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Wes Boyd’s Spearfish Lake Tales Contemporary Mainstream Books and Serials Online |
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Wes Boyd’s Spearfish Lake Tales Contemporary Mainstream Books and Serials Online |
One of the things Pat particularly enjoyed about being an instructor at Ft. Knox was that he actually got out in the field with his Bradley more than he would have in a normal unit. Granted, most of the exercises were routine, pretty much the same thing done over and over, each time with a new class, but the routine made sure they had their moves down to a fine, well-honed edge.
Of course, there are always boneheads running around, students who just didn’t seem to get what the experienced instructors were trying to teach them, and occasionally it got frustrating. One cold and dreary November day about a month after the class reunion, things just didn’t go well. It was not one big thing, just a lot of little ones, but they added up to what he had to consider a bad day that he was glad to have over with. He was happy to get back to his quarters that evening, just to take his boots off, get into some civvies, and spend some quiet time with his college class books.
Ever since his decision to stay in the Army back in the wake of the Gulf War, Pat had been taking college courses, mostly by correspondence but occasionally by classes held on whatever base he was at. Although it was going slowly since he rarely took more than a class at a time, at the most two, he was well over halfway to a college degree. Sometimes these were the same courses a kid would take in college, but when he could, Pat took courses that could be of use to him in the Army, with only a mild eye cast toward what would come afterward. That was still a long way away and something he didn’t really want to consider just yet.
The visit to the renaissance faire in Lexington the month before had come just as he was wrapping up one course and deciding on what to take for his next one. Since he was a little impressed by the experience, he had decided on taking a military history course on medieval weapons, tactics, and fighting. He’d only gotten into the class work a little bit, but he’d found it interesting – while much had changed, he was surprised at some of the things that hadn’t changed much in five hundred years or so. Some principles always seemed to apply, no matter what the weapon or era.
One evening, he was getting really interested in the tactics of using archers in battle when his cell phone rang. Slightly irritated by the interruption, he picked it up off the table, switched it on, and said, “Sergeant McDonald, sir.”
“Boy, you take it seriously, don’t you?” Cindy replied.
“I have to, it’s my job,” Pat replied. He’d been wondering about Cindy. Almost a month had gone by since the incredible weekend with Cindy and Russ up in Dayton. This was about the time she would know whether she was pregnant or not. If not, he’d probably be taking another run up there in the near future. Part of him hoped he wouldn’t have to, since the whole deal was awkward and uncomfortable – but it had been an interesting and warm experience, nothing like he would have thought in such circumstances. While he had friends in the Army, none of them were like that. “So what’s happening up your way?” he asked.
“Russ is on the phone with me, and we’re both excited,” she replied. “There’s a little ring in the bottom of a test tube that tells me I’m going to be a mommy again.”
“Hey, that’s great news,” Pat replied. “I’m real happy to hear that.”
“I’m so very relieved,” Cindy said. “I’m so much happier than I was the last time. Then I didn’t know which way to turn, but it worked out. This time, I’m very happy. I know it’s what I needed and what Russ needed. It’s beginning to feel like our lives are getting back to where they’re supposed to be.”
“Well, I’m glad,” Pat replied, meaning it. “Hopefully this will help you put the bad experience behind you.”
“I hope so too,” Russ said. “Don’t get me wrong, we’re always going to miss Caitlynn. But I think we’re starting to get things back into perspective.”
“You can’t ask for a lot more than that,” Pat told them truthfully. “If this is what it takes, then I guess it’s worth it.”
“We think it is,” Cindy told him. “Look, while we wanted you to be the first to get the news, we’d also like to celebrate a little bit, just the three of us. Do you think you could come up this weekend?”
“We’re not talking about anything special,” Russ put in. “Just dinner, hanging out a little, that kind of thing. Maybe we could take that run over to the Air Force Museum you and I were talking about the last time you were up.”
“I don’t see why not,” Pat told them. “I’m not going to be able to take off early like I did last time, but I don’t have any duty days coming up this weekend. I could leave early Saturday morning and get up there before noon.”
