Chapter 21: My Brother’s Keeper, Part II

05 April 2005 – Arapahoe Road, Boulder, Colorado

The number of people attending the wake surprised Jeff and DJ. It seemed a second group of roughly the same size joined the entire group from yesterday. Once people started walking past the closed casket, the line didn’t stop moving for almost an hour.

“I’m shocked by how many folks turned out,” Gene Krebs muttered to Jeff. Two of his men flanked the casket as people filed by.

“DJ seems to know most of them, too. That’s probably the main reason there’s such a good turnout.”

“Hopefully there’s a decent turnout for the service tomorrow, too.”

Jeff grunted in assent.

An hour later Jeff rode back to DJ’s home town of Niwot with DJ’s family. While Mr. and Mrs. Schultheis visited DJ at Walter Reed soon after his return from Afghanistan, his brother and sisters hadn’t been able to. At sixteen, fifteen, thirteen, and eleven, they’d just started back to school when DJ was wounded. Jeff caught sight of the other Schultheis kids mobbing their older brother yesterday at the funeral home out of the corner of his eye. They’d last seen him at Christmas.

“DJ says you know Kelsey Goodacre!” chirped thirteen year-old Yvonne from the back seat of the Suburban.

“Well, it’s fairer to say I know her guitarist, George Adler, Yvonne. I’ve only met Ms. Goodacre once.”

“Still!” she breathed. Her eleven year-old brother, Herman, snorted.

“Do you not like Ms. Goodacre’s music, Herman?”

“It’s okay, Mr. Knox, but Vonni plays it so loud!”

DJ told Jeff that Herman frequently felt overwhelmed by the estrogen level in the Schultheis household, especially from his three teenaged sisters.

“It’s Jeff, Herman,” he reminded the youngster. “And Avalanche games don’t get loud?”

“Yeah, but I like those!” Jeff smiled at the boy. Herman was a hockey nut. He’d have to keep that in mind.

After dinner DJ and Jeff hopped into DJ’s car and drove north, into the neighboring town of Longmont, to meet the soldiers from 12th Group. They walked into the bar near the state highway DJ recommended as the meeting place. The place looked friendly enough, and had more than enough space for the expected number of guests. In addition to the SF soldiers, the leadership from both the VFW and American Legion posts would be there. They all wanted one, final meeting to make sure every detail would be ready for tomorrow’s funeral. The availability of adult beverages at the meeting place didn’t hurt, either.

DJ sat with his back to the bar during the discussion.

“Does anyone need anything from the bar?” he asked an hour into the meeting.

When no one else said they wanted anything, he hopped up and walked over using his crutch. The pretty young bartender smiled at him when he approached. She had a friendly smile.

“May I have a cola please, miss?”

“Coming right up!” she said before reaching down for a glass.

DJ’s eyes narrowed when he heard her voice. He searched his memory, trying to place it.

“Penny?”

The bartender’s smile widened.

“Hi, DJ.”

“Wow, Penny, you look great! And those glasses are much more flattering than the ones you had in high school!”

“Tell me about it,” Penelope Price grumbled. “I know what you folks in the military call my old frames! BCGs, RPGs – both descriptions fit!” DJ shared a laugh with the young lady.

“I don’t mean to sound judgmental, Penny, but what are you doing working here? You were headed for a career in the graphic arts, if I remember correctly.” Penny smiled.

“You remember correctly. I work at a design firm in Boulder full-time. You remember hearing about my photographic memory in high school, right? I was bored one night during freshman year in college and on a whim I grabbed a mixology book from a nearby bookstore. I read the whole thing. Well, all those recipes stuck in my head. At a friend’s party later during college I helped someone make a drink they wanted.

“One thing led to another and I wound up being the unofficial bartender that night. My friend mentioned me to her uncle who owns this place. He just had a bartender quit on him and needed help. He gave me a tryout and hired me at the end of that night two years ago. It’s really helped me out of my shell. I couldn’t even look at my boss, Mr. Farley, when I started. I work here two or three nights a week. I like it.”

“I’m glad tonight was one of your nights, then,” DJ smiled. Penny blushed.

“I overheard one of the guys from the Legion post over the weekend talking about what you would be doing for your friend. I swapped with someone so I could be here during your meeting tonight.”

“Why, Penny?” DJ asked with a crooked smile.

“DJ, what was my nickname in high school?”

“‘Pretty Penny,’ why?”

“You called me that. You were the only one who was nice to me then. Everyone else called me ‘Porky Penny.’”

“Everyone else was an idiot, Penny! So you weren’t some size zero toothpick. Except for those birth control glasses you wore you were a good looking girl then, and you’re even more so now!”

