the image of that couple so in love lingered in his idle mind.

            After the trips up and down the streets of his town, the rest of his morning was filled with everyday tasks. Weston returned home to his wife who naturally gave in to her curiosity about the impending services. “What do the streets look like?” she would ask out of the blue. Immediately following her question, she’d reason with something along the lines of “Dotty said you can’t even see Main Street; they blocked it off so far back.”