text: This is my first attempt at writing a short story. Please be kind. He could feel the stiffness settling into his joints and the pressure building in his chest. He'd been on this flight for nearly 10 hours already. He ran a hand across his cheek, feeling the coarseness of 36 hours without a shave. He was finally going home. He checked his watch and found that it was already approaching 8 o'clock, Georgia time. The ceremony had been scheduled for 10:00 that morning. He glanced up at the screen in front of him and saw that they weren't supposed to land for another hour and a half. Jim thought of his waiting family and smiled to himself. “Hurry up and wait” he mused, “That's how it's always been.” Jim started to stand and excused himself into the aisle. He reached into the overhead bin and fished out his razor. “Gotta look my best” Jim thought as he shook his head. He was wearing a brand new uniform he had never yet worn. Once he had found his razor, Jim walked over to the nearest lavatory and slid the door shut behind him. He turned on the sink and splashed a handful of cold water on his face. He raised his eyes and took a long, hard look at himself in the mirror. He finally let himself relax his guard just a little and believe that he was truly on his way home. It had been 9 long months in that blistering heat and unrelenting dust. The sirens, the thunderous explosions, the screams of those he'd come to know and trust, they were behind him now. They were gone, but when he closed his eyes he was still there. It was as if the battles had never ended but had only just begun. Jim finished shaving and wiped his face clean. He walked back to his seat and checked under his seat to make sure his weapon was still there. He checked the screen in from of him again, still over an hour to go. He pulled out his iPod and headphone to listen to for the rest of the flight. He knew better than to close his eyes and try to sleep. “It's a new start for me, a new beginning. I'm finally going home and I can start moving on with my life” he thought, but he knew that he would never be the same, not after what he'd seen. Jim let his mind wander back over the previous months. He remembered the old adage his father had shared with him before the deployment, “War is long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror.” “How true had that been?” he thought. Jim flinched as his buddy beside him tapped him on the shoulder, letting him know that they were about to land. Jim looked out the window and saw the green all over the landscape, real American soil. He smiled to himself, “It's finally over.” The soldiers all clapped as the wheels touched the ground, bringing them all back to home soil. They all were smiling and the mood was jovial as they gathered their baggage to disembark from the plane. Finally, the order came to start moving off of the plane. Jim grinned as he felt a wave of Georgia humidity wash over him. He went and turned in his weapon and all of his sensitive gear. He moved on to the staging area briefly before the order came to load onto the buses for the final stretch of their journey. Jim glanced at his watch, 1100 hours. He smiled, “No need to sweat the small stuff when you're on your way home.” He lowered the window by his seat and took in the smell of fresh rain. The buses arrived just over half an hour later at the location of their ceremony. They were ordered off the bus and given a brief block of instruction on how the ceremony would go. At last they made an impromptu formation. Jim could feel his heart starting to race, trying to beat out of his chest. He shook slightly and his breath became shallow. He took a deep breath to steady himself.