-Author note- it is a bit slow to start please wait it out-

It was my grandfather who got me interested in history. The reason remained unknown to me, for I had never met the man within my own recollection. He died two months before I was born. And yet it was still he who sparked my interest. My father noticed my interest and he tried to get me into his own personal love, the Civil War. His attempts were failures, but from him I learned of my personal connection to war.

I had always had a fascination with war and its working. But it was the seventh into eighth grade summer that my connection with the Second World War was forged. For that summer was the first time I saw Saving Private Ryan, and more importantly Spielberg's other series Band of Brothers. From the first episode I felt and unexplainable connection with the men. But it wasn’t until the summer of my freshman year of collage that I found out why.

A phone call interrupted the empty silence of my room, each ring bringing me out of the enveloping darkness of sleep. It stopped its call just before the final ring and I was alone once more.

I opened my eyes and the clock blared in my face. 9:30 a.m. I sat up and stretched before opening the door and letting the outside world into my life. The outside world was anything but what I expected. Out of the safe solitude of ones room the world was a cruel place.

Mother leaned against the wall, tears streaming down her cheeks, one hand was over her eyes and the other loosely held the phone.

"Mom! Mom, what's wrong!?" I cried grabbing she shoulders gently.

"My mother,' She wailed,' She's gone Fey…Annette said she died this morning. The funerals already set."

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The Funeral took place three days later in Boston. My family drove from northern New York State to get there. The funeral was small, only family and close friends attended. To me it seemed as if Grandma was six feet under before I could blink. The wake was depressing and all had an early night. The next day Mother and Aunt Annette were squabbling over the fine china. My older brother Antoine and I were too busy poking around the attic to notice.

"Hey! Fey check this out!" Antoine held an old wooded chest the size of a shoe box in his hands. He passed it to me and stood by my shoulder as I opened it. My eyes landed upon camouflage cloth. I touched it gently and discovered it was silk before carefully picking it up and unfolding it. All in all the cloth was about the size of a twin bed sheet. Antoine took the sheet from me and I looked back into the box, a small medal gleamed up at me. I recognized it immediately. It was the Congressional Medal of Honor.

We returned home a day later. Aunt Annette let me have the box and its contents. That night I slept with the silken sheet around me.

There are dreams I like to call real place dreams because they take place in places you know. I find they are often the scariest because you don’t know if it's real or not.

That night I found myself in one of those dreams. I was in my room and all was quiet, but as I looked around I realized I was not alone.

"Grandpère?" I asked.

The man nodded and smiled. He looked just as he did the in the old pictures. "I need you to help them, Fey."

"Help them?" I repeated.

Jack LaRue nodded quickly. "Will you help them?" He asked again urgency leaking into his voice.

"Grandpère who?!"

"You must help them Fey!" He cried.

"I will! I will!" I screamed.

I woke up in a cold sweat the words thank you echoing through my mind.

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The last week of May past by in a slow crawl, I feared going to sleep because of the real place dream. It was the night of June 6th when I had another.

The dark silence of my room was interrupted by an explosive boom. The sky was alight with fireballs and there was the constant rat tat tat of guns. I found myself in a dark forest. Fear enveloped my senses and I huddled next to the trunk of a tree arms tight around my body. "Where the hell am I? Where the hell am I?" I muttered to myself. SNAP! Above me! Twigs started to rain down on me and I fled with a yelp and hid behind another tree. I peeked around the trunk and saw a man. A paratrooper by the looks of it, hung up on the tree. He swore quietly as he reached around for a knife and cut himself loose. He fell a few meters to the ground, pulled his gun out and looked around. My breath was coming in gasps that I did my best to stifle. I began to back up, slowly trying to get away from the man. Snap! I swore.

"FLASH!" He called.

I knew the answer I knew the answer! My fear was erupting from me in waves. I was the zebra under the lion's cold stare. I turned and ran like the scared gazelle I was. The man opened fire. A wave of pain rose upon my shoulders as hot metal dove under my skin. I let out a horrified gasp and fell to the ground. I never felt the impact.

My eyes opened and in my room once more. I was gasping for breath and there was a dull throb in my shoulders.

"Your just fine darling." A voice said.

I jumped out of my skin and let out a shriek. The lights turned on and a beautiful man in white stood before me. He smiled calmly and offered his hand. "Hello Fey, I'm Angelo. I have an offer for you."

"I I don’t want any damn offer from a pedophile!" I shrieked pulling the covers close to me body.

He shook his head as if I were a misbehaving child. "Cheri calm. This is very important. You do remember your promise yes? You promised to help. I am here to help you fulfill that promise yes?" He offered his hand once more.

I looked at it fearfully. "How do you know of my promise to Grandpère?"

He smiled. "Cause I sent your grandfather. You've always felt a connection Cheri. I have an offer that will let you see why."

I took his hand hesitantly and he pulled me out of my bed. But it felt as if he were pulling an oyster out of its shell and I was the juicy meat inside. I turned from him to look at my bed and let out a surprised gasp. I saw myself laying there. A worried look etched across my face.

I turned to the man whose hair was bleached blond. "Wha! What's going on?"

He smiled calmly.

"That’s the half of you you left behind."

"I left... What?" I was distressed.

He smiled and took my hands again. He looked me strait in the eyes and said. "We're at a cross roads you and I. And you have a choice to make my darling."

I gaped at him.

"You can return to the past to where you were in your dream to be more exact. And help the men your Grandpère requested you to. At first you will be like a ghost. Only one or two men will be able to see you, to hear you, touch you, but the number will grow with time. While you are in this ghostly state you cannot die and you have the choice to return to your future. If you choose to do so, the promise will be broken and you will forget you were ever there.

"But if you stay so long that every man can see you. You will loose your ghostly quality and you will be as solid as anyone or anything else. If that happens your fate is sealed. You will stay with those men for the rest of your life. You cannot return to the future. Your only hope for closure is to live your life and wait and meet up with your other half many years later."

I gaped at him. "You… you want me to believe this shit! It's completely impossible! Only god could do something like that!"

Angelo looked at me seriously. "Like I said were at a crossroads you and I. The question is. Will you take destiny into your own hands?"

I looked at him for a moment then around my room. My other half slept peacefully, silk sheet around her body. I looked at Grandpère's Medal of Honor that sat on my bedside table. I picked it up and placed it in my pocket. "You really don’t give a girl much choice do you? I go and I stay or I go and I leave. Let's give it a shot."