Home is the soldier

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EL PASO — Even with an early rushed start to the day, Landrea Hatchell is wide awake as she stands cradling her two-month old in a crowd of anxiously waiting people at the bottom of an escalator at El Paso International Airport.  She keeps replaying the upcoming welcome scene over and over in her mind. The people around her chatter excitedly as new arrivals whisk past dragging their compact suitcases. She glances at all the pairs of shoes that emerge slowly from the escalator.  Pair by pair, the shoes gradually become face after face of the wrong persons. She watches, waiting her turn, as those around her embrace the new arrivals.  She shifts her little son in her arms  glancing at her watch, carefully calculating the time it takes to disembark from the plane and walk down the seemingly endless El Paso terminal. Finally a pair of tan military desert boots appear at the top of the escalator.

Concordia Cemetery

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As you walk past gravestones so old that parts of the names are chipped off, you can’t help but wonder what the bodies look like after all these years. Your steps become slow and you apply as little pressure as possible, trying not to disturb the dead.