Chapter 72

Flashback – Ben – Back at the base

The Corporal took me back to my room where there’s a nurse waiting at the door. She gave me a wicked smile complained, “It’s about time you got here - I’ve been waiting for almost an hour.”

I glared at her and asked, “Don’t tell me, you’re next?”

The Corporal innocently asked, “Next for what?”

She laughed and added, “That’s for Banzai Ben to know and for you to not find out. Thank you Corporal for bringing him here to me but now you need to make yourself scarce.”

He leaned close and whispered, “Banzai, I think you’re going to get really lucky.”

I didn’t have the heart to tell him that all I really wanted to do was sleep. I unlocked the padlock, opened the door and she barely waited until the door closed...

Flashback – Jack – in the hospital

I finally got hold of a nurse and asked, “Hey, I’m feeling better so can I get out of here and head to my room?”

She grinned at me and said, “Sorry Sgt. Reynolds, but your room is occupied right now so you have to stay here until tomorrow.”

I complained, “Occupied, what the hell do you mean?”

She teased, “Come on Sgt. you know what’s going on in your room. Don’t play dumb with me.”

Then I realized what she was talking about - Banzai was getting ‘taken care of’.

I continued the complaints, “Damn, can’t you all find some other place to do that?”

She laughed and said, “Not really since private rooms are in short supply around here. Now is there anything else I can get for you besides your room?”

I admitted, “I am a bit hungry???”

She interrupted, “ ... Your dinner will be here in about an hour. However, I could bring you some Jell-O until then.”

I figured what the hell so I said, “That would be good.”

She came back in a few minutes with the Jell-O. When I looked at it, it didn’t look right: It was all cloudy and had some chunks in it, so I asked, “What’s wrong with this?”

She clued me in, “I guess you didn’t hear but our cook isn’t very good.”

I added, “Not very good! If he can’t even make Jell-O then he must not be a cook. Shit, I was making Jell-O when I was a boy.”

She laughed and asked, “So do you still want your Jell-O?”

I replied, “Fuck no! Get that shit away from me.”

She threw it in the trash as one of the other men came up and said, “You’re smart not to eat that shit. I ate some of the Jell-O and was sick for a week.”

This was going to be a long month if I couldn’t even eat the food here.

I decided I needed to find the Corporal and see about getting an MRE...

Flashback – Masha – The evening

We had a great time at dinner as I was so happy that Louise and Linda were going to stay here with me. After dinner Louise announced, “Well, if I’m going to live here with you I need to earn my keep. Auntie Masha you take it easy tonight and let me do the dishes and clean up.”

I complained, “Louise, you worked all day. Why don’t you get reacquainted with Linda while I clean up the kitchen.”

Louise smiled at me and said, “That would be great, but I’m making the popcorn tonight for the movie we’re going to watch.”

I was surprised and responded, “Louise, I hate to tell you this but I have no idea how to run the television and disc player.”

She replied, “Masha, it can’t be that hard to figure out. I’ll look at it when we’re ready.”

I quickly cleaned up the dishes and the kitchen, we went into the living room and Louise began to mess with the television and stereo. She asked, “Masha do you know where the remotes are for this?”

I opened the drawer on the coffee table and handed four remotes to her. She looked at them and complained, “What the heck! Four remotes?” She then studied them and continued, “Well, this one is for the TV.” Looked at another and remarked, “This is for the stereo.” She looked at the other two remote controllers and surrendered, “I have no idea what these are for.”

She pointed the remote controller for the television toward the large set, pressed the power button but nothing happened. I grinned at her and said, “That’s what happened when I tried to use the television. You might as well give up because none of it works.”

Louise acquired a look of serious determination on her face and said, “Give up heck! I’ve just begun to fight!”

She crawled behind the television and remarked, “Well it’s unplugged! No wonder it didn’t work.”

She plugged everything in then came around the front of the television, pointed the remote at it, pressed the power button and this time it came on. However, there was a very grainy picture and no sound.

Louise complained, “Where in the heck is the sound?”

She looked at the stereo, noticed the speakers around the room and postulated, “Perhaps Jack has this setup for surround sound?”

She turned on the stereo, there was a click and then a massive volume of noise came out of all corners of the room. It scared Linda who began to cry. Louise asked, “Masha, can you take care of Linda while I figure this out?”

I scooped up Linda and comforted her while Louise still played with the television and stereo. She turned down the sound, punched some more buttons on the remote and said, “Hey, I think I finally figured this out. Now how do we turn on the DVD player?”

I suggested, “Perhaps one of the other remotes?”

She picked up the first remote, pointed it at the television pressed a button and everything turned off, then she swore, “What in the hell!” She looked at the remote controller and said, “Well, I think this is a master remote which controls everything.” She pressed the same button again, everything came back on but this time there was a picture and sound which was really loud! Once again Linda began to cry so I suggested, “Louise, I will take Linda into the other room while you play with the television.”

Louise agreed, “Thanks Masha, I need to figure this out and I don’t want to be scaring Linda the whole time.”

We moved into the spare room, which soon would be Louise and Linda’s room, sat on the floor and began to play with some toys while the noise and swearing continued in the living room. I did need to talk to Louise about swearing in front of Linda, but not now while she was battling with the television and stereo.

About thirty minutes later Louise stuck her head into the room and announced, “Okay, I’ve figured it out and we’re ready to watch the movie. Let me make some popcorn and then we can sit down and enjoy the rest of the evening. By the way, your husband must be some sort of genius to configure your home entertainment center so well.”

I informed her, “Oh Jack didn’t do that, it was Ben.”

Louise asked, “Who’s Ben?”

I replied, “He’s the sniper who Jack spots for and has done more things for Jack and me than you could ever imagine. In fact, if it wasn’t for Ben, we never would have been married! And not only that, he was the one who made sure I got my green card so I could come to America.”