“Get bent, Mac.” Ryan sighed.
***
He spent a few hours with his siblings and thenwaved as they drove off. Patrick and Brendon were waiting back atthe barracks. All three had a four AM bus for Fort Knox.
Ken had already taken off with his father, withthe promise to keep in touch. Ryan looked up and saw Drill SergeantConnelly walking toward them.
“Get your stuff together. It's time to go.”
All three took one last look around theirbarracks room.
“Why am I so sad?” Brendon asked.
“Because no matter how hellish this place was…Itwas probably the best place we've ever been,” Patrick saidquietly.
Ryan nodded. “What's that old quote? It was thebest of times and the worst of times.”
They walked quietly out of the room. Ryan wasthe last one out. With one last look he turned off the lights.
At the bus station Connelly dropped them off. Hegrinned at them all. Then he surprised the shit out of both Ryanand Brendon by leaning down, whispering into Patrick's ear. WhenPatrick turned around he was blushing.
“Dude!”
“You did not!”
Both Ryan and Brendon didn't quite know what tosay.
“First off, don't dude me, Ryan…you were walkingawfully funny this morning for a reason.” He turned to Brendon, whowas doing his best impression of a goldfish. “Brendon, don't thinkabout it. You'll just melt your brain.”
The bus pulled up and all three got on. Ryan waskinda bummed that Phillip hadn't come, but he didn't think hewould. He looked out the window and sighed.
That’s when he saw him. Phillip was standing incivvies, with a tight, white shirt that proclaimed him a ‘CavTrooper’ and tight jeans with cowboy boots on. Their eyes met andfor a split second Ryan thought about jumping off the bus.
Phillip smiled softly and raised his hand in amock salute.
Ryan smiled and raised his hand.
That was it. No more. No Less. Basic trainingwas officially over.
Chapter Eight
25 June 02
Ryan,
Hey bud. I'm over in the suck now. I can'tbelieve it's been over a year already. The unit I'm assigned to area bunch of jack-offs. I wished they would have had Grabowski as aDrill. Maybe they'd get that this shit is serious. Anyways it wasgood seeing you and Patrick last month. Nice send off. I hearBrendon is kicking ass and taking names. Who would have thoughtthat the kid had it in him?
Kenneth
PS did you know that Patrick and Connelly weregoing at it like bunnies all through BCT?
***
26 June 02
Kenneth,
Good to hear from you man. We're at NTC now. Gotour orders to head over in a few months. I guess I got lucky on theunit part. These guys are pretty squared away. I ran into a guy whohad Grabowski. He didn't have a favorable opinion of the man buthe's a fuck up so most likely Grabowski rode him hard.
