A Treasure of Their Own

  Chapter Fourteen

  Have you ever watched any episodes of M.A.S.H. where the helicopter lands on a flat spot on a little hill about a hundred yards away from the camp? That's about what it was like landing at LA----Little Afghanistan, that is.

  However, there was one exception. There were no trees or grass, just rocks and dust. And, there were no tents. How they got those three modular buildings out there is anybody's guess. There was one for the ladies, one for the men and the big one that served as a classroom, a chow hall, and individual rooms for the three instructors.

  Since a lot of their off-duty time was spent in it, they called it the Sniper's Den. Portable generators furnished all the electricity that was needed. Every week, supplies came in via convoy from somewhere. If need be, a helicopter was always available.

  About fifty yards away was a pretty good looking style Afghanistan canyon. And when you climbed down into the canyon and looked up, you saw a good resemblance of the Afghanistan Mountains. Well, it is a good resemblance until you get to the real Afghanistan and then you begin to see the differences.

  The sun was to their left, so Ramon figured they must be flying toward Colorado. Not that it mattered which state they were in. The noise of the helicopter made conversation almost impossible. Everyone was left to their own thoughts. That could be good and that could be bad.

  Ramon and Taylor hadn't had much private time to theorize about what may or may not happen and where they may or may not go. That was an area that they left up to God. They knew that in His perfect plan for them, He would reveal that step when He thought best.

  Was it the uniforms? Was it the talk about the mission? Was it everybody calling each other Sergeant? Who knows for sure? A lot of things began to hit home to Taylor. Ramon noticed that she stared at the floor for a longer time than normal. Her expression? Doubt? Fear? No, not entirely. Was she having regrets?

  A tell-tale tear trickled down her cheek and still she stared. He placed his hand on her knee to get her attention. She took her finger and wrote 'T O M' on the back of his hand. She leaned forward, placed her elbows on her knees and rested her face in her hands. Ramon pulled his handkerchief out and tucked it into her fingers. She pulled it into the palms of her hands and just rested there.

  Bennett and Hutchins looked at Ramon. He mouthed the name "Tom" and they nodded. Down inside, Sgt. Bennett hoped and prayed she could pull herself together before Sgt. Givens saw her crying.

  If the flight had been about ten minutes longer, it might have happened. But, as they landed, she was still wiping the tears from her eyes. She still had the handkerchief in her hands when it came time to disembark the copter. Everyone had assembled on the copter pad to welcome them. And, who was there to make the welcoming speech? Why none other than Sgt. Givens. And he wasted no time in living up to his legend.

  "Well, Sanders and Rodriguez, how nice of you to join us," he snarled to them in his usual sarcastic voice. "You're only two weeks late. Just how do you expect to catch up to the rest of us?"

  Sgt. Bennett led the way out from under the copter blades. He held up two pouches. "Here's their records, their levels of training and their marksmanship scores. I believe you'll find everything in order. You have a full report on their whereabouts from HQ. ALL that you need to know is in here.”

  He slapped the pouches against the sergeant's chest and looked at Taylor and Ramon. "Follow me, I'll show you to your quarters where you can shower and get ready for chow."

  As they walked away, Sgt. Givens yelled at them, "Do these records tell me why Sgt. Sanders walks around with a hanky in her hand? Does she miss her Mommy? Leave her teddy boo at home?"

  Taylor stopped in her tracks causing Ramon to stop with her. He looked at her and saw a rage that he had never seen before. He put his hand on her shoulder and said, "Taylor, calm down. Don't let......"

  She looked him straight in the eye, shook his hand off and said in a strained quiet tone, "Leave me alone.” She turned on her heal and walked resolutely toward Sgt. Givens who was grinning like a possum.

  Sgt. Bennett heard and turned to follow her. Ramon grabbed his arm as he went by and said softly, "Better let her alone, Sergeant. She has to face this demon herself. Not him, but the one inside of her. If she blows it for us, it is better that she blows it before we get too involved in the mission."

  "You're right," Sgt. Bennett sighed. "You're right. Then again, this might just mold her some."

  "I’m all for that."

  She didn't stop until she was just inches away from Givens' face. She didn't shout. Her voice was stable. It never quivered. With calm deliberation she started, "For your information......Sergeant. Rodriguez and I were at the bedside of a dying vet who served his country with all of his heart in WWII. He was trained by Colonel Henry Mucci himself. He sustained severe injuries by being blown out of an ammo shed while rescuing 525 American prisoners of war at Cabanatuan in the Philippines. We felt ourselves to be honored to stay with him in his last few days and see to it that he was given a funeral worthy of his service to the United States of America. Tom Dandridge yanked my skinny butt out of the ugly teenage crap I was in WITHOUT raising his voice or casting aspersions as to my character. THEREFORE, I will be glad AND eager to take instruction from you but I DON'T have to take your harassment. Excuse me, Sergeant, it's been a long journey and I need to use the latrine.”

