It was nearing dinnertime the next evening when Zac came home. He wasn't able to walk so he was wheeled to the couch and dumped out onto it (quite literally, Madison tipped the chair and he rolled onto the couch) and set up a bed right there. Madison made him dinner and things were going good for everyone.
"How's your soup?" Madison asked, sitting in the chair adjacent to Zac's couch. He was watching the tape of Davis's inauguration and eating Campbell's soup, nuked with love by Madison, and seemed pretty content doing so.
"It beats army food."
"Nice you think so highly of my cooking."
"What? All you did was pour it out of the can and stick it in the microwave." She gave him a look. "Moron."
"Shut up."
"I think we're going to have a hell of a time once we get married." She nodded. "Well, of course, I'm expecting home-cooked meals every night when I've come home from a long day at the office and all."
"My ass, we're both going to be working all day. You'll be lucky to get soup from the microwave. It'll be more like McDonald's every night on the way home from working long hours with the President."
"True." The doorbell rang.
"I'll get it!" Madison called out, getting up from her chair and running over to the front room. She opened the door and grew confused. "Um, can I help you?" she asked.
"Who are you?" the man standing on the doorstep said. He was dressed in khaki pants and a polo shirt, his head buzzed and his hands in his pockets. It surprised her. Everybody knew who she was. She hadn't gotten one of those "who are you" remarks since�since a long time ago.
"I'm Madison. Who are you?"
"Maddie! Who's at the door?" Zac yelled from the couch.
"I don't know!" she called back, her head turned to the interior.
"I'm Isaac." She froze. She slowly turned her head back to the man in front of her.
"You're Isaac?" she asked. "Zac said you weren't coming home! Excuse me, come right inside." She opened the door fully and allowed him inside. "Mom! Dad! Come down here right now!!" In a moment Diana and Walker came running down the stairs, thinking Madison was in some kind of dire emergency, but only found her with a stranger in the foyer.
"What's going on?" Diana asked. "Who is this?" She turned to Isaac.
"Hi Mom," he said. Her eyes immediately lit up and she ran to her son. She threw her arms around him.
"Oh, honey! My little boy I didn't even recognize you!" Madison smiled and left the room, going back to the living room where Zac was lying. He was sitting up, trying to look back to the foyer, but not getting having any luck.
"What's going on?" he asked.
"Isaac's home."
"Are you serious? They must not have let him stay in Korea." Zac returned to his soup. "Well, things couldn't possibly get any better, could they?"
"Do I detect a hint of sarcasm?"
"I believe you do."
"What's wrong?"
Zac sighed. "I know that he doesn't want to be here, and as much as I may not want to say it, I'm not quite sure I want him here either. He's not my brother any longer and he probably never will be again. His presence here will just remind me of that."
"Give it some time," Madison said, looking into the foyer where Taylor had just engulfed his older brother in a hug. "Maybe after a couple of days of being with his family he'll turn into his old self again. When he was in Korea he was that person and you met that person, but now that person is gone and he's back here where he was before. It's just a matter of time."
"All I know is that it's going to be weird for a couple of days and I'm going have to view it all from right here on the couch. I wish I could go to my room."
"I'm not helping you up the stairs. Maybe Isaac can carry you up there later." Zac shivered. "Zac? Are you cold?"
"No�no it's not that." He shook his head. "That was a pretty quick inauguration speech. You were right. You all looked like you were frozen to the core." Madison ignored the fact that he was obviously changing the subject. She was sure it was some kind of memory from war and she didn't want to get into it. What Zac did when he was over there wasn't something she really wanted to know about.
"Yeah�"
Just then Isaac came into the room. Zac looked up from his spot on the couch, bundled up in a blanket with stitches out the wazoo and still not looking quite himself. His medication was making him sick and he tried to hide it but it was obvious that he'd thrown up a few times just that afternoon. Isaac noticed right away.
"How are you doing?" he asked, sitting down on the chair near Zac's couch.
"To tell you the truth, I've been better," Zac said. Madison cleared her throat loudly. Zac looked over and she gave him a look. "Oh, sorry. Ike, this is my girlfriend Madison. Madison, this is Ike."
"Nice to meet you," Madison said.
"You too, although it feels like I already know you. Zac doesn't shut up about you." Madison glowed with happiness.
"Really?"
"Oh yeah. I had to smack him a few times before he would shut up." She began to blush. "I'm serious. I have to admit I can see where he's coming from, though. But, if it wouldn't be too rude, could I possibly have a minute with him?"
"Of course," Madison said, getting up. "I'll be in the other room if you need me." She got up and walked out of the room. Zac looked squarely at his brother and waited for Madison to leave until he began to speak.
"Who said you could talk like that to my girlfriend?"
"Talk like what?"
"All�all flattering and stuff like that. By the time she left she was practically bursting with happiness!"
"Hey, it's not like it isn't true. I was just being polite. I'm sorry if she's not used to it any longer. I'm sure when you were at the beginning of your relationship�"
"Shut up, Ike. Why did you want to talk to me alone?"
