The final paperwork was waiting for my signature.
Until that moment, I had assumed I would sign it.
That was what Colonel Claire Bennett did.
She went where she was needed.
She took the difficult job.
She solved the problem.
But sitting in my mother’s study, holding my grandfather’s compass, I realized there was another question I had never seriously asked.
What did I want if usefulness was no longer the only measure?
Dad waited.
“What haven’t you told us?”
I looked at the three people standing around me.
Then I said, “I’ve been offered a job that would take me overseas again.”
Dad’s face changed, but he said nothing.
“And?”
Ethan asked.
I looked down at the compass.
“And for the first time in twenty years, I’m not sure I’m going to take it.”
PART 4 – ENDING
Nobody tried to tell me what to do.
