Liberty

Starsky meets a new friend and learns a lesson about loss.

The image before him was startling, almost haunting. It was a man, an older man with wildly tousled gray curls. An old man. It was him.

His reflection in the polished black rock was spooky. Made even more so by the names carved into the stone that distorted his image. Making him look like a ghost peering out of the depths of this giant tomb stone.

David Starsky stood on a platform before a traveling replica of the Vietnam memorial. The memorial was a scaled down version of the original, that traveled around the country. The latest stop on the tour was a park outside of Bay City, a park dedicated to veterans of foreign wars.

Starsky had come to the park today, alone. He wanted to remember, alone. He wanted to face the demons that he had refused to face all those years ago, alone.

*Pity party, table for one*

Starsky chuckled to himself at that thought. The war was so long ago. It was 2005 for heavens sake. He, and Hutch, were both barreling straight ahead from fifty something directly into sixty something. They had a good life, they had each other, but sometimes the memories that were brewing just under the surface of his psyche threatened it all. If he closed his eyes, he could still feel the sauna like heat of the jungle. The sounds, sights, and scents of that horrible time frequently invaded his dreams. He needed to remember in order to try to forget.

So, here he stood, reading the names of all those who didn’t make it home. There were so many names. So many names. Suddenly, something bumped into his left leg.

He looked down into a pair of soulful brown eyes belonging to a tiny little girl.

“Well, Hello there miss.”

She smiled up at him. The smile causing her eyes to twinkle. She looked to be about three years old, with dark skin and braids in her hair. The red ribbons in her braids matched her red dress and sneakers. She carried a small American flag in her right hand.

Starsky knelt down to her eye level, “What’s your name lil’ lady?”

The child hesitated for a moment, chewing her lip, before responding, “My name’s Liberty, what’s yours?”

“My name is Dave, pleasure to meet you Miss Liberty,” Starsky said as he playfully bowed before her.

The little girl giggled. It was such a joyful sound.

Starsky scanned the crowd, looking for anyone who seemed to be looking for this child. He saw no one.

“Where’s your mommy and daddy?”

“My mommy is back there,” she pointed a chubby finger into the crowd at the other end of the monument. “My daddy lives with Jesus.”

Starsky didn’t know how to respond to that, this was only a little child, so he said the first thing to come to mind.

“My daddy lives with Jesus too, ” he said.

The little girls impossibly big eyes grew even larger.

“Really, did he go to Iwak?”

Starsky had to think about that one for a second or two.

*Iwak…..Iraq!!*

“No sweetie, my daddy didn’t go to Iraq. Why do you ask that?”

Liberty looked at him with a slight frown, “My daddy went to Iwak, then insteada’ comin’ home, he went to live with Jesus, on accounta Jesus was lonesome.”

This statement, innocently made, made Starsky’s heart hurt.

“Lets you and me go find your mommy, OK, I bet she is getting worried about you.”

“OK,” she said as she raised her chubby little arms, waiting to be picked up.

Starsky lifted the child, until she was cradled in his arms, and they were eye to eye. He started walking back in the direction that Liberty had come from, looking for anyone who appeared to be searching. He had walked about halfway the length of the memorial, when he was nearly run down by a young, African-American woman. This lady was in obvious panic, tears streaming down her face, at a dead run. She looked up at him and almost collapsed in relief when she saw the little girl in his arms.

“LIBERTY!!!!”

“MOMMY!!!”

Starsky handed the little girl over to her relieved mother. “I think this belongs to you.”

“Oh my God, where have you been?”

“I was talkin’ to Mr. Dave,” Liberty said, glancing back at her new friend.

Her mom looked at Starsky and said, “Thank you, when I realized she wasn’t beside me, my heart almost stopped.”

“Yes maam, little ones can get away from you in a blink of an eye.”

As Liberty’s mother hugged her tightly, she whispered “Thanks” once more and turned to walk away. Starsky started to walk back the other direction when he heard Liberty shouting for him.

“Mr. Dave, Mr. Dave.”

He walked back over to the mother and child, and Liberty held out her tiny flag.

“You take this, to ‘member me by,” she said.

“Thank you. I don’t think I’ll ever forget you little one,” he said, taking the gift.

He flashed her a patented Starsky grin, and it was returned immediately.

As he walked away, his step felt lighter than before. He didn’t go back to reading the names on the wall. Instead he returned to his car, anxious to get home to Hutch. Before starting the car, he tucked Liberty’s flag behind the rear view mirror. He smiled at the memory of this tiny soul who innocently spoke of her own loss, making his losses and memories seem less daunting in the process.

As he drove away from the park, he knew that he was on the right path.

The End