“Sounds good,” Cindy told him. “Is there anything in particular you’d like for dinner?”
“I can’t think of anything special. Well, steak maybe. When we get steaks in the dining facility they tend to be on the mediocre side.”
“Steak it is. How do you like yours done?”
“Medium well, the last of the pink just going away.”
“We’ll see if we can’t arrange that.” Russ put in. “It’s been a while since I’ve grilled steaks, and it’s getting a little cold for it, but it’s a momentous occasion and we need to enjoy it a bit.”
Pat got a good night’s sleep Friday night, mostly because he figured he would be needing it on Saturday night. If the celebration turned into a deal like the last time he’d been to Russ and Cindy’s, it could be exhausting and go until all hours – not that it hadn’t been fun, because it had, but it helped to be prepared for it, too.
Early Saturday morning he had the Plymouth heading up the road for Dayton again. The traffic was a little lighter than he had been expecting, and he got there around the middle of the morning. The three of them wound up having a late breakfast or early lunch or whatever it was, then drove over to the Air Force Museum.
Though Pat was not any great expert on planes, nor did he have a great interest in them, the place was different, and though still military, it was out of the ordinary for him. They wound up taking most of the day to get through the huge collection of airplanes, some of them of considerable historical significance. It was an enjoyable afternoon; Russ said he and Cindy had been through the place before, but that it had been a while.
“That turned out to be a little more than I expected,” Pat told them as they finished up their tour. “Maybe sometime I’ll have to have you come down to Fort Knox so we can go through the armor museum there. Tanks and personnel carriers might not be as spectacular as planes, but they can be interesting, too.”
“That might be an idea,” Russ agreed. “I mean, we know you’re in the Army, but we don’t have any clear idea of what it is you do. Let’s figure on doing it sometime before Cindy gets real big, so it will be less uncomfortable for her.”
The dinner that evening turned out to be pretty good – the steaks were some of the best Pat had ever seen, and while Russ may have said he was an amateur at the grill, especially outside on the chill, dank November evening, he did a fine job with them. They wound up talking around the table for an hour or more after they were done eating, then moved the conversation into the living room.
Eventually the evening grew late, and there had still been no suggestion of a repetition of the orgy they’d experienced the last time. “Well, I suppose we’d better think about turning in,” Russ said finally. “Pat, I know you’re pretty much early to bed, early to rise, so I’d imagine it’s getting late for you.”
“It’s getting there,” Pat agreed.
“Fine,” Cindy said. “We have your stuff in the spare bedroom, up the hall from us. Unlike the last time you were here, you ought to be able to get some sleep.”
Without anything more than that being said, Pat understood that there wasn’t going to be a repetition of the orgy this time. When he got right down to it, that was fine with him. He’d really enjoyed spending the day with Russ and Cindy, but in spite of the good times had by all the previous month, it had been a little uncomfortable, too. This was different. He’d merely been a guest, but apparently he’d accomplished the mission they’d set for him. Maybe that was better, anyway. He really hadn’t had any close friends over the years, and Russ and Cindy were now easily the best civilian friends he had, perhaps the closest thing he had to a family. While he’d had to be pretty independent at an early age, it was something he’d felt he’d missed, and now his friends were starting to fill that hole in his life.
Things seemed a lot more like normal when Russ and Cindy waved goodbye to him on Sunday afternoon. Pat headed back to Ft. Knox carrying an invitation to join them for Thanksgiving, and then Christmas a month afterward. Thanksgiving was going to be a bit of a reach as he would have duty on the day following. But it wasn’t that long a drive, and he wasn’t going to miss going to visit if he could help it.
He didn’t. Thanksgiving proved to be the first time he’d had one of the holiday dinners in someone’s home since maybe the sixth grade, and his memories of that long-ago time were not exactly happy. Christmas was much the same. Again, it was the first time he’d celebrated it in someone’s home in dog’s years. They exchanged some small presents. He gave Russ and Cindy some baby-type things he found at the PX – well, not exactly that he found, he’d happened to run into the wife of a fellow sergeant there and enlisted her help, although her advice proved good. In return, he was given a nice cardigan sweater that would be comfortable for sitting around his quarters while he was studying. It proved to be exactly that.
