Second Chapter

He glides the helicopter through the warm ocean air and sees the small spot in the ocean. He lands on the carrier and begins turning off the engine as directed by the flight deck personnel. He gets out of the helicopter and walks to the door going to the stairs leading to below decks. The hatch, hallway, and stairwell are too small for him, so as he goes down the stairs he has to arch his back like an old man. As he gets to the bottom of the stairs he straightens up and proceeds through the doorway leading to the cafeteria.
The cafeteria, very crowed now, suddenly becomes very quiet and everybody rises to their feet standing at attention. They look over at the door and there stands Chris in a green flight suit, with squadron patches all over it. He yells out “Carry on!” and like a snap everyone acts like nothing happened and from across the room someone yells, “Chris. Chris, long time no see!” He bee-lines across the room to meet Chris.
Chris looks at him clueless and says, “Do I know you?”
“Chris, it’s me Jake”.
“Oh my god, Jake? Dude, what’s going on, how’ve you been?”
“I’m doing good, my wife just had a baby,” Jake says.
“Congrats!” Chris says as he looks at how long the line is for dinner. The line is like a mile long with about fifty people in it.
“Yea, I know this line is ridicules, well let’s hop in before it gets longer,” Jake says as he looks at Chris’ face.
“Yep, good idea,” Chris says.
“So are you still seeing that girl Lisa,” Jake says as he approaches the servers.
“Yea, I’m still seeing her, we’ve been going out for a while now,” Chris says as he points to the potatoes letting the servers know that’s what he wants.
“Wow, that’s a long time, you guys thought about marriage?”
“Man come on now, I’m trying not to think about that “M” word, if she becomes pregnant then maybe well consider that, but we’re pretty careful,” Chris says as the server plops his food on his tray.
“Ha, yea I hear ya bro,where ya gonna sit?” Jake says as the server plops HIS food on the tray.
“How bout over there by the phones?” Chris says.
“Yea that’s cool, what, you expecting a call?” Jake says as he laughs on the way to the table.
“Funny, no I gotta call Lisa when I’m done. I haven’t talked to her in a while, you know,” Chris says as he sits down at the table.
“I’m just playing, I gotta call my girl too, see how the little ones are doing,” Jake says as he starts to eat.
As Chris and Jake eat their meal they talk about their missions.
“So, where have you flown today,” Jake says.
“Jake, come on bro you know I can’t talk about that. But I will say I saw a lot of sand and for lunch I eat at a Burger King,” Chris says as he grins like he’s better than everyone else, jokingly though.
“Awww man, you damn Helo pilots you get all the good assignments, here all I go is back and forth from the ship,” Jake says as he gets up and heads over to the scully to have his tray washed.
“Yea but Jake you’re a jet pilot, you’re like “Tom Cruize” from the movie Top Gun.
“It’s fast alright, no room for error,” Jake says as he looks for an open phone.
As Chris approaches an open phone he begins to feel anxious to call Lisa, like he has butterflies in his stomach. He picks up the phone and begins to dial the 18 digits for Lisa’s Home, but realizes the phone is dead.
“Damn, why don’t they have all these phones working,” Chris says as he looks at Jake. Jake nods to him and shrugs his shoulders and continues to talk to his girl. Chris mumbles on to the next available phone on the other side of Jake. He begins to dial the 18 digits again and gets through this time.
“Muchi Muchi,” Lisa says on the other end.
“Muchi Muchi, hey what’s up,” Chris says.
“Oh, hi Chris. How are you?” Lisa says, kinda startled.
“I’m good. Just very tired. I can’t wait to come home,” Chris says as he leans against the wall by the phone.
There’s a silent hush on the phone.
“Lisa, you there?”
“Yea I’m here.”
“What’s wrong? You ok?” Chris says, now a little worried.
“Yea I’m ok. I just miss you. When are you coming home?” Lisa says, sounding kinda down.
“I should be home shortly, were on our way now. You sure you’re all right?” Chris says as he looks at his watch making sure he has enough time left on his prepaid calling card.
“Yes, I’m all right. I’ve just been working a lot. And I went to the doctor for a check up that’s all,” Lisa says anxiously.
“Well, that’s cool. What I would do now to go cruising in a car with you right now. Flying is nice but sometimes you gotta slow down, you know,” Chris says.
“Ah, yes, cruising would be nice,” Lisa says.
“Well, I gotta go my card is bout to run out, you gonna be on the pier when we get in?” Chris asks in a hurry making sure not to miss her words.
“Yes, I’ll be there, I’ll have a surprise for you too. I can’t wait for you to get here.”
“A surprise? Cool, I can’t wait just to see you, well I gotta get ready for flight quarters in the morning, I’ll see ya soon,” Chris says.
“Ok, I’ll see ya. I love you,” Lisa says.
“I love you too, bye for now,” Chris says as he hangs up the phone looking at the receiver as if he can see Lisa.
Jake finishes his call too and they both look at each other and begin to walk away from the phones.
“So how’s your girl doing,” Chris asks Jake.
“She doing good, she had to take the baby to the hospital cause she had a high fever, but they’re both fine now. How’s Lisa doing,” Jake says as he heads for his room.
“She’s doing good, she just said she misses me and that she’ll be waiting for me at the pier with a surprise, whatever that means,” Chris says as he heads for his room.
“A surprise? I wonder what,” Jake says with a confused look.
“Yea, oh well, we’ll see. I’m going to get some sleep I’ll see ya in the morning Jake, Good night.”
“yea, me too, good night,” Jake says as he closes his door.