“Then how come you didn’t ask me out when we were in high school?” she asked with some anger in her voice. “Geez, I had the biggest crush on you!”

DJ looked like he’d been slapped. His mind whirled as he tried to recall their interactions during high school.

“Penny,” he whispered, “I’m sorry, but every time I said hi to you you’d reply, and then you’d clam up and run away! I guess I’m an idiot. I didn’t recognize that for what it was until right now.”

“Oh, for Christ’s sake!”

Penny reached over the bar, grabbed DJ by the shirt, pulled him in, and kissed him. A cheer rose from the veterans, soldiers, and other bar patrons. The pair separated, both blushing.

“I’ll meet you at the funeral home at nine o’clock tomorrow morning, DJ.”

DJ nodded to Penny and walked back to the table holding his drink. Jeff clapped him on the shoulder once he sat down.

“Strong work, Ranger!”

Penny waited in her car at the funeral home for DJ to arrive the next morning. She clung to DJ’s arm looking like a skittish deer when he led her over to his family. Between his mother and his sisters Ellie, Johanna, and Yvonne, they soon put her at ease. They considered anyone outside of their family who could accept DJ as he was now, to be an instant superstar.

During the reception which followed the funeral, Penny continued to cling to DJ. DJ loved how much more at ease she was as compared to while they were in school together, despite her nervousness, and how much more freely she smiled at people. Her smile lit up the room.

Penny was a constant presence at the Schultheis home during the two days before DJ and Jeff returned to Washington. Tears tracked down her face while she hugged DJ goodbye at the FBO on the morning of their departure.

“I’m coming back you know?” DJ asked in a gentle voice.

“I don’t want you to go!” she sniffed. “I finally found the nerve to show you how I feel about you and you’re running away!”

“There’s not much running in my future, Penny,” DJ joked. “If there was, the only direction I’d be running is toward you. I’ll be back in a few months, no more than six. I have a new source of motivation.” He leaned in and kissed her lovingly. “I’ll call you tonight.” Penny nodded.

Harriet Schultheis rubbed Penny’s back while DJ and his friend walked to the plane.

“He’ll be home before you know it, Penny.”

She led the young woman back to their car.

Jeff looked across the aisle at DJ. The younger man stared out the window as he’d been for the hour since takeoff. Jeff knew what was going through his friend’s mind.

“You okay, DJ?”

“Yeah,” he sighed. He turned away from the window. “Does it hurt like this when you leave Keiko, Jeff?”

“It hurts, that’s for sure. I imagine it’s similar to what you’re feeling: it’s like part of you is missing, right?” DJ nodded in confirmation. “You’re in love with the girl already, bro, or at least in serious like with her. Have you always felt this way about her?”

“No, I can’t say I felt like this about her when we were younger. Penny’s a year younger than me, and we never had the conversations back then that we’ve had over the past few days. I’ve talked with her more in the past three days than the three years we were in high school together. She’s right. She was a little heavier in those days than she is now, and her glasses were atrocious, but if our classmates could see her now...”

“Like you said, you’ve got up to six more months of rehab before Walter Reed will discharge you. I don’t think I have to tell you to keep in touch with her, or to be completely honest with her. Did you tell her about your ex and what she did to you?” DJ nodded to say he had. “Then Penny knows the pain your ex caused you when you were at your most vulnerable. Your family looks like they’ve already welcomed her, so the hard part’s over.”

“Yeah,” DJ sighed with a smile on his face. “I think Ellie’s gonna be really disappointed in her big brother if he screws this one up.”

“As much as you love your family, DJ this is for you, and not them. You have to find your happiness and let your family find their own.” DJ nodded again.

“Speaking of happiness, if you know who donated the use of this plane, please thank them for me. I hope Dom will rest easier now that his final wishes have been carried out.”

“I think he will,” Jeff replied. “And you’re welcome.”

“Huh?”

“You said to thank the person who donated the use of this plane. That person is telling you that you’re more than welcome.”

“Wait, you paid for this plane? This must have cost you a fortune!”

“A few thousand bucks, Deej, that’s all. I’m assuming you know what Neptune’s Forge is?”

“You know my dad owns an electrical supply business and he’s a distributor for them. What do they have to do with the plane, though?”

“I own fifteen percent of Neptune’s Forge.” DJ’s eyes widened in shock and his jaw dropped. “Their principal inventor and CEO, Sacha Cohen, was one of my mom’s first math students when Mom started teaching. I invested just after Sacha started the company, and I’ve kept investing. The cost of this charter isn’t even one one-thousandth of one percent of what I expect this year’s dividends to be.”