Over the course of the next six months, Pat got together with Russ and Cindy about once a month. Twice the Bradsteets drove down to Fort Knox and stayed in a motel in Elizabethtown, since Pat’s quarters were Spartan and not set up for having company. One of those weekends they did go to the armor museum at the fort, but the other time they went to Mammoth Cave, which wasn’t far away. He also got a chance to show them through a Bradley and explain a little of how things worked and what could be done with it.
One of the things interesting to Pat was to watch Cindy progress in her pregnancy. There was little sign of it at first, of course, but by February he could look at her and tell that she was pregnant. In another couple months it was clearly evident, and there was no secret that she was extremely happy with it.
In the first part of April, Pat got a call from Russ. “Are you planning on coming up in the next couple weeks?” he asked.
“I can if you want me to,” Pat told him. “I only draw duty about every fourth weekend the way things are set up now, and the next couple are pretty clear for me.”
“Good,” Russ said. “If you have some grungy old work clothes you don’t give a shit about, you might as well bring them. We’ll probably need them.”
“What’s up?”
“Cindy is getting a bug up her butt about the baby’s room,” Russ explained. “She got that way about this time when she was having Caitie. What she’s decided she wants us to do is to redecorate Caitie’s room back into a normal bedroom, and convert one of the spare bedrooms into the baby’s room. That means paint, wallpaper, and all that happy stuff.”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Pat agreed. “Maybe not having Caitie’s room set up will drive that memory further into the past.”
“That’s exactly what I think. But anyway, Pat, it’s like this: you said you wanted to be part of the experience. This is one of those things.”
“I said I wanted to be a part of the kid’s life,” Pat protested a little – not much, since not only he was willing to help out, he was thrilled to be asked. This was something different than he had expected.
“It’s all part of the whole thing,” Russ said. “And while doing the redecorating is partly a pain in the butt, it’s a good part of the experience, too.”
It worked out that Pat could get off duty a little early on Friday, so he drove up that evening, a fine April day with the promise of spring in the air. That way he and Russ could get to work early on Saturday.
Pat was not exactly a stranger to a paint brush, and there was plenty to do, which included moving furniture and storing some of it. Still, it was very enjoyable work, mostly because he was with friends and was doing something constructive toward taking care of the kid. Cindy was getting well along in her pregnancy now and looked it, but she was a part of the project, as well.
By late Saturday afternoon they’d accomplished about what they could for one day; they were getting to the point where they were going to have to wait out paint drying before they could do more the next day. “I think we’re getting ahead of it,” Russ commented down in the living room after the three of them had cleaned up and changed into paint-free clothes. “I don’t think we could have made it through in one weekend if you hadn’t come up to help.”
“I enjoyed doing it,” Pat told him. “That’s what friends are for.”
“Well, I think you’re the best kind of friend,” Russ said. “And that’s not even including the special service you’ve provided for us.”
“I appreciate that,” Pat nodded. “And I really appreciate being allowed to be a part of the experience.”
“It is special,” Cindy smiled. “And we appreciate your wanting to be a part of it. Which leads me to something we need to talk about.”
“I may not know much about women,” Pat grinned. “But I do know that the phrase ‘we need to talk’ usually precedes trouble.”
Cindy shook her head. “I don’t think so, at least not this time. Pat, I had an ultrasound earlier this week, and we now know we’re going to have another little girl.”
“I suppose that has something to do with the pink paint we’ve been spreading around today.”
“Well, yes,” she laughed. “At least a little bit. More importantly, it means that we can start getting serious about a name, and we’d sort of like you to be a part of the process, too, or at least to sign off on the name that sounds the most promising to us.”
“I can’t believe you haven’t been thinking about it for months,” Pat said. “But I’m honored to be asked. What have you come up with?”
“Right at the moment, we’re leaning to ‘Celeste Patricia’, but we’d like your approval on it.”
“Pretty name,” Pat nodded. “Where did you come up with that?”
“You suggested it,” Russ said flatly.
