"Hello?" Walker answered his cell phone. He was on a break when his cell phone went off and he could only wonder what was going on at home now. So many things had been happening lately, the last thing he needed was another surprise.
"Walker? It's me," Diana said, the tears in her voice evident. He immediately presumed the worst.
"Diana? Diana, what's wrong? What happened?"
"You need to come home right now."
"I'm in the middle of working, what's going on?"
"No, you need to come home right now. Just leave now." He could hear her crying.
"Is it Isaac?" he asked.
"No," she said. "It's Taylor." He sat down.
"Taylor? What happened, I thought he was�"
"He's home." A weight lifted off his shoulders. "I don't know how and I don't know why, but he's home." Walker smiled.
"I'll, um, I'll be home in fifteen minutes." Diana said goodbye and hung up the phone, walking back into the messy living room where the kids sat. Taylor was talking to Zac, who was sitting next to him on the couch.
"Man, you weren't kidding when you said you cut your hair," he said, grinning at his little brother. "You really butchered it."
"Look who's talking, mister," Zac said, nodding to Taylor's nearly bald head. Taylor ran his hands over his head, trying to remember what it was like with hair there. It'd been so long since it'd been shaven off with no mercy, not even as much as warning before it was brutally taken away from him.
"Yeah, well, I'm growing it back. I'm sick of this crap. I have the ugliest looking head�" Zac laughed. "Well I do! And so do you; you better grow yours out too."
"I actually kind of like it like this. I don't have to worry about it, don't have to take care of it, it's just kind of there and not there at the same time." Taylor laughed but Zac grew serious. "Taylor, why are you home?" Taylor sighed, his smile fading.
"I knew you were going to ask that," Taylor said. "I was just hoping you'd at least give me time to settle in before you did so."
"Well if you don't want to answer, you don't have to."
"Why are you home?" Taylor asked.
"You told me to."
"And you actually listened to me?" Zac snorted.
"You're the only one I listen to anymore." He felt a smack on the back of his head. "Oh, and of course you too, honey. Taylor, did I introduce my girlfriend?" Taylor raised an eyebrow.
"Girlfriend? You never told me you had a girlfriend." Zac got another smack on the back of his head.
"Hey! Stop that!" he said. "Anyway, although you don't deserve it, Madison this is Taylor. Taylor, this is my girlfriend Madison. She'll be staying with us until I go back on tour." Taylor said hello and Madison gave him a smile.
"Speaking of tour, I wanted to talk to you about that." Zac nodded. "How about we go in another room?" Zac stood up and Taylor followed a bit behind. They went into the dining room and sat down at the table. Taylor sat down and Zac didn't notice that he put his leg up on another chair.
"So what's up?"
"Zac, whatever you do, you can't stop touring." Zac looked at his brother, strangely. "You have no idea the impact you have over there. People worship you over there. In some places you're the only hope. Your songs are on all the time, they're constantly talking about you, you are like, everything to the soldiers over there."
"Wow," Zac said, sitting back and thinking about it. "Really?"
"Oh yeah. You're huge over there."
"So what does this have to do with you and my tour?"
"I want to join you." Zac smiled.
"Really?" Taylor nodded. "Sure! That'll be awesome!" Taylor looked around to make sure they were still alone.
"Come here, Zac."
"What?"
"Come here," Taylor said, beckoning him over. Zac walked over and Taylor put his leg up on the table. He pulled up his pant leg and showed Zac his scar.
"Holy shit, Tay, where'd you get that?"
"Didn't I tell you in my letter?" Zac shook his head. "I could have sworn I did�wait, was any part of it blacked out?" Zac nodded. "That must have been it. I wonder why they blacked that out�it doesn't matter. It was pretty bad, and I don't want to talk about it but I got shot maybe the second or third week I was there. They had to operate and everything and I spent my last couple of months there in the hospital from complications with it. After a while they said my leg was good enough so I could go back into the fighting, but then I started getting flashbacks and they said I wasn't 'mentally sound' enough to go back. After a lot of tests and such, they said I wasn't sound enough to even be there so they sent me home."
"What does that mean?" Zac asked, sitting down again. He kept his eyes on the horrid scar that Taylor had on his leg. That thing would never look good again.
