Makes You Think
by Misstaken
Copyright© 2019 by Misstaken
True Story: Not a story, just a description of something that happened today that made me pause and reflect.
Tags: True Story
Today has been hot, reports claim hottest day in years. My fractured her ankle last week and wanted to visit her ex fiancé, so I offered to drive her.
Long hours on crowded roads even though we left early. Finally we found a place in the shadiest part of the carpark. I helped her out of the car but she shrugged off my steadying hand, determined to walk alone to see him.
I stayed back, giving her space, privacy, which is probably why I noticed the guys a little further away, some in uniform, others obviously out of it. A soft voice to my right, I’d not even noticed him, “Miss, please, no further.” I looked up at him, glanced at the group, nodded agreement.
“I’m just giving my friend space, she’s visiting her ex.”
I can’t explain it, but the atmosphere changed, is if we were sharing something, a moment.
“The guys won’t be too long.”
He was still watching, but not the direction where the men were standing. A while later he spoke. “Your friend?”
“Yes.”
As my friend joined us he spoke again, his voice controlled, calm, yet there was something... “I’m sorry for your loss.”
My friend stopped, balanced on her crutches she’d not yet mastered. “Thanks, you lost someone too?”
“Too many.” His reply was soft, but that edge was sharper.
The sound of vehicles broke the silence, tinted windows, anonymous as those I’d been kept clear of.
“Thank you for waiting.” He nodded at us both and turned away towards where the men had been gathered.
My friend’s voice stopped him. “It helps to have a friend, I should have accepted the offer, please, accept mine.”
We walked together, slow so my friend could set the pace, he stopped, one of us either side of him.
Silence.
He spoke with that soft voice, the edge barely hidden. This is what he said;
When the first of us arrived it was a bare base, nothing but the necessary. As the months went by it still had nothing, then an ex-pat showed up, did a deal. Our little corner of hell was the secure area on a secure base, suddenly we had something, two shipping containers, one was a store and had chillers, a single worker, it was part food kiosk part shop. The ex-pat showed up once a week with supplied, the worker stayed, wasn’t allowed out, that was the deal.
Finally we had paradise in hell, that’s what the worker painted above the serving hatch. “Paradise” with a picture of a bacon roll and a mug of tea. The ex-pat had put up a sign prices and opening hours, but nobody ever saw it close when ops were running. Day of night we could get a little bite of paradise, a bacon roll and a mug of tea.
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