Scriptment
“Garcia, Raymond.” He said as he handed his ID over the table to the gruff-faced recruiter.
The other man looked at the ID, then up at the young man standing in front of him, back to the ID, then handed him a sheaf of forms to fill out.
“You come back in three days and we will sign you up, not before, Young Man. Understand me?”
Ray nodded. In three days he would turn 18. Then he would legally be able to join the forces and serve, just like his own father had. Ray never knew his father, the man had died overseas before he was born. His Mom had died just a couple of years ago in a car accident, so Ray had finished school on his own.
Graduation was just a week behind him. His goal for the past two years had been to join the forces and serve. He really had nothing else to live for. This small college town in the middle of the reclaimed desert held no real meaning for him. He had no grandparents or siblings, that he knew of. His mother had never spoken of her family to him, they were all they had to each other, Then she died. Ray remembered the final day, sitting by her hospital bed as she lay there, still and to him, it seemed already dead. Machines breathing for her as doctors monitored her vitals.
Then her heart had stopped, and though the doctors tried to bring her back, it was just not enough. She passed away, leaving Ray alone. He got the social support he needed, and the workers mostly left him alone. He did well enough in school, good marks, not really a troublemaker. His small group of friends were not really friends, just guys he hung around with when he could be bothered to. They mostly hung with him because he was tall for his age, and didn’t get carded at the stores buying beer, so he was everybody’s friend when it was time for the weekends.
He had never had much luck with the girls. No steady girlfriends, still a virgin. Now, about to join the forces and go overseas to fight in a war for his country. It was all he had left, and he felt, if nothing else, serve a purpose as there was nothing else to do. He never thought of working in a 9-5 job or something; military life was all he had every imagined, and now it was about to become a reality, his new reality.
Three days later, he was back at the recruiter’s table. The same gruff recruiter looked up at him. The neatly filled out forms, the newly minted ID card showing his legal age. The older man looked at him, then checked to make sure all the forms were filled out.
“You sure this is what you want?” Ray was asked.
“The military will own your lanky ass for the next five years. We have a war going on, you will be going out there to fight. Not all of us come back from it.” The gruff recruiter told him. It was part of his job, to try and weed out those who were not totally sure of the actions they were doing, to try and reconsider this career path.
“I am sure.” Ray told him, and got the stamp that signaled the end of his civilian life.
Chloe Zavis stood behind the counter, filling coffee for the few people sitting there and watching as the crowds drifted past the Café windows. A quiet summers’ day. Like all the rest. Clear blue skies, light breeze. Another endless summer day which she spent a good part of working at the diner.
Unlike her friends, Chloe had a plan. She saved every dime from her pay and from the other part-time work she had done, like babysitting and daycare when she was not in school. She was an excellent Piccolo player and a solid member of the school marching band. Also in her last year before graduation. As luck would have it, she turned 18 just after school ended so she was stuck in school for another year while still considered an adult in most places.
Chloe wanted to go to university. The University of California in Berkeley was her goal. She had the grades already, had all the required courses already done before she even hit grade 12. A degree in architecture was her goal, she wanted to design buildings. Her nest egg was already a little over ten thousand, and by the end of this summer, it would be fifteen thousand. Enough to cover a year’s lodging at the university. She would get herself a job when she was there and keep her income going.
There was a crowd of soldiers on their fresh greens. All fresh from recruitment, getting ready to hop on the bus to the coast the basic training. She knew that with the war going on, a lot of these fresh young men would not come home, or would probably come home wounded or otherwise broken. This was just the way it was with wars. Chloe knew it, and it bothered her, however she still respected the men who chose to serve their country, and to sacrifice everything, even their lives, to fight a war in a foreign land for her freedom.
A few of them came in to sit in a few of the booths and have a cup of coffee and a slice of pie before their busses left. She noticed one of them, who sat by himself and didn’t really socialize. She went around pouring coffee and taking orders, then came to him.
