Sleep My Darlings Read online

  The newlyweds returned to Bavaria and the Rose Barracks in the town of Vilseck. In 1994, Julie decided to leave the army and become a stay-at-home mom. The Scheneckers’ first child was born on September 12, 1994, in a hospital located in nearby Sulzbach-Rosenberg. They named her Calyx Powers—the first name a sentimental salute to Parker’s influential years at Washington and Lee University and the second a tribute to the baby’s maternal heritage.

  After a stint at Leighton Barracks at Würzburg, in the northern tip of Bavaria, the new family transferred stateside to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, the oldest continually operating military installation west of the Mississippi River. It sat beside Leavenworth, the first city incorporated in the state of Kansas, on the west bank of the Missouri River in the Dissected Till Plains region of the North American lowlands. Past glaciations had left behind a region of rolling hills and rich, fertile soil, sitting on the edge of the Corn Belt.

  At the outbreak of the Civil War, Camp Lincoln was established there to train Kansas volunteers, and its use as a training and education facility continued from there. The garrison occupied fifty-six hundred acres of land, covered with one thousand buildings and fifteen hundred base housing quarters.

  The base was home to the United States Disciplinary Barracks, the only maximum-security prison for military personnel of all branches of service, and a low-security prison under the command of the army; a base hospital; an airfield; the Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery; headquarters for a National Guard mechanized infantry division, Battle Command Training Center, main facility for training and development of brigade staff in the National Guard; the U.S. Army Training and Document Command (TRADOC) Analysis Center; the Foreign Military Studies Office; and the U.S. Army’s Combined Arms Center, often called the intellectual center of the army. The latter operated the Command and General Staff School, which all modern five-star army generals, including George Marshall, Douglas MacArthur, Dwight Eisenhower, Hap Arnold, and Omar Bradley, have attended.

  Parker was now stationed there to undergo Intermediate Level education, a ten-month graduate-level program with a curriculum that included leadership philosophy, military history, military planning, and decision-making processes. The goal of the institution was to prepare field-grade officers to lead and command organizations. Parker was clearly designated as an officer on the rise.

  The Scheneckers settled into Lansing, with its nine thousand residents the second most populous city in Leavenworth County. Lansing was home to the Lansing Correctional Facility, where notorious killers of the Clutter family, Perry Smith and Richard Hickok—forever remembered in the Truman Capote classic In Cold Blood—were hanged in 1965. This facility remained the largest employer in Lansing.

  Parker, Julie, and Calyx moved into a neat, pretty white house at the end of the cul-de-sac on Fourth Street. Calyx met her first best friend here, Kassie Krivo. Kassie lived a short distance up the road and around the corner on Debra Street.

  Julie and Karen Krivo were mothers in the same playgroup, bringing the two little toddlers together on a regular basis. For Kassie’s second birthday party in the fall of 1996, she and Calyx dressed up as princesses—clad in pink from head to toe.

  But the friendship was cut short in June of 1997 and she had to bid farewell to her best friend when Kassie’s family moved away, giving Calyx her first experience with a loss that has always been a regular ordeal for children in military families. Calyx wrapped her arms around Kassie’s neck and gave her the biggest good-bye squeeze her tiny arms could muster.

  The family’s stay stateside didn’t last long. In no time, they were transferred once again. The Scheneckers packed their bags and journeyed to a far more exotic posting in Hawaii.

  CHAPTER 8

  The new home for the three Scheneckers was on the island of Oahu, the third-largest Hawaiian island, where the majority of the state’s diverse population resides. It was the seat of the government since the unification of the islands in 1810 and remained that way after Hawaii achieved statehood in 1959. It is a large island but still manageable for exploration—it just takes an hour to drive from Honolulu in the southern tip to the wild Pacific coast in the north.

  The weather there whispers “paradise” on every breeze, all year round. During the winter, from November through April, temperatures range from the low seventies to the mid-eighties. During the only other season, summer, seventy-four- to eighty-eight-degree readings are the norm. Even though the average humidity is a fairly consistent 53 percent, gentle trade winds keep even the warmest days pleasant and comfortable.

  The island played an important role in American history as the site of a day of infamy. On the morning of December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched an attack on Oahu’s Pearl Harbor, putting its name on the tip of every American’s tongue and pushing the country into World War Two. The attack damaged or destroyed warships and aircraft, caused the deaths of more than twenty-four hundred American servicemen and nearly six dozen civilians, and scarred any sense of security in the far-flung island chain.

  Parker was stationed at Schofield Barracks at the foot of the Waianae Mountain Range in Central Oahu, separated from the town of Wahiaw by Lake Wilson. Schofield had been established in 1908 to provide mobile defense of Pearl Harbor and the surrounding area. The Dole Plantation, with its world-class shrub maze, and the Hawaii Plantation Village, reenacting Oahu’s past, were near the base, as was the Aloha Stadium, the venue for the University of Hawaii football games and the arena for the annual NFL Pro Bowl.

  With dramatic mountains, a placid lake, and the roaring ocean at her fingertips, outdoorsy Julie was in her element. In addition to the multitude of physical activities, the cultural and artistic events and locales never left her at a loss for what to do around the island.