"They think I'm crazy so they sent me home. If I don't show any improvement I'm supposed to see a psychiatrist here, but I'm fine. I was fine there and I'm even better now. I just didn't complain because I really wanted to come home. I made it just in time, too."
"Are you really okay, Taylor?" Zac asked. Taylor nodded, putting his leg down and putting his pants back in order again.
"Yeah, man, I'm just fine. I'm happy being home," Taylor said. "But enough about me. How are you holding up being home? I know you haven't been here in ages."
"Well, I was doing all right until this morning. Jess got pissed off at me and we were screaming at each other in the kitchen. She's still mad, Mom had just come in to stop it when you rang the doorbell."
"What'd you do?" Zac scratched the back of his head, lowering his head and looking away.
"I kind of, um, made her watch Zo� while I went out and had sex with my girlfriend," he muttered under his breath. Taylor burst out laughing and Zac couldn't help but smile.
"You actually made her watch Zo� while you went out and had sex?" Taylor asked. Zac nodded. "How the hell�where was Mom in all of this?"
"Mom had been up all night and me and Madison had gotten up early, so I sent Mom off to get some rest and me and Madison were the only ones awake. We were getting hot in the kitchen when Zo� comes in and interrupts us. I'm still ready to go and I wasn't about to let something like the presence of my little sister stop me, so I ran upstairs, dragged Jess out of bed and told her me and Mad had to go to the store and she needed to watch Zo�. The only problem was we never made it to the store�never even made it to the car."
"Where'd you go?"
"Tree house." A look of disgust came over Taylor's face.
"You did it in the tree house?" Zac nodded. "Ugh! My childhood is gone now! I'm surprised the thing didn't crumble into pieces up there, it's so old." Zac shrugged.
"It's still nice inside. The outside isn't so great but inside it's still the same ol' tree house. I haven't been in there since�since forever ago! My childhood is gone too. Don't worry. So many childhood memories in there�all gone because me and Mad got horny." Taylor shook his head.
"Well," he said, "at least you didn't do it in the car."
"I couldn't of, that's not my car! That's just rented for the tour. I don't care how bad I get, there's no way I can do it in that car." Taylor shook his head.
"Look at you, all grown up." Taylor reached in his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and immediately Zac's mouth dropped. He didn't seem to notice as he put one to his lips and fumbled around for a lighter.
"Taylor?" Taylor looked up. "What the fuck are you doing?"
"What?" he asked, taking the unlit cigarette from his mouth. Zac nodded towards the cigarette. He looked at it. "Oh. Well, when you're up to your knees in marshes in freezing weather, you do what you can to keep warm. I guess it just became a habit after a while."
"You know you can't smoke in here anyway," Zac said. "The girls are allergic as all hell to any kind of smoke. You'll send them all to the hospital." Taylor thought about it, trying to remember, and put the cigarette away.
"You're right. I'll have to do it outside later." Zac shook his head. "What?"
"If you ruin your voice doing that shit, I am so going to kill you." Taylor shrugged.
"You swear too much and you're threatening me. I thought you were supposed to be a hippie."
"So I swear a little bit," he said, shrugging, "There's nothing wrong with that. I don't do it around my fans."
"I'm a fan." Zac gave him a look. "And you're not a very good hippie at that; you chopped off all your hair and you dress too conservative. Where are the scarves and open vests?" Zac rolled his eyes.
"Okay, so I got rid of my hair. I'm not about the fashion, I'm about the music and everything else that has to go with being a hippie." Taylor's eyebrow immediately went up.
"Even the drugs and free sex?"
"Well, free sex, yeah of course," Zac said, smiling. "Not so much drugs." Taylor nodded.
"What about pot? Do you smoke pot?"
"No! I'm not stupid."
"Hey, you never know. We have tried it a few times before�"
"Yeah but that was just trying it." Taylor opened his mouth but he was cut off as their father came in the room. Taylor's eyes lit up and he embraced his father immediately. Zac left immediately; he was going to do it anyway.
"So, you've quit hogging him, have you?" Diana asked as he came back into the room.
"Yeah, I can only take so much of him at a time. Dad is hogging him now. Don't worry, Mom, you'll get your turn." Diana smiled as Zac sat down. They were happy for the moment, until they looked around and realized they were still short a person.
Christmas morning was rather bittersweet for Zac and his family. After the excitement of Taylor's homecoming died down, they all remembered that Isaac was still gone and they hadn't heard a word since his first letter. It'd been six months since they'd heard from him and there had never been a period in his twenty-one years of life that he'd done that.