First chapter

An Officer and his Girl

By Scott Penton

It is a crisp, cool fall day in a land where supposedly the sun rises first and it is shining brightly today. Surrounded by hills and an enormous mountain in the background. The water is somewhat calm with little ripples softly going into the pier. The pier has a few people on it with a couple off to the side at the beginning of the pier near the road. Lisa is dropping Chris off. In front of them are vending machines; off to the right is a laundry mat.
Chris, standing in front of the vending machines says to Lisa, “ Whatcha want to drink?” Lisa says, “I’ll have a coffee.” Chris puts coins into the machine and gets two coffees. The coffee cans very warm goes down the machine and into the tray and he gives one to Lisa. Lisa cracks open the can and takes a sip “um, that’s good,” she says. “Yea, good on a day like this,” Chris says looking across the harbor. A harbor once almost destroyed, now the world’s richest port.
“So what are you going to be doing in the next few months,” Lisa asks as they walk over to the laundry mat.
Chris dragging his 40 lb. bag out of the car says, “I can’t say, but I can say we do a lot of circles.”
Lisa looks at the Monstrous gray wall like thing sitting there in the water, “Circles?”
“Yep, lot’s of them,” he says as he looks for an empty washer.
A bus pulls up to the beginning of the pier and twenty people step out with their bags in hand and head to the gray wall. “Who are they?” Lisa asks.
“Those are people from back home who are here to help out,” he says as they look out the window, watching them go up one by one.
As Chris transfers clothes from the washer to the dryer he glances at Lisa and wonders how much she will change in a few months, if she will change, and how much he will miss her, with her jet-black hair and tan skin, soft as cotton. He asks her, “so where you going after here?”
“I’ll probably go over to my parents for dinner,” Lisa says still amazed at how many people there are now out on the pier. Ten more buses drop more people off from back home. “Is your bed all set?” she asks.
“Yea, I got just ‘bout everything yesterday, if I need anything later I’ll just go to the store”.
“So how was last night?” He says as he folds one load of clothes.
“It was awesome, do you have to go?” she says smiling.
“I’ll be back. It’ll just be a little while. My Uncle needs me, I have to go,” he says staring into her beautiful eyes as they are slightly closed. “When I get back we’ll go back to my home for a little while.”
“Really?” She says, eyes open now.
“Yes, I have some time off coming up soon, I’ll order the tickets through work,” he says as he packs his bags back up with the neatly folded clothes.
As they walk out the door of the laundry mat, holding hands by their pinky fingers, they notice the pier is much more livelier now. It’s packed with people, families, and loved ones. There is also a band playing. They look at each other and decide to try and avoid the crowd and go to the pizza shack on the other side of the pier for a quick bite to eat. “I’m starving,” he says walking up to the patio.
“Me too, I’m going to have two slices with cheese and pepperoni. What about you?” She says to him as she pulls out her purse.
“I’ll have the same, thanks,” he says. They both sit there and eat, unusually quite. He wants to tell her something but doesn’t know how. He realizes he may not have another chance for time is running out. His heart beats harder, the band seems to be playing louder or at least to him it does. The crowd is getting louder with anticipation in the air.
“It’s almost time, are you cold?” he says as they get up from the table, he slightly taller than her.
As they walk down the pier she notices everyone respects him. “No I’m alright,” she says as she tries to control her jaw from shivering. They stop at the end. Looking at each other and holding each other hands.
He slowly opens his mouth and leans closer to her and begins to kiss her as if he may never kiss her again. His body flat against hers, he wraps his arms around her. He lets go and says, “I’ll be back, don’t you worry. I love you.”
She stands there hopelessly and says, “I love you too, call me.” He continues to walk across the bridge like structure. She looks at him as he goes higher and higher. He gets to the top faces the rear of the ship and salutes.