  Schofield Barracks was a hive of activity, too. When the Scheneckers arrived, the population of the base exceeded fourteen thousand. Their home base itself bore a whiff of romance, as it was the principal setting for James Jones’ best-selling novel and blockbuster movie, From Here to Eternity, featuring the immortal love scene on the beach between Deborah Kerr and Burt Lancaster. Since the cost of housing is extraordinarily high in Hawaii, most families lived on the base. Officers housing was to the north side of the area off Wilikina Drive, inside the gate, a block down Leilehua Avenue, a third of the way down Baldwin Road. The biggest bulk of the installation’s 2.8 square miles of acreage on the base was Area X, a huge training area where assault operations could be staged and firing ranges abounded.

  * * *

  On September 29, 1997, the Schenecker clan grew by one more member with the birth of Powers Beau Schenecker at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, the state capital and jumping-off point for visitors to the nearby world-renowned Waikiki Beach.

  On the surface, Julie, now the mom of two, seemed to have found real contentment in paradise. In actuality, Julie suffered significant postpartum depression after her son’s birth and went back on medications. Parker told People “Julie was a fantastic mother early on when the kids were needing nursing and nurturing. They gave her a lot of joy. It gave me a lot of joy watching her with the kids.” He said that with the knowledge that except for the period of time when she was pregnant Julie relied on antidepressants to maintain her stability.

  In less than two weeks after the birth of his son, Parker’s maternal grandmother, Louisette Billeaud Trousdale, died in the St. Anna’s Residence in New Orleans at the age of ninety-three. The family bid her farewell at a graveside service in the Review Cemetery in Monroe, Louisiana. Parker was one of seven grandchildren to mourn her passing.

  The next year, Parker lost a parent when his father died, at the age of sixty-five, after a lengthy illness, on Sunday, July 12, 1998. After a private family funeral, a memorial service was held exactly a week later at Parker’s alma mater, Fort Worth Country Day School. In lieu of flowers, the family requested that donations be made to the Edmund Morris Schenecker Scholarship Fund at that sch
ool or to Alcoholics Anonymous.

  * * *

  The year 1999 was a miserable one for Darcelle, a woman who would soon play a significant role in the lives of the Schenecker family, on the island of Oahu. On Mother’s Day, in May 1999, she and her visiting sister made a trip to Sacred Falls State Park, named for the spectacular eighty-foot waterfall that lay at the end of a small canyon in the Kaluanui Gulch. Located not too far, geographically, from Schofield Barracks, direct access is blocked by the rugged Mililani Mauka Launani Valley and the Ewa Forest Reserve. Getting there required taking the Kamehameha Highway, a coastal route that looped around the northern tip of Oahu.

  A hike into the park was an adventurous trip—lives had been lost in the past because of flash floods and stumbles on the slippery rocks encountered on the journey to the top. No one, however, anticipated the deadly event that occurred that day.

  Without warning, boulders and rocks collapsed, sending the debris tumbling onto the people in the valley below. Eight lives were lost and fifty people were injured. Darcelle survived, but her vacationing sister was counted among the dead. The park was closed indefinitely after that fatal rockfall, and the public still remain barred from it thirteen years later.

  To compound her grief, Darcelle’s boyfriend left her. She was alone, lonely, and feeling quite abandoned. She was living in a three-bedroom home in Waialua that she’d bought when she turned forty. Now even the beauty of her environment could not lift the pall of depression that hung over her days. The home suddenly seemed too large for just one resident—its emptiness mocked her sorrow and sense of estrangement.

  She posted availability ads seeking a roommate, hoping to find someone willing to watch over her pets when she traveled away from home. At that same time, Parker Schenecker was called back to the East Coast, but he and Julie did not want to move the kids during the cold of winter back in the continental United States. Julie decided to stay with them in Hawaii for another six months. To do that, she needed off-base housing.

  Julie responded to Darcelle’s ad, driving north through pineapple fields on her way to the coast and the other woman’s beach house. At that time, the once bustling, booming town of Waialua, the home of what the natives called the world’s best sugar, was staggering under the economic upheaval that was caused in October 1996 when the Waialua Sugar Mill, the last sugar plantation on the island of Oahu, stopped production after more than one hundred years in operation. At the time, that facility, a subsidiary of the Dole Corporation, was producing 8 percent of all the sugar in the island chain. The smokestack of the old mill still dominated the skyline. In time, the sugar mill would be retrofitted to produce coffee and chocolate, but when Julie arrived there was no activity in the plant itself. Despite the abandoned mill, the natural beauty of the North Shore region was spectacular, dwarfing any downside. Waialua was located near Haleiwa, the historic surf town with a laid-back ambience. Situated on seven miles of thick sandy beaches, Waialua was a ringside seat for much that drew visitors to the upper reaches of the island.

  That stretch of beach was home to the storied Banzai Pipeline. The big, glassy waves so close to perfection made it a surfer’s Mecca, drawing the best in the world. These massive waves often swell up to thirty feet or more, posing dangers for even the most experienced practitioners of the sport. Yet still they came to worship at the altar of the power of the Pacific Ocean, risking wipeout and even death, as they strove to conquer that power, at least for a brief, glorious moment that would be a highlight of their lives. The exhilarating high of a successful ride created an addiction that pulled them back to the risk again and again.

