“Panthers?” Zach yelled. “Army Intelligence said there aren’t any left this far out.”

“Yeah, well, it wouldn’t be the first stupid thing Intelligence said.”

Zach burst out laughing. “I wonder where they got ‘em?”

Carl smiled. “Maybe they’re a present from the Führer!”

The faint sound of the rumbling tracks of the tanks was getting louder. Zach looked down at the bazooka.

“It’s a damn good thing we didn’t fire!”

Carl grabbed a private crouched down next to Zach. His name was Ritzler. He was short, fat and balding on the top of his head. So the others called him Monk.

“Look, Monk, go tell Benwick to fire at the other tank. But tell him to wait until we’ve fired first.”

“Right!”

Monk got up to head down the embankment. Then Carl grabbed him again.

“Oh, and tell him not to miss!”

Monk laughed and ran toward Benwick. Titus picked up a round and then waved at Carl. Then Carl and Zach ran about ten yards further to the right. A burst of machine gun fire roared along the road. When it stopped, Carl stood up and Zach rammed the round into the bazooka. Carl fired and dropped back down seconds before more machine gun fire tore overhead. The round hit the tank in the tracks toward the front. The tracks broke and black smoke began pouring out of the front of the tank. The crew attempted to fire at Carl’s position, but the turret wouldn’t move. The second Panther stopped, and Carl was able to peer over the embankment just long enough to see the turret swing around to fire at their position. His face turned ghostly white as he looked at Zach. Suddenly Benwick and Titus popped up over the top of the embankment and fired. The round hit the front of the tank and bounced off. It exploded in the air.

“That idiot!” Carl screamed.

The turret began swinging toward Benwick’s position. Then there was another long burst of machine gun fire. Carl’s men to the right threw their last grenades, and Benwick fired the second bazooka round. It hit the tank’s tracks toward the back, producing a loud explosion. The turret hatch flew open, and a member of the crew climbed out waving a piece of white cloth. He was followed by a second man, who stopped and helped a wounded crewmember out of the tank. Two more followed, the last man dropping to the road as he clutched his head. The three who were not wounded dropped to their knees and held their hands above their heads. They flinched when they heard another explosion come from inside the other tank.

“Can you hear that?” the man asked.

“Hear what, soldier?”

“I think it’s Mom. It must be time for dinner.”

“Hold on, soldier!” He looked around frantically for the medic.

“Dad?”

He looked around again. “Where’s that damn medic!”

“Are you there, Dad?”

He looked down at the man and saw the blood pouring out of the wounds caused by the shrapnel. He stared for just a moment.

“Yes, son, I’m here.”

“I didn’t do my work today,” he said.

There was a long pause. “Yes, you did.”

“Dad?”

“Yes, son?”

“I’m sorry.”

There was another long pause.

“For what?”

“For everything. Can you forgive me?”

It seemed like an eternity before he got an answer, and it seemed like night was falling fast. Carl looked down at Private Ambrose Wallace one last time. Ambrose could just make out Carl’s face as darkness began to swirl around him.

“Yes, son, I forgive you.”

Carl Grayson Larimore

Son of Grayson and Demetria Larimore, and father of David and Sarah, Carl grows up in Green Ridge Valley. Initially, Carl works various construction and farm jobs, almost as if he is meandering through life without a purpose. He is also a boxer, inside and outside of the ring. Eventually, he goes to college, enters ROTC and studies accounting. The Larimores' neighbors are the Schmidt family, so it wasn't long before he meets Helena Schmidt, who prefers the name Ellen. Carl's mother Demetria and Ellen's grandmother Winnifred eventually decide that Carl and Ellen would make a "good match." While helping Ellen's father build a new house, Carl and Ellen begin attending dances and going to church and Sunday School classes together. When war breaks out, Carl is sent to North Africa to fight the Germans and Italians. It is there that he meets Sergeant Zachary Jenkins. Eventually, they are sent to participate in the Normandy landings. Carl has a strong sense of honor, insisting that his men conform to the highest military standards, including the way POWs are to be treated. Perhaps his finest moment comes during the end of the last German offensive on the Western Front, the Ardennes Offensive. While Carl is in Germany, the Larimore family and Ellen's grandmother Winnifred moves south to Westbridge. Carl, trusting in Ellen's good taste, allows her to choose one of the newly built houses on Sycamore Street. After the war, Carl joins his father's accounting firm, eventually recruiting Zack, and finally David. Despite his exceptional record while in the Service, Carl opposes David's decision to enter the Vietnam War. Eventually, Carl and Ellen move to Florida, leaving an increasingly isolated and reclusive David, along with his over-bearing sister Sarah, behind in Westbridge.

Demetria commented to Winifred that any man who had Ellen as his wife, was blessed by the Lord. She pointed out that Scripture says that such a woman is worth more than rubies. Eventually, the two decided that Carl and Ellen were a perfect match. Carl began coming over to the new house for dinner, and would often walk over to Terrance’s house in the early evening after farm work was done to sit and talk with Ellen. Then they rode to church together, went to Bible studies together and attended dances in town. Carl always made sure to ask Winifred’s permission before spending time with Ellen. Demetria told him that was the fitting and proper thing to do. Eventually, Winifred told Carl that her granddaughter was a woman, not a child, and could conduct herself anyway she saw fit. One day while baking bread, Winifred looked at Ellen and laughed. Ellen asked why she was laughing.

“In a virtuous way, of course, it never hurts to be a little friendly,” she said.

Ellen blushed and burst out laughing.

Grayson asked Carl when he would do the manly thing and propose. Carl was building a small house on some land Grayson had given him. He told his father that he would propose once the house was done. Grayson agreed, and then promised to help him buy Ellen’s ring. Carl was tiring of working construction and odd jobs. He had a serious discussion with the Major about college, officer training and the army. Carl decided that Grayson was right, but was afraid of Ellen’s reaction. He was surprised one evening at dinner when Ellen stated that she thought the army was a good idea. She was thrilled to hear that after the army, he planned to work with Grayson in his new business. There would be no more farms or farm work he assured her. It wasn’t much later that Sarah was born. A year later Hitler sent German troops into Poland and war broke out in Europe. Grandma Winifred held out hope that Hitler would be deposed by the German military, which, as she put it, had no honor in taking orders from a fanatical corporal. A Putsch was all that was needed to restore sanity and honor in Germany. Carl told her that it was going to take a whole hell of a lot more than that. He left for service in North Africa in 1940. In March, the family left for Westbridge. Ellen and Sarah moved into Margaret’s house. One day Sarah came home crying. Ellen and Winifred were in the kitchen roasting a turkey. Ellen turned around when Sarah came in through the kitchen door. She walked over to her and brushed the hair out of her eyes.

“Why are you crying, Sarah?”

“Dorothy said her dad died fighting the Germans,” Sarah said sobbing. “She said they all do.”

Ellen looked at her and smiled. Then she gave her a stern look.

“The war will end, and your father will come home a man of honor; you can be sure of that.”