"I just have a question," Isaac said. Zac nodded. "Why did you have Davis sign that bill?"
"I didn't have Davis do anything. He did what he wanted to do on his own. I just got him elected."
"Why?"
"Because Smith is an awful, awful man and Davis was willing to bring you home." Isaac shook his head. "What?"
"You knew I didn't want to come home."
"Yeah, when I got there and the entire thing was out of my hands already. If I would have known that maybe two years ago�well I still would have done it, but I would have seriously thought about it. Did they make you come home?"
"Yes."
"Well you don't have to stay here, Ike. You can do what you want. You can go back to that place and get yourself killed and make the entire family think low of you, myself included. I don't know how anybody would want to stay there."
"If you were there as long as I was, then you would understand."
"If my best friend was buried there, I would want to stay there too."
"You know, Zac�"
"I know a lot of stuff, Isaac, and he's one of them. Don't act like it doesn't affect you because it obviously does."
"You really have a lot of nerve talking like that to me. You were there for two months, Zac. I was there for two and a half years. They're nothing like each other. I was fine there. Things were going my way, I was continually getting promoted, I had friends there�it wasn't like you knew it to be. And what do I have here? Nothing. Everybody's different and Zo� didn't even recognize me in there. Mom had to explain to her who I was for her to finally say hello to me. This Madison girl answers the door like she lives here and�"
"She does live here."
"Really? Why?"
"Because I don't want her living with her parents. They don't treat her right. Not since her brother died in the war." Zac looked pointedly at Isaac.
"If you're implying something, I'm not getting it."
"You're not the only person this has affected, Ike. She lost her brother right off the bat because of this war and she damn near lost me. That's why I had Davis sign that bill and that's why I supported his election. If you wanted to stay there, by all means, go back over there, but you're not going to hurt us when you die over there."
"I'm not going to die over there, Zac," Isaac began to explain as Zac cut him off again.
"You don't know that. We don't know if something will happen to you over there. You're home now, we know you're safe now, and that's all that matters to Mom and Dad."
"I don't want to be here, Zac."
"Fine. Then leave. You tell your mother." Isaac opened his mouth. "Go! I don't want to hear it anymore." Isaac huffed and left the room. When he walked out, Madison walked back in.
"What's going on, sweetheart?" she asked.
"It doesn't matter," he said. "Come here." He patted a bit of couch next to him.
"But�"
"Nope. Come here." She smiled and sat down. He put his arms around her and hugged her close to him. She knew it must have been painful, with all of his broken bones and such. She'd never really paid attention to what exactly was wrong with him, but it was pretty bad and she figured he was in a lot of pain but he never did show it to anybody. "This is definitely what I missed most while I was over there."
"What did you and Ike talk about?"
"Nothing important." She looked up at him.
"No lying."
"He wants to go back to Korea. He says he's got nothing here when he knows that he's got everything here. He's got a home, a family, and if he really wants it, he's got a career with the band. He has everything he could possibly ask for except for his best friend."
"Who's that?"
"This kid he met in Korea. His name was Jake. He and Ike were really close and when he died Ike shut off completely. I told you about him." Madison nodded. "I think he's buried over there and Ike wants to stay over there so he can be near him but I think that's not a substantial reason for going back. He just doesn't want to get used to a normal life again."
"Do you think there's any way he could stay?"
"Probably. He just has to find it."
The next morning was a Monday and Zac was feeling well enough to move around, so the family had breakfast together around ten o'clock. The only reason they did it was because Isaac was home and for the first time in over two years, the family was together, with Madison as an addition. She wasn't even aware that the seat she'd been sitting in whenever the family had meals together was indeed Isaac's seat (and it was a bit disturbing when she found out) but her new seat was a bit more to her liking. It was wedged between Zac and Zo�, and Zo� and her had always gotten along.
The tension that had been hovering about the house since Isaac came home was lessening, but it was still obviously there. It was easy, after so long, to forget that Isaac was even a part of the family. He knew it and he felt it, and it was one of the reasons he wanted to leave again.
Breakfast was quiet. Isaac was enjoying the pleasures of a home-cooked meal as compared to army food, and at the same time, was trying to get to know Jessica beside him. When he left she was just a kid and now she was sixteen going on seventeen and he couldn't believe what a young woman she'd become.
"Do you have a boyfriend?" was one of his first inquiries. She shook her head, picking at her food. It was one of the things he remembered about her; when it came to breakfast, she only liked cereal.
"No. Zac won't let me get a boyfriend." Isaac looked across the table at Zac.
"Boys will only corrupt her. She doesn't need a boyfriend just yet."
"Zac, she's sixteen. I think she's old enough to have a boyfriend."
"I never said she wasn't old enough, I just said boys will corrupt her."
"Like you corrupted me when I was her age?" Madison asked, looking over at Zac. He gave her a look.
"You're supposed to be on my side here."