“I did?”
“Right, back when we told you about Caitlynn. You were reaching for her name and couldn’t come up with it. Celeste is what popped out. We like it.”
“You guys,” Pat shook his head. “I don’t believe this.” Even though it had been accidental, kind of a brain fart, on his part, he couldn’t help but be touched that Cindy and Russ had taken it so seriously. He thought for a moment, then commented, “I suppose Celeste is fine with me, but doesn’t Patricia sort of give away the secret?”
“Not when I have an Aunt Patty,” Cindy grinned. “Might as well kill two birds with one stone if we can.”
“You guys,” Pat sighed. “You know, you’re going to make me break down and cry sooner or later, don’t you?”
“Pat, you said you wanted to be part of the experience and of Celeste’s life. Well, we want you to be, too.”
“After she’s grown up a little, there will come a time when it won’t be as easy for you to be a part of some of those really special moments that come up, the ones that can really touch your heart.” Russ said wisely. He sighed and went on, “Some of those moments we never even got to enjoy with Caitlynn. But while we still can, we need to grab every chance for you to be a part of them.”
Cindy was progressively bigger the next two times Pat made the trek to Dayton; the last time, toward the middle of June, her belly was really big and it looked like Celeste could come at any time, although she said it was still a few weeks off.
So it proved. On a hot day in the middle of July Pat was out with a training session in the maneuver area of Ft. Knox, when he looked up and happened to notice a Humvee pulling up next to his Bradley. The training cadre first sergeant hopped out of the right side. “Hey, McDonald,” the first sergeant said. “Turn your track over to your assistant and come with me.”
“Why? What’s up?”
“That friend of yours you told me about, the one who’s having a baby. Well, she’s having it, and they want you up there. I’ll take you back so you can get your car.”
Pat did go back to his room for a quick change of clothes – civvies were cooler than fatigues on a hot July day, after all – and was soon on the road to Dayton. He had known for months that Cindy and Russ wanted him there when Celeste was born. He figured he’d just be waiting around outside the delivery area, but he should have known better; the minute he walked up to the receptionist, she told him that they’d been waiting for him. Within a couple minutes, he was wearing scrubs and a mask, and was being ushered into the birthing room.
Cindy looked frazzled and tired. “Pat, thank God you’re here,” she said. “I don’t know if I could have held out much longer.”
“You weren’t quite ready yet, anyway,” a nurse told her. “But really, you are now. Go ahead and push whenever you’re ready.”
In only a couple of minutes, Pat and Russ stood side by side watching Celeste Patricia Bradstreet be come into the world. It was amazing to Pat – how could he have been involved in this at all, especially to watch his unacknowledged daughter be born. “Thank God,” Russ mumbled. “I think things are finally back to normal now. Pat, we couldn’t have done it without your help.”
Pat had already arranged for leave pending this event, so he was still around a few days later when he and Russ walked behind a nurse pushing a wheelchair carrying Cindy and Celeste out of the hospital. The men put mother and daughter into the back of Russ’s car and took them home. Pat tried to help out the best he could until he had to get back to Fort Knox.
Over the next couple of months Pat made it up to Dayton more frequently than previously, where he got introduced to such things as burping babies and changing them. Celeste was such a tiny little thing, so cute, that he could hardly believe he’d been involved at all. It would have been nice to have known Caitlynn at that age, he thought, but Celeste was proving to be just as fine an experience for him.
The best part of the whole affair wasn’t Celeste, but what happened with Cindy and Russ. Pat had the feeling that, even while Cindy had been pregnant, the sadness over losing Caitlynn was not far away. Only the hope for the future was keeping her going, and pretty much the same thing could be said for Russ. Now, as far as he could see it was mostly gone. Though the sadness was still there, it was well into the background, washed away by a happy little baby and what she meant for the future. Celeste had put two shattered lives back together and rebuilt a family in the process – not a bad job for a girl only months old.
Once again, Pat looked on with satisfaction at what had happened, and at his part in it. Everything had worked out considerably better than he could have expected in his wildest dreams. “Mission accomplished,” he told himself.