DJ finally found his voice.

“What the hell are you doing in the Army if you’ve got that kind of money?”

“DJ, do you seriously think Sacha would be allowed to run that kind of company if the people who attacked us in 2001 took over this country? What would happen to your mom? To Ellie, Johnna, and Yvonne? I have a wife and a daughter to think about, plus all the other women I know among my relatives, friends, and coworkers. Do you think notations in a bank ledger somewhere would matter at all in that case?”

DJ didn’t answer and looked lost in thought. They spent the rest of the two-hour return flight – thank heavens for a tail wind – laughing at stories from their time together in 2d Platoon. Their banter continued during the drive back to Walter Reed to drop DJ off. Jeff carried DJ’s things to his room. DJ used both his crutches when tired.

“Be safe heading home, Jeff,” DJ said while hugging his friend goodbye. “Are you going to stay the night at a hotel before you go?”

“No, Deej. It’s only noon here, and I think I can beat rush hour traffic along the way if I head home now. I miss my family, and it will give me a day off with them at home tomorrow before I report to 10th Group Monday morning.”

“I think you’re nuts, but I can see your point. Keep in touch, Doc.”

“Count on it.”

Colonel Brubaker and his command sergeant major sat down with Jeff Monday morning to outline his role and his responsibilities. He would coordinate with multiple people – the entire Group staff, actually – as well as the commander’s office at Donovan Army Community Hospital to ensure the SF medics received the proper supplies, training, and resources needed to do their jobs in garrison and down range. He’d report directly to the group’s sergeant major.

Jeff sat in the small office they assigned him, planning an approach to his new job. He looked up when someone knocked on the door. Jeff didn’t recognize the clean-shaven sergeant smirking at him until he read the man’s nametape. Jeff’s gaze returned to his desktop while his shoulders slumped.

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” he muttered before looking back at his visitor. “Ain’t I shed of you yet?”

“Don’t you know I’m the gift that keeps on giving?”

“Seeing you again is giving me chest pain, that’s for sure. Please tell me this job wasn’t your idea.”

“It was, why?”

“Mick, the last time you arranged a job for my sorry ass it didn’t turn out so good for me.”

“What’s the big deal?”

“I got blown up!”

“It looks like you got better...”

“Oh, thank you very much, John Cleese! Roman Harvik and Captain DeFusco might have something to say about that. Well, the captain will have to wait until he wakes up to chew your ass.”

“Did you get a chance to visit the captain while you were down at Walter Reed?”

“I tried to. He was unconscious both times I checked on him, both when I got down there and before I came back. The second time his wife was in his room. I didn’t want to bother her while she visited her husband.”

“Mrs. D is a nice lady. She would liked to have met you.”

“Maybe there’ll be a chance later on. Medically the captain’s okay-ish. His arm’s healed, the swelling in his brain’s gone way down, and that collapsed lung is back to normal. Once he wakes up he’ll need lots of surgeries, and a lot of PT and OT to get back in shape so he can get on with life.”

“Here’s hoping he does.”

“So, Mick, what are you doing here and not at Fort Carson?”

“Before I rehabbed and could get myself back into fighting trim they already filled my spot in the team. SOCOM gave me the choice to either join another team there or transfer out. I haven’t been back east in a while, so when I heard there was an open 18-Delta spot here I jumped at it.”

“Does this base feel small after the others you’ve been posted to?”

“Sure, but how can a base shoehorned between four established towns compete with others which could easily spread out? When they established Devens here in 1917 they still used horses for horsepower, not engines, so they didn’t need that much space – unless they did artillery training. Plus, we didn’t always stay on-post for our training in the 12th any more than your Ranger battalion did. We can fly out of here or Hanscom and be dropped over the training areas on South Post, Fort Drum in upstate New York, Camp Edwards down the Cape, or at any one of a bunch of other places. It’s only an hour or two drive to my parents’ house in Dover, too, depending on traffic. Not too many places have that going for them.”

“What are you doing for lunch?”

“Eating.”

“I see your wit wasn’t located in the appendix they removed. Is the NCO Club here any good? You can make up for your transgressions by buying me lunch.”

Jeff’s computer and software skills allowed him to make a presentation to the sergeant major within two weeks of being assigned to 10th Group. He developed a new way to track available medical supplies, to account for training completed and anything still needed by 18-Deltas, and to list the training opportunities available. His systems were easy to use, understand, and keep updated.

“And this only took you two weeks?” asked Command Sergeant Major Nolan Edwards. Jeff shrugged.

