Chapter 24

Flashback – Masha, Tanya, Gladys and others – Finishing lunch

Lunch was over, I graciously thanked everyone for the meeting and then asked Tanya, “Will you please take me home?”

Tanya agreed, “Once Gladys takes me to my car at the studio, I will.”

Gladys replied, “Don’t worry Masha, we will get you home soon. First I want to ask Melanie when the designs will be finished so we can look at the plans.”

Melanie provided the answer, “Give me about three days. I will generate five or ten different ideas and we can choose from the best or even combine several of them.”

Gladys asked, “I assume the meeting would be best held at your office.”

Melanie said, “Of course, because we can project the designs on the screen and do a real 3D walk through.”

I questioned, “What is a real 3D walk through?”

Melanie explained, “You will see the actual design on the computer screen and we can move through the room just as if you’re walking through it.”

I replied, “That’s amazing, I never knew you could do that on computers.”

Tanya asked, “Masha, do you have a computer?”

I replied, “No, since I never saw a need for one.”

Tanya replied, “I figured as much when I saw your mobile phone, it’s a dinosaur.”

I pulled out my phone and almost everyone laughed at it. To diminish my embarrassment I complained, “Hey, I don’t make many calls on it and it serves that purpose well.”

Tanya asked, “Masha, did you know you can use your mobile phone for things other than making phone calls?”

I confessed, “I did not know that. What other things can you use a mobile phone for?”

Tanya explained, “For one thing you could use it to video chat with your husband Jack.”

Melanie interjected, “You can also do that with a computer. I know they have that set up overseas for all the military.”

Gladys ordered, “Tanya, I want you to take Masha to a computer store and a phone store and get her set up with a new computer and a new phone.”

I start to complain but Gladys declares, “ ... And make sure I get the bill for it!”

Melanie added some comfort, “Don’t worry Masha, I will come over and give you lessons on the computer - that is if I can take some of your free classes.”

I was taken aback at how fast things were moving!

Gladys took us back to the studio, we walked around back and I was shocked at who waited for us.

Flashback – Jack, Ben and John – Midnight requisition return

After Banzai’s excellent driving and missing the IED hole we finally had a lucky break. There was a Marine HumVee in front of us headed in the same direction.

Banzai floored it and said, “Jack get on the radio and tell them we’re friendlies.”

I asked Banzai, “You mean the fucking radio we don’t have?”

Banzai glanced at the dash and swore...

“Son of a bitch, how did we ever get a semi without a radio?” We needed some way to convince the Marines in the HumVee to not open fire on us. I announced, “Okay, does anyone have any idea how we can tell the HumVee we’re friendlies?”

John replied, “There’s an American flag back here, it’s sort of dirty but it might work.”

The HumVee had noticed us and I watched as the turret gun spun our way. I yelled, “Give Jack the flag. Jack put that across most of the windshield.”

John handed the flag to Jack, Jack did as he was told and we watched as the Humvee slowed to a stop. I pulled up behind them, hopped out of the cab and said, “Thanks for not blowing our asses away.”

The Marine said, “You should have called us on your radio. Coming up on a convoy like that is a good way to get killed.”

I explained, “Sorry, we must have the only semi in the Corps without a radio in it.”

John came out of the cab, the other Marines noticed him and asked, “Don’t tell me you guys did another midnight requisition run.”

John smiled and said, “We sure did and we really hit pay dirt this time.”

They laughed like hell as John told them about all the food. I cautioned John, “With as many rounds as the refrigerated trailer took, there will probably be some bullets in the food.”

The other Marines suggested, “We can pull the HumVee over and patch the holes with duct tape.”

I wondered, “What about the convoy?”

They replied, “We now escort the convoys with two trailing HumVees because the fucking Taliban have been using those damn Toyota pickups to chase us.”

John excitedly said, “Yeah they chased us with one of those but then they suddenly stopped. We figured there was a problem ahead and we almost got blown up by an IED. Banzai did an amazing job dodging the hole in the road.”

The Marines stood a little straighter and one of them said, “So, you’re the famous Banzai Ben.”

Jack crowed, “That’s right, he’s my sniper.”

I gave Jack a more than friendly punch in the arm and replied, “And Jack is my spotter, when he’s not too busy.”

The Marine asked, “Busy doing what?”

I laughed and lied, “Well, when you get as old as Jack is you need more sleep.”

They began to laugh then John ruined it all by saying, “When Jack was training me he didn’t sleep that much.”

That got the other Marines going so they teased the hell out of Jack, “We sure as hell didn’t know you could cook.” The other one said, “Hell, I heard he even burned an MRE.”

I laughed and added, “Hell, he probably just made a Meal Refusing to Exit taste better.”

Jack put the kibosh on the teasing and ordered, “Okay you two, let’s get the holes patched in the trailer and catch up to the convoy.”

I hindsight, it was a good idea that he did...

Flashback – Jennifer – Helping Daniela cook

The first thing Daniela did was clean some potatoes, then put them in a pot of water to boil and added a couple of eggs. I asked, “What are the potatoes and eggs for.”

Daniela explained those are papas amarillas. I forgot to tell you that the sauce is poured over the rice and the papas amarillas. I will garnish each plate with the eggs.