  During the winter months, the area hosted premiere surfing events, including the Super Bowl of wave riding, the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing. During the summer months, though, the waves subsided to manageable heights, creating a far more tranquil environment for swimming, sunbathing, and family outings.

  When Darcelle learned that Julie had two small children, she balked at first. Her sister had died violently, and Darcelle just wanted a simple, peaceful life. She couldn’t imagine having that with children in her home.

  But the tall blonde who walked into Darcelle’s home was hard to resist. Julie loved the house and its location. She pointed to the nice yard where her children could play. She pleaded with Darcelle to give her family a chance for the six months remaining before they joined her husband back east.

  Darcelle relented and the three moved in to share her home and she never regretted the decision. The kids were great. Calyx was a sweet old soul at five years old, always questioning things, forever wanting to learn more. She loved to play in the garden of the beach house, reveling in the abundance and lushness of the tropical flowers—her favorites were the spider lilies. She was a darling little girl with a very cute face. The placement of the freckles on her cheeks and across her nose appeared to have been designed by an artist rather than the haphazard whim of genetics.

  Two-year-old Beau was all boy, with a mop of blond hair and the deepest dimples. “A little cup of poi and full of sweetness,” Darcelle said. The little toddler lifted her spirits in a dark time. He loved to start the day by throwing his toys down the stairs to awaken the household. He often did crazy little things, bending over and making faces, anything to make Darcelle laugh.

  One morning, Beau had an attack of conscience when he realized his boisterousness had gotten out of control. He slipped into Darcelle’s room, placed a Pepsi on her nightstand, and whispered, “I’m sorry.”

  Julie struck Darcelle as a normal, decent mom who approached parenting with a lot of creativity. She was very organized, keeping the kids busy with a nonstop cycle of activities. The three of them loved to drive around the island with the convertible top down, relishing the sun on their faces.

  Julie constantly made checklists of to-do items that she followed without fail. She played volleyball with another tall, beautiful, athletic woman, a financial reporter named Karen. With Darcelle, though, Julie was a closed book. Most of their conversations were just surface interactions; only once or twice in the six months they lived together did Julie open up about anything and really talk in depth.

  Julie was definitely not an intimidated little military wife. She was determined to take care of things on her own. Overall, Julie was upbeat and very good with her children; Darcelle saw no shadows of the darkness that would fall with sudden finality in the years to come.

  CHAPTER 9

  In the summer of 1999, Julie and the children joined Parker stateside. First the family moved to Woodbridge, Virginia, and then on to Columbia, Maryland. As a military family, they moved a lot. Jack Armstrong, who knew Parker in high school, told People that keeping a military family intact comes with increasing upheavals, fear, and great expectations. “To live in that uncertainty year after year really takes a toll.”

  It was not easy for Julie or any military wife. Many felt she gave up a promising career and military dreams to support a family while Parker continued his military aspirations and was often deployed overseas. Living vicariously, instead of directly following her own dreams, did not seem to work well for her.

  In 2001, Julie suffered a severe and debilitating episode of depression for which she was hospitalized at a National Institutes of Health facility. While there she was diagnosed with severe depression; bipolar disorder, a condition where a sufferer’s moods swung from a very good or irritable mood to a lethargic depression; and schizoaffective disorder, a condition that caused a loss of contact with reality, or a state of psychosis, as well as mood problems. She received nine months of intensive inpatient treatment. In her absence from home, Parker hired a nanny to assist with the children and Parker’s mother came to live with them to help in any way she could.

  In May 2002, the army sent Parker back to Germany to the Barton Barracks, U.S. Army Garrison Ansbach, Installation Management Command, situated in northern Bavaria in the foothills of the Alps. He was assigned as a lieutenant colonel, overseeing a battalion.
Parker was thrilled by his return. At a company command ceremony on McGraw Kaserne, a former army installation in Munich, he said, “I am the luckiest man in the world. I feel sorry for anyone who is not me today.”

  Julie continued on with the medications prescribed during her recent institutionalization. She also made regular visits to her psychiatrist, who added an unspecified personality disorder to her list of mental health diagnoses.

  Julie was well enough in 2003 to fly back from Germany with Parker for a special occasion in her hometown of Muscatine. Forty-five years earlier, Patty Peterson and Jim Powers had been wed in Chariton, Iowa, on August 16. Their family gathered round the couple to celebrate their long years of marriage. Julie and Parker were not the only ones who’d traveled a great distance. Julie’s brother, David, and his wife, Julie, traveled from Michigan to attend, and Julie’s sister, Carol, and her husband, Joe, made the trip from Syracuse, New York, to reunite on that special day. They all enjoyed the celebration of the faithful couple who were the heart and soul of their extended family.

  Parker was transferred in April 2005 to U.S. Army Garrison Baden-Würtemberg in Heidelberg in southwest Germany in a steep valley on the river Neckar. It was a picturesque city complete with the perfect romantic symbol, a castle lying in ruins.