Taylor was surprised that even though his family had no idea he was in the country, they'd still gone out and got him presents. They'd gotten Isaac presents too, but his remained unopened until he would get home�whenever that was. Madison had even given him a present; she said she'd bring one "just in case." Her one for Isaac also remained unopened under the tree.
Zac opened his present from Madison last. He had no idea what she had in store for him, but from the grin on her face it was either really good or it was a really good gag gift. He opened it carefully, just in case something was going to pop out at him, and when he got rid of the final wrapping, he found himself staring at the back of a picture frame. He glanced at Madison and carefully turned it around and was surprised to see the picture inside of it. It must have been years ago, back on the first tour he did with his brothers. He was backstage, wedged in between his two older brothers on a small couch, asleep on Taylor's shoulder. Taylor had his arm around his little brother, giving him a protective kiss on the forehead, and Isaac looked to be brushing Zac's hair out of his eyes. He looked quizzically at it, confused. He hadn't remembered ever doing this; the arena didn't even look familiar, and most of all he wondered how Madison had gotten this picture.
"How did you�" he started to ask.
"It was after a late show, me and my connections, I'd gotten a backstage pass again. I saw it and I thought it was so adorable so I took a picture. I never thought it would come out as great as it did."
"I don't even remember this, I don't remember the couch, the arena, nothing�"
"Let me see," Taylor said. Zac handed over the picture. He looked at it and smiled. "I remember this. It was the first show of the tour. You were so exhausted you fell asleep right away. I'm surprised you don't remember the couch, we were wedged in it for hours." Zac shook his head, dazed. As simple as the gift was (he only had about a million pictures of him and his brothers) it was the best gift he'd ever received in his entire life. Unable to handle it, he got up and left the room. Madison looked at him, slightly confused, and got up as Taylor showed the photo to his parents. She ran after him and he was already up the stairs and in his room. The door closed nearly in her face but he hadn't seen her follow him so she wasn't offended. She waited a moment, confused by the muffled sob that was coming through the door.
"Zac?" she asked, lightly knocking on the door. "Are you okay?"
"Just a minute," she heard. She waited for the door to unlock and open. Zac turned away as soon as it was opened and he sat down at the desk, facing the window and away from her.
"Are you okay, baby?" she asked, closing the door behind her. She walked over to Zac and he finally looked at her. His eyes were red and wet from crying. "I didn't mean to make you cry, honey."
"No, don't apologize. Thank you," he said. "That's the best gift I've ever gotten." She smiled, beaming with happiness. "Come here." He pushed his chair out and allowed her to sit on his lap. "I love you, you know."
"I know."
"It's just�damn I miss my brother. It's been six months! How come I haven't heard from him? I mean anything could have happened to him over there. He's such a pure spirit, I don't understand how he could do something like that, be in a war over there. He's not a fighter and he's probably wasting away. When he comes back, if he comes back, he's not going to be the same."
"Honey, there's nothing you can do about it."
"No, there is something I can do about it. I'm sitting here on my ass not doing anything while he's out there fighting his heart out. I'm bringing him home!"
"Zac, what's the likeliness of that happening? If you've learned anything from history, you know that the music didn't do a thing to stop that war. It just inspired the people to have hope that their family will come home one day."
"Where is this coming from?" he asked. "You don't believe I can do it?"
"No, Zac, I don't." He looked at her, blatantly offended.
"Get up."
"Zac�"
"Get up." She stood up and he left quickly. As he ran down the stairs he put his coat over his sweater vest that she wanted him to wear and grabbed his keys off the table. Madison ran down after him.
"Zac, stop it. This is silly." He stopped and turned around.
"You think getting my brother home in one piece is silly?" he asked. "You think war is silly? I'd like to see you over there."
"No! I don't think war is silly! I think you barging out like this is! I'm stating the truth and whether or not you want to believe it is up to you. I know the truth. I know that music alone isn't anything but inspiration. You yourself cannot stop this war." He huffed and adjusted his coat.
"I'm leaving," he announced to the amazed family in the other room, watching the two of them.
"What are you doing?" Diana asked.
"I'm proving her wrong!" he yelled, pointing at Madison but looking at his family before he turned and left, slamming the door behind him.