"I think she's mature enough to have a boyfriend. You should meet the boy that she's been talking to. What's his name? Bobby? He's really a nice kid."
"Who's Bobby?" Zac asked Jessica, who was scrunching into a ball in her chair, her hair in her face. She was getting embarrassed. It made Zac smile. "I think I would indeed like to meet this Bobby."
"Actually, I don't think it's a good idea. You'll just scare him away."
"Can we stop talking about this now?" Jessica asked. "How about you, Ike? Did you meet anybody in Korea?"
"No, there wasn't enough down time for that."
"Really? What did you do over there?" she asked, looking up at him.
"I think Zac could answer that one," Isaac said, turning back to his plate of food. Jessica didn't take her eyes off of him.
"But I asked you."
"Listen, Jess�"
"No, tell me! I can't believe all of you act like I'm still a child, asking me inferior questions and acting as if I don't know anything. If you don't have much down time, meaning you're in battle so much, what could there possibly be over that you would want to go back?"
Diana, who had pretty much stayed out of the conversation since everyone had sat down, looked up. "You want to go back there?" she asked. Isaac looked over at her, cornered, and upon seeing her disappointed look, turned to Zac for help.
"Actually," he said, "I want to hear this one."
"All right, all right, I'll talk. Yes, I want to go back there. My reasons for that are my own. I'm twenty-four years old, I think I can make my own decisions. I've lived there two and a half years, which actually is the longest I've lived anywhere in my entire life. I'm used to it there. So my surroundings aren't exactly the best but they're everything I could ask for and I was happy there. I had friends, American and Korean, and I had a home. Everything I know is there. I come back here, there's this person I don't even know living here who's engaged to my nineteen-year-old brother, Jess is driving, Avery's in high school, Mac isn't a kid any longer and Zo� doesn't even know who I am. Zac's this fricken political activist who's been offered a job under the president and the only person who's the same is Taylor but even he's not the same! I'm a foreigner here and none of you have done anything to hide that. I'm not welcome here. I was welcome there. That's why I'm leaving."
"Ike," Zac said, "you can't expect everything to be exactly the same as you left it. You were gone two and a half years. If things had gone my way you wouldn't have been gone that long."
"I don't want to hear it. I was happy in Korea."
"Things aren't going to be the same in Korea either," Zac said. "Now that all the troops are gone you're not going to be able to go back to the base and live amongst your American friends. You're better off staying here."
"I'm not staying here. Even if I have to stay in American, even if I have to stay in Tulsa, I'm not staying here. I'll find a place of my own."
"With what money?" Zac asked. "Do you expect to get a job with the college education you don't have? How about with your superior expertise in the field of playing guitar in front of screaming teenage girls? That's a real big market these days. Face it, the only way to get away from your family is to spend all your time with them."
"Thanks for the Catch-22, Zac, as if I didn't even realize it myself. I'll be in my room." He stood up and left the table in a huff. Zac waited a moment before he got up and went after his brother. It took him quite a bit of effort and a lot of ignored pain to get upstairs to the room that Isaac had ran into, and once he got there he had nearly forgotten why he'd bothered. He opened the door and walked inside. Isaac was packing.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm leaving. I'm going back to Korea."
"How do you expect to get there?"
"By plane. With the seven hundred and fifty million dollars that you are worth, you might be able to spare a few thousand for a plane ticket to Korea. You probably wouldn't even notice that it was gone."
"I would notice you were gone."
"Leave me be, Zac."
"You know, things aren't exactly the same for me either. Things were hard for Taylor too when he came back. It just takes a while to get adjusted to everything again. It's going to take even longer for you because you were gone two and a half years, but, Ike, things are going to get better. Jake may not be here but you're holding onto nothing in Korea because he's not there either. The reason I got into political activism is because I didn't want anything like that to happen to anyone, especially the people I care about, but it happened to you and it happened to Madison too. She lost her brother right away. She's okay with it now. She'll talk about him now. She's still not okay with her parents but she will be. You just have to take it day by day and not take the coward's way out."
Isaac softened and turned around to look at Zac who was standing painfully by the door. "You shouldn't be standing."
"I'm okay."
"No, sit down." Isaac took his things off the bed and Zac sat down. "I am a coward, aren't I?"
"I don't think so. You were a hero over there." Isaac rolled his eyes. "Just give it a bit of time. I'm sure everything will work out in the end. Before you know it you'll be the person you always were and things�they might ever be okay but they'll certainly be better."
"Yeah, maybe you're right."
"I know I'm right."
"So you really won't let Jess have a boyfriend, huh?" Zac shook his head. "I agree with you. There's too many people like you out there." Zac made a face and was about to come back with an equally insulting remark when there was a knock at the door and Madison poked her head in.
"He hasn't killed you yet, has he?" she asked.
"Who are you talking to?" Zac asked.
"Both of you." Zac waved her inside. "What's up?"
"Madison," Zac said, a smile on his face, "I'd like you to meet my brother."