He could barely make eye contact when she asked him what he wanted to order, so with a bright smile, she suggested a coffee and slice of lemon pie.
Ray looked up at her, this charming woman in the typical uniform of a waitress, a pink bow in her auburn hair. He noticed the name tag read ’Chloe’. He saw her sparkling green eyes, and the wide smile she gave him.
He nodded at her suggestion, and Chloe turned to get the order. She came back a few minutes later with the coffee to pour in his cup and a slice of lemon pie with a dollop of whipped cream on top and vanilla ice cream on the side.
“Would you mind sitting with me? I’m about to ship out and feel a bit low right now.” He asked as she set the plate in front of him.
Chloe smiled as she pulled a fork from her apron and set it in front of him with a napkin.
“I’m off in an hour. That’s when my shift ends. Your bus won’t leave until tomorrow morning. I know where we can go.”
Ray nodded and she was off to finish her shift. He ate the pie, which was very good, and finished the coffee. He never really socialized before, but now that he was committed to this military life, he suddenly felt the need to live a little.
An hour later, they walked down to the pier that stretched along the lake the town half circled and sat near the end of it, feet dangling off the sides, watching the small boats slip across the water, the birds spinning around in the drafts, and they talked.
They found they shared a lot of things, just from totally different circles in life. They shared the same birthday month, only off by a day. So were both eighteen. She was a day older than him. He teased her about being an older woman, which made her laugh loudly, startling some birds that had been resting on the rails. Her laugh was infectious and sounded musical to Ray.
“You got a boyfriend?” He asked her after a few minutes of relaxed silence.
“Actually, it doesn’t matter,” He continued, ignoring her surprised look. “I don’t have anybody to write to, and I’m going away for a full tour. It is okay with you if I write to you?”
Chloe was charmed by this average soldier. He certainly wasn’t a poster boy for the forces. There was something that appealed to her, though. He was at least half Hispanic, with the dusky dark eyes and black hair, high cheekbones and a very mild accent that said he knew some Spanish, even if just a pidgin amount. Sitting there in his greens, her in her uniform, she had a thought.
Most likely, he was not coming home. Most likely, he would not even remember her if he did come home. He would be much older then, far more mature and worldly and a great deal experienced in ways she could not even imagine.
Chloe made the choice to give this average soldier a proper send-off, like a lot of others may be getting either from their relationships or by the passing of cash. The bus would be leaving at 4am tomorrow morning. That gave them enough time for some good celebrating.
The sun was setting as she got to her feet and helped Ray back to his.
“You got a room for the night, soldier?” She asked.
“Yes Ma’am.” He replied. “The hotel is putting us all up. I got a room all to myself.”
Chloe smiled. “Show me.”
Two weeks later, Chloe got a letter from a base in California. In it, Ray told her how basic training was going and how he would never forget the night they had spent together. He was good at what he was tasked with. He followed orders well and was learning what he needed to learn.
A couple of weeks later, another letter arrived. Ray had finished phase one of Basic and was well on the way into phase two. He was feeling a bit better about what he was going into. The tone of the letter was still upbeat. He thought of her a lot, and said he would like to keep in touch when he got back from the tour. Chloe smiled, that would be nice, but the reality was, with the way the war was going, he would never even survive the first few months of action.
More letters, once every two weeks until the last one, he was shipping out to an overseas country to fight the war. He had passed his training and was shipping out. Chloe had written him back after each of his letters, and he told her that he had her letters and really appreciated the time spent to write him back.
The next letter was three weeks coming, it was marked from a country in South East Asia. He was in the thick of it now. Chloe was back in school for her final year now, working to finish all her courses, no more time for the café job, so spending her days in school, her evenings in study and sometimes with a few of her friends.
Some of them knew about Ray, but none of them really liked the idea of her having a relationship with a soldier. He is too old for you, they said. Chloe had laughed. I am the same age, technically, I’m a day older than he is. You should look for somebody here, plenty of guys would like to have you as their girl, Chloe.
