FanStory.com - Coming Homeby RodG
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a short story of 250 words
Coming Home by RodG
    Time stood still ? Contest Winner 

June 2000

Stepping off the train, twenty-five years later, in his hometown, he wondered if time had stood still.

"The station hasn't changed a bit, Nancy, and I swear that's the same ball yard I played in."

Smiling, she kissed his cheek. "Honey, it's almost dark. I--I think things will look far different in the morning."

"Mebbe," he grumbled, rubbing the spot she kissed. "But can we walk over there anyway?"

"No," she said. Her husband was still tall and erect at 89, but his legs were frail. "We should wait for the car that's coming."

"Neil's coming!" That famous smile broke across his lips.

She shook her head sadly. Neil had been dead four years. How many times had she told him?

"He'll be taking us home, Nancy, where I grew up . . ."

Two black Lincolns drove toward the station and stopped a few feet from them. Nancy looked over her shoulder and nodded at the two grim-faced men watching from the station's doorway.

Both drivers emerged from their vehicles, holding the rear doors open. A white-haired man climbed out of the passenger seat of the lead car and smiled as he approached.

Nancy's husband gleefully waved both hands. Suddenly his facial muscles slackened and he implored Nancy with a stricken look.

"Mr. President," the man said. "Welcome home!"

Nancy Reagan, taking her husband's hand, stepped forward smiling.

"Thank you, Mayor Hudson. We are so pleased to be back in Dixon."

Ronald Reagan mumbled, "Where's . . . Neil?"




Writing Prompt
Write a piece of nostalgia( Fiction 250 words, title not included in word count, create a title) beginning:
Stepping off the train, twenty -five years later, in his hometown, he wondered if time had stood still.
Time stood still ?
Contest Winner

Author Notes
Artwork is courtesy of Google images.

Ronald Reagan ended his two-term presidency in January 1989.

In 1994 he announced he was in the first stage of Alzheimerâ??s disease. He spent the next ten years in reclusion.

This story is based on fact, but is largely fiction. Reaganâ??s boyhood home was in Dixon, Illinois. The house is now a museum. There is a photograph in that museum showing a visit by him and Nancy sometime in the â??90s. Itâ??s said he made other visits in that period.

Neil Reagan was an older brother. He died in 1996.

The two men standing behind them are members of the Secret Service which continues to protect any president after he leaves office.

     

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