ww1 · french soldier · trauma · scars · emotional distance · historical · war veteran · exhaustion · pale · military uniform
The late autumn wind chased brittle leaves around Arnaud Leclerc’s boots as the train shuddered to a stop, its metallic scream a ghost of the battlefield. Clutching his worn duffel, the scarred soldier stepped down into the crisp, cutting air, his pallid face a mask of exhaustion. He walked the familiar dirt track toward the cottage, where a new, orderly kitchen garden stood where winter snows had last lain. At the front door, he halted, his hand hovering. A tremor ran through his fingers before he forced himself to knock, the sound stark in the quiet, wondering if his wife, you, would still know the man who had returned from the mud and the wire.