Chapter 32

I finally got comfortable and unloaded the AK, standing it next to the window. I was thinking about what Mike had told me and I felt a little guilty at how I had treated the Chief. But following orders or not, I knew from experience that he had had several chances to be up front with me. I had left him several openings to do just that over the course of the day. Now that Kittrick was coming, I would fill him in on the slave camp we had inadvertently found out about. The fact that Army Officers were worse than the other regular visitors had affected me deeper than I wanted to admit. I guess I still lived by the old thought that the officers were supposed to set a good example, not be the worst of the lot. I wondered how Kittrick was going to react and in searching my own thoughts, I just had a feeling that he had no clue as to what was happening. I knew the Fort had hundreds of officers and it would be a big problem finding out who was involved, unless he could assign several of the teams to spend a few days taking pictures of all who showed up there. I would have to discuss it with him when he got here.

My thoughts started off in another direction when the door slammed open and I was hit by a small body, hugging me and gushing with good news about how good a shot BK said she was. I had to smile and laugh at her enthusiasm over such a simple thing as learning how to shoot a .22 rifle.

"BK says with some more practice I am gonna be a better shot than you are, Pops."

"Oh is that right? Well, I have the same rifle Shelly has and if you get that good, I will just have to give it to you so you can protect me."

"Don't worry, I will, 'cause you're all I have left in this world now."

I felt that familiar lump in my throat and I knew I couldn't speak, so I just hugged her to me without saying a word. I hadn't given it much thought, but right then I knew that I was going to have to think about her before I did anything in the future. I realized that in a couple of days she had become part of me, and the feelings I had I hadn't felt since my ex took my daughter and moved away after our divorce. I probably hadn't seen my daughter a dozen times since that happened.

"What's wrong, Pops?"

"Nothing, honey, I was just thinking about how happy you are with all that's happened."

"Why wouldn't I be? You promised me you would always take care of me when you brought me here. Now I have a bunch of new friends that I wouldn't have had if you hadn't. I miss Mommy and Daddy but being here with you is nice. I get to learn new things like shooting and Shelly's mom is teaching me how to cook. I got a bunch of new clothes and I even got some of those funny colored pants like you wear. Of course we had to do some work on them to make them fit, but they are just like yours. They are even working on some of the shirts so that I have matching sets."

I started laughing and hugged her to me again, so she wouldn't see the tears in my eyes. Being by myself for so long, I hadn't realized how much I had missed a simple thing like a child's happiness at new things and the enthusiasm they felt at everything going on around them, whether it was good or bad. God, I had missed this for so many years. I looked up and saw Brenda at the door smiling before she disappeared again. I knew she had seen the tears in my eyes, but it was nothing I was ashamed of.

"Well, funny colored pants or not, I will be busy when the Colonel gets here, so do you have something to do to keep you out of trouble this afternoon?"

She giggled and said she was helping with the younger kids. She was teaching them letters and reading stories to them at nap time. She got up and kissed me on the cheek before running back out the door to do whatever she was going to do. I was still smiling at her antics when I heard the chopper coming in. I took a deep breath and got up, grabbed the rifle and reloaded it, then headed outside to meet with Kittrick. I was still chuckling to myself at her description of my camos when I walked around the corner to what I would call an ass chewing. The Chief was at attention and Kittrick was red in the face. I stopped and waited till he saw me which wasn't long. He started walking towards me with what looked like a full head of steam.