An Uphill Climb

From the viewpoint of Sharon
My husband? Yeah, he was a great guy. I haven’t seen him in a long time. I guess that’s because, well, heaven and earth are so far apart. I always knew he loved me. He never let me forget it either.
I remember the first time we met. It was in high school, I was about 14 years old, and he was a senior. I was practicing with the cheerleading squad after school when I saw him. He jumped from a window about five feet above the ground. I think he did it to impress me but I’m not sure. He started to come over to talk to me and he was really sweet. I could tell that he didn’t have a lot of the money that the other kids had. Later in the day my boyfriend beat up poor Dave. He could be such a jerk sometimes. I really felt bad for Dave. I wanted to talk with again but I was too afraid of what might happen to him.
I guess Dave had been through a lot of hardships while he was growing up. His mother never really loved him, at least she never let it show if she did. She would say the most horrible things to him. Among were such things as “I wish you had never been born.”
He was always tormented by the other kids at school. You see, Dave he’s real smart, except for when it comes to reading and writing. He was illiterate. Dave was branded a dummy early on in his school career. He never really fit into the social scene.

Dave actually spent most of his adolescents alone. His family left at home to mind the farm while they moved to Arizona. From what I understand they were gone for quite a long time. I don’t really think that they wanted him as a part of their family.

After high school he joined the army. This was the first time in life that he ever had any human buddies. When he had to fill out his application forms he faked like he had hurt his hand and he needed to have one of his friends fill it out for him. This way he could join the army and not have to spill his little secret. I told you he was really smart, didn’t I?
When he had gotten done with basic training the administrators noticed that Dave had taken some tests that were required to be in the army. When he told them that he couldn’t read or write they didn’t believe him. Dave had to get a whole psychological profile done on him. They finally came to the conclusion that Dave was in fact an illiterate, and the test were given to him orally. He scored a score of 116 on his IQ test.

Dave was then sent off to college where everything was read to him and tests were given orally. Dave got his college degree and went home to visit his family. I was really quite happy when I heard that he was coming here. I have to admit that I wrote some really corny things in some of my first letters to him. The worked though. He asked me out on a date, then came to our second with a proposal for marriage. I said yes right away. My parents had already said that he was who they wanted me to marry.

After we were married Dave had to go to Switzerland to get his eyes checked. They discovered the reason why he couldn’t read or write! He had inverted mirrored vision, something that is very rare. He could learn to read and to write if he learned how to in all capitol letters. I was so happy for my Dave.
Not to long after that my love had to go fight in the Vietnam War. Within just two weeks I received word that he was wounded in an ambush. He was very lucky because his whole squad was killed. He was the only man still alive. When he went back to fight his unit again was killed, except for him. They were all held hostage, and Dave escaped. He was shot right through the gut but he walked back to base anyway. When he was shot there was no major veins, arteries, or organs hit. I guess that God had a set out plan for him. It just wasn’t his time.

In about 1968, I developed a heart condition. I needed an open heart surgery. I couldn’t imagine then operating on my heart. That thought was so scary. The surgery ended up going really well, and I recovered pretty quickly. The doctors said that I was going to be just fine, and truthfully, I eventually forgot all about it. One day I was standing by the pond watching my son play in the water. I sent him up to the house to house to get some feed for the ducks. While he was gone I got this horrible pain in chest. It was like a knife was just cutting into me. I couldn’t breathe, or swallow. The pain became so unbearable that I just kind of slipped out of conscienceness, and with that my limp body fell into the pond.
I saw my son coming back from the house with the seed in his hand. All that I wanted to do was to pick him up and hold him close to me one last time, but I knew that was impossible. I also saw my husband searching everywhere for me. The last place that he looked was in the pond. I think that it was too inconceivable to him, that I might be dead. The look on his face was so horrible, so awful, when they finally found me, or my body.

Now I guess that you see why we haven’t seen each other in a while. I look over him and my children all the time though. He has a new wife, Pam. I’m just glad that he has someone. Since I’ve been gone he’s made himself quite a success. He wrote secret code called ZEP. He was supposed to be awarded 1 million dollars for letting the CIA adopt it, but he never got it, so he broke his vow of silence.

Dave and his wife Pam now own an ice cream business. Dave was the first person to ever make no-fat, no-cholesterol yogurt, it tastes pretty good too!! The net worth of their company is about $3,000,000.00. Who wouldn’t have guessed he’d be a success? I mean he does have his guardian angel up here everything!
Yes, I watched from up here when Dave’s mom finally told him that she loved him. It took him a whole thirty minutes to regain his composure. I have to admit that I was a little bit shocked myself.

Well I should probably be going now. I have people down there to watch over remember? Hey, maybe I’ll see you around sometime, and by the way my name is Sharon.