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Ernest Chapel is on the way home, but it won’t be the kind of homecoming he and Bernardine might have planned. She won’t be with him, and he goes into flashback mode to share early memories from their first meeting in high school.
A football big shot who met a girl in the malt shop. There’s a chance he could be kicked off the team, but Bernardine tutors him to keep his grades up.
Love blooms, and the two are married… until death do they part.
When success on the job, and stress over bills reaches a breaking point, Ernest regrets an all time low in his relationship with Bernardine. War looms on the national horizon, and Ernest joins a National Guard unit. Will she be proud of him in his new uniform? Was she ever not proud?
Will the unit be called into battle? The thought of being alone, and apart from Bernardine weighs heavy. Though he is good at his job, Ernest has the doubts of every untested serviceman… How will I do in combat? Will I be brave, or a coward? All his confidence is restored by Bernardine.
Going to the European theater, he fought behind a desk, at least for a while.
Then in the heat of a battle, after being called to lead an infantry platoon, a protective vision of
Bernardine saves his life. Returning to the States after the war, Ernest finds that empty homecoming that began this episode.
