‘Liam, where’s that smile?’ she said with a wink. ‘And a twinkle from those baby blue eyes wouldn’t go amiss.’
He replied, ‘You can’t smile Mum in my last photo.’
‘Be different!’
‘That’s not what it’s all about in the British Army.’ And as he brushed a loose black cotton thread from the lapel of his dress uniform, he added, ‘Can you hurry up and take it?’
‘I just want them to think you were … are… my lovely boy.’
‘It’s not going to make any difference to me. I’ll be in a body bag by the time this photo hits the news. Along with how I was such a good egg … had a great sense of humour … and I was such a team player. Then they'll want a few words from you.’
Her eyes filled like two little puddles in a rainstorm, and her shoulders started to shake. As Rita gazed out of her living room window, she watched the pink cherry blossom drift down to the lawn. She reminded herself that if … when he came back, the tree would be bare, but lit with her usual multicoloured Christmas fairy lights.
‘Mum … Mum!’ Liam pulled out a tissue from his pocket and wiped his mum's eyes. ‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘Deploying to Iraq is getting to me too.’
His mum hadn’t questioned him when he’d told her he had finally written his last letters; ones that could only be opened on his death. And she’d agreed to take his photograph, when his girlfriend had cried and refused. Liam felt his mother had far more armour plating to her than his own army-issue kit, which he had no guarantee of even getting, if rumours from his Oppos already out there were correct.
‘Here,’ Liam said as he handed his mother a package wrapped in paper adorned with small pink rose buds. ‘I made this for you.’
As Rita unwrapped the package, a hardback book tumbled onto the carpet. Opening it, she flipped through a collage of photographs of Liam from a chubby baby to the broad shouldered tall 21 year old man he was now; just like her own father. With each photograph he’d written a caption, a memory of their time together: some she had forgotten and some were unforgettable.
‘We'll be thousands of miles apart, but I'll always be with you,’ Liam said.
Rita began to sob, and between each wailing gasp, he rubbed her back.
‘Don’t leave me all alone,’ she said as she pulled him in for a hug; taking in the sweet fragrance of his aftershave and feeling his stubble rub her cheek.
‘I’m not planning to,’ he replied as his tears met hers.
And within a blink of her own and his blue eyes, she’d taken his last photograph.