Chapter 1: A Wolf Pup Matures

Big T---I am Anthony Green, son of the lawyer Tony Green and grandson of Big Tony Green. To keep the confusion down in the family I am called Big T.

That nickname was given to me by Jubal Washington. Jubal was a black man whose mother worked for my family. They lived in the apartment over our garage. After his mother died, Jubal was raised by my grandfather. When Big Tony and my grandmother died in a plane crash, my father took over the responsibility of raising Jubal.

Jubal had the mind of an eight-year-old (due to a high fever he had as a baby) but the body of a pro linebacker. He had watched my grandfather work on small motors, plant a vegetable garden and care for Grandmothers’ rose bushes so much that after their deaths he was able to take over the yard work. His mother had taught him to cook, so he made breakfast every morning for my family.

Now when I came along, I was like my granddad, big, black-haired and while not dumb I was never the smartest one in the room. My dad is a lawyer. Not just any lawyer, but one of the smartest in the state. Everyone says he is a genius. My little brother is just like my dad, short, blonde hair, chubby and smart as a whip. Dad taught him to play the piano by the time he was six years old. In high school he gave piano recitals!

Me? Jubal raised me. Well maybe that is a stretch. While Andy, my brother, was learning to play the piano, Jubal was teaching me how to prune the grapefruit trees he and my granddaddy had planted. Or he was teaching me how to shoot baskets and play ‘horse’. With him I learned to hit a baseball and throw a football. Things my dad knew nothing about.

I was the one who found Jubal in the backyard. I’ll never forget that day. I came in from school and ran out to find him lying in the rose garden. While he was pruning the roses, he had a heart attack.

He was dead! I ran screaming into the house where my mom told me to call 911. She was doing CPR on him when the ambulance arrived. But it was way too late.

While I played sports in high school, I was never the star. I was big 6’ 2” inches tall and weighed about 190 by my senior year. I had a lot of girlfriends but no one special. My brother never dated. I doubt he ever talked to a girl his entire four years in high school. I asked dad about this once. He said for me not to worry he had been the same way and he turned out just fine. I guess he did. I mean somehow, he found mom and they are happy. They look alike. Both are short, blonde and chunky. I guess one day Andy will find someone to love him.

I graduated high school and joined the Marines, just like my granddaddy Big Tony had done years ago.

Just like him I was a grunt, 0311, Infantry, rifleman. I was a PFC (Private first class) when I first landed in Afghanistan. Two years later, on my second tour, I was a buck sergeant. And a year later, on my first tour in Miger, Africa; I was meritoriously promoted to staff sergeant for actions I had taken during an attack on the base.

(Author’s note---Miger is a fictitious country in Africa that I use in some of my stories. There is a ‘secret’ U.S. drone base located there)

After 4 glorious months in that shit-hole country (sound familiar?) my unit was sent ASAP to Kabul airport to help with the evacuation of all U.S. forces from Afghanistan. What a cluster-fuck! (Marine terminology). We gave up the most secure airbase in the world to try and guard the evacuations of thousands at an airport that was impossible to secure. Of course, the inevitable happened. A suicide bomber killed 10 of my fellow Marines!

Who thought this plan up? We left thousands of friends, some who were American citizens, to be slaughtered. Why didn’t some General like Chesty Puller or Patton stand up and say, “Hell no, we ain’t doing it this way?”

Politicians! I hate them! I decided that day if that was the way they wanted to play, I was not going to be part of the game. Marines kick ass, not stand around while religious fanatics cut off heads and kill women and children. My enlistment was up a couple of months later. I got out.