James looked at Jane, his face pale.
“You love this other woman?” she asked again, her voice trembling, her own face ashen.
He nodded. “Yes.”
Jane collapsed in a nearby chair, feeling sick. “Who is she, James?”
“She’s a negro nurse I met in North Africa.”
“She’s negro?”
“Yes. That’s why she said we can never see each other again.”
“If-if things were different, if it wasn’t against the law for you and her to be together, would you leave the children and me for her?”
James closed his eyes and nodded. “Yes, I would.”
Jane broke down, sobbing uncontrollably.
100 Words
This is part eleven of the story about General Turpentine and Maddie, the African-American nurse he met and fell in love with during World War II.
This post is for the Friday’s Fictioneers hosted by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields. You can find this week’s prompt here. To read other stories or to participate, click here.
Notes to Women 
Love can lead to painful decisions.
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Sadly, it can.
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I have heard of such stories happening after the last Great War (WW2) and even after Vietnam. My own Brother fell in love with a Vietnamese woman while he was there. In the end she decided that she couldn’t leave her family. She kept my brother’s baby and stayed in ‘Nam. My brother came home to his girlfriend. I can’t imagine what it was like for his vietnamese wife… what she had to face with an Amer-Asian child… I’ve heard horror tales.
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Thanks for sharing your story, Bear. It’s sad about your brother. He and the woman he fell in love both had to make very tough and painful decisions. It must have been hard for him not to be with her and their child and what she had to face with a bi-racial child.
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I only remember him speaking of it once… I was 17 and contemplating enlisting… He didn’t mince words about war, then.
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Sometimes love can be a burden, especially when it is mixed with infatuation and blinds one’s heart to those whose love they hurt.
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Sometimes love can be a burden, especially times when such love was banned. And it’s very tough if one of the people in love is married with children.
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Indeed. And sometimes there are two loves to chose between, both involving loss, for the lesser harm. And the ‘right’ answer is different for everyone.
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You’re right, Na’ama. There are two loves to choose from and somebody loses. In the general’s case, the he loves both women. The problem is, he loves his wife, Jane but is in love with Maddie, the nurse. If the ban against interracial marriages was overturned, he would choose Maddie and while it would be a tough decision for him to make, for him, it would be the right one. And for others, it would be the wrong one.
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And that is something he’d have to live with … as would they, with the fallout of it …
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Anther tough one. Well done.
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Yes, it is. Thanks, Bill.
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Dear Adele,
Fortunately times are different. A difficult conversation for sure. Well told.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Dear Rochelle,
Yes, fortunately, times are different now. And you’re right, it will be a difficult and painful conversation for this couple. Thanks.
Shalom,
Adele
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A tragic scene, very well described!
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Yes, it is. Thanks, Brenda. And, great photo prompt 🙂
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You’ve written this with sensitivity, carefully grading Jane’s responses until the climax when she breaks down. Kudos.
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Thanks, Penny. I had to think carefully about how I was going to write Jane’s responses so that they are believable.
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Love is complicated enough without the added complexities raised in your story. But such dilemmas happen, and the people involved have to make decisions and face the consequences. And then there’s the innocent parties who perhaps become collateral damage. Lots to think about here. Well told.
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You’re right, Margaret. Love is complicated but here, there are more complications because we have a man who has fallen in love with another woman and if the times then were like the times now, he would leave his family to be with her. Innocent parties do end up getting hurt. Thanks.
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Even with the changes in the law, he would still feel heartache because he did love his wife once.
Good story …
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Yes, he did and that’s what makes it so heartbreaking. Thanks, Isadora.
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