She shook her head “I am not going to hold any other guy’s hand. I am happy to have Ray and he is who I want.”
One of her friends told her she was crazy to wait for this guy. "Most of them never make it home, Chloe. You think you’re in love with him, after just one night?"
"Maybe," she had replied. "My love for him might never end. I am going to wait for him to come home, and he will have a home to come back to."
Letters came back and forth sent over the water and across the sky. Letting her know of the dangers he experienced and of his growing love for her. He told her of his fear that he would be alone, and never have somebody to hold. Chloe had replied to him that he had already held her, and she continued to hold him in her heart. He would always have a place with her.
She did not tell him she was expecting their child.
One final letter arrived about halfway through the year, just after January. Ray told her that he was going on a deployment for a month and that he would write after that but not to worry if it was a little later.
Three weeks, four weeks, six weeks, no letter. Chloe was getting worried that her overseas soldier had fallen, and their child would not have a father. Nothing came from anybody and she kept going to school, playing in the band, finishing her studies. Following her routines because after all, what else was there?
One Friday night, during the regular football game, as she was standing with the band as they played the national anthem, she noticed the announcer come up to the podium. This only happened once a month.
He cleared his throat to the mic and began. “Folks, I want you to all bow your heads. I have here a list of our fallen boys from the war.”
Chloe stood with the rest, heads lowered as the names were read, all soldiers who would never come home. “...Bob Conners, Doug Franklin, Ray Garcia, John Kendell...” Chloe broke from the band and fled under the bleachers, tears streaming down her cheeks. A couple of the other band members noticed but didn’t feel it was worth worrying over, the band was done, and who cared anyways. Nobody knew these kids, they went to different schools.
She cried for what seemed like hours, eventually cleaning herself up and heading back home. The next day, a knock at the door had her parents very concerned as they woke her up. There was a military man standing there, looking for her.
Sitting in the living room, her parents finally learned what she had been keeping from them. Not really a secret, she was eighteen after all. But the relationship with Ray Garcia and him notating her as his dependent and beneficiary. As he had been declared MIA, which was not actually the same as dead, but for the purposes of a beneficiary was the same, she was now going to get his benefits pay.
She smoothed her hand over the growing belly of their child, looked at her parents’ concerned expressions, and nodded, accepting the agreement with the military to be Ray’s beneficiary.
Later that evening, lying in her bed, she felt the first kick of their baby. Knowing from one of the most recent doctor appointments that it was a boy she murmured “I am going to name you Ray, after your father. You never knew him, but I will teach you everything I knew about him. He was a good man.”
Five years passed. Chloe never made it to Berkeley, having a child to raise changed her priorities. Not that she regretted her time with Ray, or their child who was a holy terror one moment, and a perfect angel the next. She loved him dearly, and would not have changed anything, except for one thing, she dearly wished that Ray Garcia could have seen his child being born and been there to raise him.
A few days after an anniversary Chloe didn’t even notice, as she was going to her architectural job with a local firm in town, she passed a derelict man sitting on a park bench. He had been there for the past week, always on the same bench, always about the time she would walk by. But if she turned the corner, then came back, he had been gone.
The next day she walked past him, then stopped and turned to face him. “You’re following me.” she said.
He shook his head slowly, then said in a husky voice. “I am just sitting on this bench.”
“Every day. At this time of the day. Just when I happen to be passing by. Why would that be?” She asked him, siting on the bench beside him, making him be more aware of her presence.
“I wanted to see you, one final time.” He replied, looking up at her from beneath the shaggy brow of dark hair. She saw his eyes, those same dark eyes. The same eyes her son had.
“Ray?”
He nodded slowly. “I was left for dead and captured. They finally let me go three months past. I got back here last week. Wasn’t sure if you would want to see me again. So I kept my space.”
She reached out a hand and gently touched his shoulder. “Of course I want to see you. They told me you were missing. I get your benefits because they declared you effectively dead, Ray. I missed you so very much, my soldier.”
She reached for him and they embraced, a love rekindled after years apart.
