Soldiers in Heat: Training Session (11 page)

“
This is bullshit. He can’t do
that.”

“
He did.” She pulled off her
boots.

“
There has to be something that
can be done.”

“
Captain Brown told me how to
fight it. There’s a hearing process.”

“
Those can take weeks.”

“
There’s one in a three
days.”

“
But you’ll miss more than
forty-eight hours of class. If you’re put back in, that will put
you in the class behind us.”

“
I know, but it’s the only shot I
got.” She held back tears.

“
It will work. Stay strong,
darling.”

She got off the phone and crawled under her
covers, already prepared for morning, when the lights would flick
on and the girl screamed to wake them up.

Chapter
Eighteen

Two days without Kimberly and Jonathan no
longer wanted to be in Delta Company himself. Seeing her going into
the chow hall with HHC hurt him to the core. She looked defeated
and withdrawn. Her spark was gone. Kimberly no longer looked at him
and smiled. He wanted to hug her and tell her it would be okay but
couldn’t.

Now he was in the field and couldn’t talk to
her. They were sleeping in makeshift tents with no power. Even his
backup power source would only get him so far. He sent her a text
in the morning and she’d yet to respond. While going through scored
Land Navigation Course, he’d checked his phone several times, to no
avail.

He and his entire platoon passed, but it did
little to lighten his mood. The dynamics had changed. She was no
longer around to make them all smile. Instead of making jokes with
each other, they sat around with solemn faces. They all missed her
good nature and enthusiasm.

“
I know there’s no way she was
messing with Harvey. She didn’t care too much for him. Her husband
is an idiot,” Craig said as they waited for their turn to practice
clearing the building.

Jonathan nodded.

“
He’s been trying to force her
home since we’ve started class. He’d do anything to see her fail,”
she continued.

“
I hope he doesn’t succeed.
There’s a hearing coming up,” he said.

The other squad came out of the back of the
building.

“
Looks like it’s my turn.” Craig
left him with his squad and took off with hers to the start of the
course for clearing the building.

A half hour later, it was his squad’s
turn.

“
Let’s lock and load,” the Student
Squad Leader said.

Jonathan took the point, and everyone followed
behind him. Rice kicked open the door, and Jonathan moved in with
the rest of the squad close behind, in the ready position. In a
sweeping motion, he went to the left, shifting his line of sight
and weapon up and down, clearing his section.

“
Dead, dead, dead. You’re all dead
candidates,” Staff Sergeant Isome shouted.

They were taken out by the cadre, one by one.
Jonathan took a shot from the right. There was no one providing
cover from the door. With Kimberly gone, all the practicing they
did went out the window. Without changing the formation to
compensate for a missing person, it left gaps in their coverage.
They had walked right into an ambush.

“
Regroup and try it again,”
Captain Brown said. “I know Woodson isn’t here, but you need to
come up with something to cover her sector of fire.”

“
Roger that,” the Student Squad
Leader said. As they walked off, he spoke to the squad. “Look,
guys, I’m not trying to fail this. We’re down two people, one out
of both A and B Team. The Diamond Formation is not going to work.
We need to switch to the Wedge.”

Jonathan half listened as the Student Squad
Leader drew the plan in the dirt. He checked his cell.

Good luck today. I miss you guys.
Tell Z to stay out the fatal funnel.

Even when Kimberly was down, she found a way
to pick them up.

“
I have a suggestion,” Jonathan
said, putting his phone away. “How about if Zimmerman stays out and
provides coverage from the window as we enter. This way, it takes
out the cadre in the first room and stops Zimmerman from getting
taken out each time she steps in the doorway. No offense,
Zimmerman, but you don’t move out the fatal funnel fast enough to
not get shot.”

“
You sound like Woodson,”
Zimmerman replied with a laugh.

“
She sent a text, and it gave me
the idea. She wished us luck.”

When it was their turn to go through again,
they completed the mission as if they’d done it a thousand times,
and with zero casualties.

“
You guys look like an entirely
different group. Good job,” Captain Brown said.

Staff Sergeant Isome gave them thumbs
up.

For the rest of the day, they ran more
missions. Each person in their squad had to take a turn being a
leader. It turned out to be a long tiresome day.

By the end of the night, Jonathan was
exhausted. He slid into his sleeping bag and closed his eyes. As
time passed, sounds of snoring echoed around the camp. Even
exhaustion did little to take his mind off Kimberly. He wished she
was nearby so he could look at her. Jonathan wondered if she was
having as a hard time as him sleeping. Hours passed before he
finally drifted off.

Chapter
Nineteen

“
Carlson, get up. You have a
call.” One of the female HHC Candidates stood on the side of her
bunk.

“
I just got off overnight duty for
Charge of Quarters. I’m supposed to be resting for the day.”
Kimberly pulled her cover over her head to block out the
sunlight.

“
Staff Sergeant Jackson sent me to
get you.”

Kimberly sighed. She’d been awake for over
twenty-four hours. She and another male were selected to answer the
phones during the night for their detail. This was after waking up,
completing physical training, and going through a full day at HHC.
Though the CQ office had a bed in it for rest, neither one of them
got to use it. Right at lights out, all the deployed soldiers began
calling and needed to be transferred to their significant other.
With the difference in time zones, day time in the Middle East was
night time in the States.

She slid out the bed, pulled her hair up in a
bun, and put on her gym shoes. It was mandatory to sleep in the
physical fitness uniform. There was no need to get dressed. She
slow dragged out the door and around the building to Staff Sergeant
Jackson’s office.