“I studied the tasks that you and the colonel gave me for almost a week before I started putting this together, Sergeant Major. The software is stuff we already had on the computer and, as long as the Army keeps it updated, it should work for a good long while. The trick will be to keep the databases current. Keeping track of the training opportunities coming up will be a headache, but not a bad one. A major problem would be someone falling behind on this.”

“Well, excellent work on this, Knox. I’ll let you know if the colonel wants a briefing on it.” Edwards smiled. “You want a chance to get out of the office and creep around the woods a bit?”

“You have fun scaring the poor kiddies again?” Mickey Kasperson asked six weeks later.

“Hey, they’re the ones who wanted to be Army lieutenants and joined ROTC. You pays your nickel and you takes your chances on that one. Sar’Major Edwards threw me a bone when he asked if I wanted to help out the OPFOR when the kids come here to train. That’s just plain fun, right there!”

Mickey chuckled as Jeff drove them to his house. Mickey’s car was in the shop – again – so Keiko and Jeff offered him the use of Jeff’s pickup for the weekend. He had to ‘endure’ dinner with the Knox family first.

“I think the word’s out that a disgruntled doc has taken up permanent residence on that training lane,” Jeff said. “The cadre from the area ROTC programs and the pre-camp like my way of telling the cadets to wake up and smell the coffee.”

“Yeah, any thought they were just going to skate into Advanced Camp went right out the window your first time playing OPFOR. You know, it’s kinda weird seeing you wearing the old woodland BDUs and not the newer OCP pattern the Army rolled out last year.”

“I still had my old gear and uniforms, so it was easier than trying to figure out how to modify the OCP stuff to look different enough, and the colonel okayed my temporary uniform deviations. I’m glad I found that MOLLE vest again! I got too used to having stuff right there when I reached for it. Going back to the web gear would have been a major step back.”

Jeff turned onto the gravel access road leading to the paved portion of his driveway. When the trees thinned out he could see someone sitting on his front steps. His awareness level kicked into high gear. Keiko and the kids should still be at the dojo this afternoon. Jeff scanned the rest of his property. Mickey picked up on his friend’s increased attentiveness.

“What’s up, Jeff?”

“There’s someone on the porch. No one should be home.”

Jeff left the truck parked in the driveway instead of opening the garage and giving whomever another potential way into his house. The pair approached the person huddled on his front steps.

“Can I help you?”

Once again, seeing Mishka Gupta’s face surprised him.

“Hi, Jeff.”

“Mish? Are you okay?” Jeff saw tears on her face. He knelt in front of her so she wouldn’t have to look up at him.

“Sorry, I’ve been waiting for your family for a few hours. I was afraid I’d come all this way and they were on vacation or something.” She wiped her face. “Hey, wait a minute, what are you doing home? I thought your battalion was scheduled to be deployed until June or July?”

“I got clipped at the end of October. I rehabbed here until March, and then got assigned to the 10th Special Forces here at Devens when the Rangers cut me loose.” He waved at Mickey, who stood behind him. “This is my friend Mickey Kasperson from the 10th. He’s the reason I got hurt.”

“You got hurt because you got in the way of an RPG, wise guy.”

“Ignore him,” Jeff muttered to Mish. “Mickey, this is a friend from AIT, Mishka Gupta.”

“A pleasure, Miss Gupta. Your being here will moderate the pain of being in Jeff’s presence until his family returns.”

“You keep flapping your gums and you’re not getting dinner.”

“That’s cruel. I like Keiko’s cooking.”

“Who said anything about Keiko cooking dinner?”

Mickey looked frightened. He turned to Mish.

“We should run. I know some good restaurants nearby.” Mish giggled.

“I should at least stay for dinner if I’m going to beg a place to stay from this evening’s chef.”

“Hear that? I’m a chef!” Jeff crowed.

“Oh you’re a few things I can’t say in front of a lady, but ‘chef’ isn’t one of them.”

Jeff disarmed the alarm and waved his guests inside.

“Get inside, cretin,” he said to Mickey. Mish laughed at their antics.

“It’s like being back at Fort Sam. In my head I can see you joking with Terrance while I listen to you and Mickey!”

“Terrance,” Jeff chuckled. “I need to call him. He’s at Fort Lewis, and scheduled to ETS at the end of July. If you can stand it, Mish, can you keep this guy company while I get cleaned up?”

“Why are you all camo’d up in the wrong camo, if I may ask?”

“He tortured ROTC cadets as part of an OPFOR unit all day. Keeps his skills sharp for when he joins us in the field.” Mish raised an eyebrow at Mickey. “I’ll fill you in while he washes behind his ears. Of course, I should turn off the hot water while he’s in there.”