Charles Mercer: The real reason he is in LA

The real reason why he is in LA…

Charles has been alive for a long time and of course he has had many loves, but the first still burns in his heart.  It was after the Great War and while he was in England he met a young woman by the name of Nora Wells.  He was quite smitten with her since the first time he saw her.  Unfortunately the same could not be said of her, but gentle coaxing (adamant badgering) had finally breached her stonewall.  It had gone on a little too well and in the morning she was gone. 

He pined for her for many years, looking for her in a futile attempt.  It was in the waning days of the Second World War that from her he had received a letter.  It seemed that her son, CJ had joined the war for the Americans and if he could watch over him.  CJ Chambers was in England for a time and Charles agreed.  Anything for Nora.  Charles knew why he was in England for in a couple of days, D-Day was about to begin.

He would have tried to get him reassigned but it was too far along in the planning stages.  There was one thing that he could do however.  He led his unit of SAS soldiers and covered the young CJ through D-Day and beyond, secretly watching the young man, intervening only when needed.  It was during the Battle of the Bulge that CJ noticed that a British SAS squad was following his squad.  He had noticed them during D-Day and points in between, but at the Battle of the Bulge, he cornered the then Captain Mercer.  After a little scuffle they ended up talking and Charles admitted that he knew his mother and that he agreed to look in after him.  He did not know how to take that, but Charles assured him that all he had done, was him.  That he had to only intervene three times to save his life. 

CJ got up to leave, having much to think about.  “What does CJ stand for young man?” he asked as his neurosis about proper name was killing him.

He smiled.  “Charles Johnathon.  I was named for two important members of my mother’s family.”

Charles nodded as he left.  CJ was his son.

After the war Charles kept tabs on Nora and her family.  It seemed that she was married to a Roy Chambers for a month before he met her.  An American with the Expeditionary Force that came to England for the Great War.  She had moved to Los Angeles and started to raise a family there.  Nora had written him again in 1961 and begged him to come out and see her.  He relented and agreed.  When he entered the hospital room that she was in, she recognized him for except for some additional crow’s feet, he looked exactly the same as he did some forty years before.  She shooed her children and grandchildren out of the room and cried.  She was so sorry for everything she had put him through, but he had just put his fingers over her lips.  He knew.  He knew it all, for that was his job.  They talked for hours until the nurse came to chase him away.  That is when he left he ran into CJ, in his forties and about to have his first grand-child.  He stopped and stared at the man he knew.  He merely stood at attention and saluted.

CJ got married and had only a single child, a son.  His son, Johnathon had a daughter in the next year, Nora.  That is when he retired.  It was something that his mentor Bartholomew had said was Charles was introduced as his new apprentice to his daughters.  “Family.  It is the best thing in have in this world.”