“
You wanted to see me, Staff
Sergeant?” Kimberly poked her head in the door.

“
Yes, come in and shut the
door.”

She closed the door and took a seat in front
of his desk.

“
What is the deal with you and
your husband?”

“
Excuse me, Staff Sergeant?” He
confused her with his line of questioning.

“
Apparently, your husband has been
calling all throughout the night. You weren’t answering your phone,
so he demanded we make sure you were not with Harvey. The student
on duty didn’t know what to do. She called me.” He leaned closer to
her. “I ask again—what is the issue with you and your
husband?”

“
We’re legally separated, and he
won’t sign the divorce papers.”

“
Why is he calling
here?”

“
Staff Sergeant, you’d have to ask
him that.” Kimberly didn’t know if it was lack of sleep or the
situation with Charles, but she no longer cared with keeping up
with military customs and courtesies. It didn’t help that the
person speaking to her was the same rank as her. “I can’t presume
to know what a delusional, lying, cheating son of a bitch does. Am
I going to get reprimanded or something? Get it over with, so I can
go back to sleep. I’ve been accused of sleeping with an idiot, and
no one wants to listen. Why bother asking me questions?”

Staff Sergeant Jackson’s eyes lowered, giving
her a stern look, and then his mouth curled up into a smile. “If I
wasn’t the one who put you on CQ duty, then I’d be inclined to say
you’re right. Being I know for a fact you were on duty and not
screwing around, I’m leaning more toward agreeing with you on your
husband being delusional.”

Kimberly didn’t know how to
respond.

“
Another thing, if you’re legally
separated, what difference does it make if you’re not answering
your phone? I don’t answer for my ex either.”

“
I didn’t think there was a law
saying I had to. He never says anything positive. This school is
hard enough. I stopped taking his calls weeks ago,” she
said.

“
Captain Brown tells me you’re one
of the better candidates he’s had. I read over you file, and none
of the reasons for you being here makes any sense. Your
soon-to-be-ex husband sees you in a hotel lobby with another
candidate. The reason for him being there are questionable alone.
The Battalion Commander making a decision without speaking to you
or the other candidate is an issue for me. I have no problem being
a witness for you at the hearing. Your husband calling here rubs me
the wrong way. Go get some sleep.”

Kimberly returned to the female bay, sent
Jonathan a text saying she missed him, and got some much needed
rest. Hours later, her growling stomach woke her. It was past lunch
time and too early for dinner. She got an MRE from Staff Sergeant
Jackson and took it to the dayroom. It wasn’t the best of meals,
but it served its purpose.

Compared to the dayroom at Delta Company this
one was a cramped space. It was a small section inside the male
barracks. She took a seat on one of the mix matched couches. Two
candidates, who couldn’t do details for medical reasons, sat on the
other couch reading magazines.

“
I’m sorry about not saying
anything,” Harvey said, standing in doorway.

He was covered in grass and dust from
landscaping the battalion grounds.

She chewed the piece of cheese and crackers
she put in her mouth before speaking. “I’m the one who should
apologize. My husband caused all this.”

“
If I would have spoken up, maybe
it would have turned out differently.”

“
I doubt it. The Battalion
Commander already wrote us off the moment our names were mentioned.
At least, that’s what it feels like. Haven’t you noticed the other
candidate here for disciplinary action is black? From overhearing
everyone talk about it, it’s the norm. The others have medical
condition or couldn’t pass a certain portion of the
class.”

He looked around. “You think he’s singling
people out?”

“
I don’t know for sure but…” she
shrugged her shoulders, “it sure seems that way. I’m not going down
without a fight though.”

“
The hearing’s tomorrow. I’ll be
sure to speak up then. I can’t believe my speaking to you got us
into this.” He shook his head.

“
If not you, it would have been a
hotel employee because they were black. All my husband saw was me
talking to a black man and lost it. If you were white, it would
have been exactly what it was. Two people holding a
conversation.”

“
I can’t imagine what would’ve
happened if he saw you talking to white boy.” He joked.

She cut her eyes at him.

“
I better get back outside and
finish up. I only came in to fill my Camel Pak with some ice
water.”

She finished eating and went back to the
female bay. Thoughts of Jonathan raced through her mind. She’d
wished him luck but would rather be there with him. After seven
weeks of class, she’d never thought she wouldn’t have made it to
the end. Once they passed the field, everything else was downhill.
The only thing left class work and preparing for
graduation.

Jonathan’s words from the hotel room came back
to her: “In it for the long haul.”

With the military nothing was guaranteed. She
could be sent anywhere. The only reason she and her husband were
stationed together was because they were married.

Funny, she and Jonathan had only known each
other for seven weeks, yet it felt like she knew more about him
than a man she been with for years. Jonathan was an open book with
her, and she could tell him anything. Outside of the hotel stays,
they spent many nights talking outside their rooms, in the hallway.
One time, while helping each other getting their gear straight for
the field, he had asked her about her goals.

Kimberly was taken aback by his question.
Charles never seemed to care about anything unless it was about
him. Jonathan showed interest in her goals for the military and
after she retired. She wanted to set up a program to teach teens
business skills while they were still in school. It would be more
than an after-school program.

One of his talks was what she craved. She
looked at her cellphone. Ten missed calls from Charles and six text
messages. She deleted the voicemails and texts without reading them
but stopped when she saw one from Jonathan.

I miss you and can’t wait to hold
you.