  With that she turned around a walked resolutely back to Sgt. Bennett. As she walked past him she said, "Get me away from him.” The tears were streaming down her face.

  Sgt. Bennett turned and escorted her to the ladies' barracks. Ramon caught the eye of one of the ladies and nodded his head toward Taylor. She tapped the arm of her friend and they hustled after her.

  Sgt. Givens called to Taylor as she got to the door of the barracks, "Your lessons start at 0800 in the morning. I've got two weeks of Sgt. Givens I'm gonna cram into you and your boyfriend to get you caught up with the rest of this bunch."

  Taylor straightened up her face into an absolute dead pan and turned slowly to face him. His arms were folded and he was rocking back and forth on his heels. An intimidating grin showed the arrogance that went along with his words. As she looked at him she tilted her head down slightly and raised her left eyebrow. The smile that pulled at her lips looked more like a sneer.

  Ramon stood expressionless as he watched her act the very way they had talked about. He relaxed on the inside as he knew that she was in control of herself and not belittled by the bellowing sergeant. In sweet, Southern charm, the cat meowed, "My momma always said that it's a poor game that two can't play. Get you some rest, Sergeant, I hope you learn your lessons as fast as I learn mine.” Without giving him a chance to reply she vanished inside the ladies' barracks and was followed quickly by Rose and Florida.

  She saw a bunk to the left that had her name on it and made her way quickly to it. She let her bags drop unceremoniously to the floor and sat down abruptly on her bunk. Another torrent of tears flooded her face as she buried it in Ramon's handkerchief and began to sob. Her roommates sat on either side and put their arms around her.

  "Hey, Taylor, I’m Rose and she's Florida and, Honey, don't let him get to you that way. He's been grousing at everybody. And, he does seem to pick on us ladies a little bit more than the men," she rattled off as she tried to calm Taylor down.

  Florida added, "Yeah, we just kinda blow it off when we can. He can get pretty crusty at times.” After a few second’s pause, she added, "Make that most of the time."

  Taylor brought her face up out of the handkerchief and chuckled at the last remark, "Ladies, if I can put up with my mangy excuse for a father for 20 years, I can put up with an old blowhard for four weeks. Ramon and I have a plan. He's just like a terrorist. The main thing they want to do is instill fear inside of a person. So, we decided to react to his tirade in a cool deadpan."

  "Deadpan? Why not a laugh?"

  "Because a cool, steely-eyed deadpan tells them that you've got s
omething up your sleeve whether you do or not. If you force yourself to deadpan, you're nerves calm down and you can actually think rationally, which is what you want and what the terrorists fear," Taylor explained. "Smart warriors look into their opponents eyes if they can. A pupil dilation, a wince, a hard blink would usually indicate they are fixing to make some kind of blow to you. Again, a deadpan makes THEM worry instead of you."

  Florida replied, "That makes sense. Hey, Rose, we need to pass that info around to the other girls. That bozo has already had a couple of us in tears."

  "Yeah, he even thinks he got to me. But, I'll fix him later. I'm sure he'll give me ample opportunity," Taylor added.

  Rose asked, "Were you really held up by a funeral?"

  As Taylor remembered Tom, she smiled and answered through her tears, "The greatest man I ever met. He always said that he wasn't, but he was a war hero through and through. You'd better believe that mine and Ramon's lives were changed because of him."

  Meanwhile, Ramon faced Sgt. Givens and corrected him, "Sgt. Givens, Taylor and I aren't romantically involved, Sir."

  "You're not fooling me, Rodriguez. A male and a female working side by side and you don't jump each other’s bones every now and then?" he bellowed with his hands on his hips. "What kind of fool do you think I am?"

  "That, sir, is not the topic of our discussion," Ramon deadpanned to the snickers of the surrounding troops. In a cool, matter-of-fact tone he continued, "We happen to be two stalwart Christians who consider that act to be fornication. Slander as defined in the dictionary is an oral statement that is malicious, false and defamatory. AND, it is punishable in any court of law in any state or federal court in these United States. And, YOU, sir, swore by your oath upon entering this man’s Army that you would protect and defend that law. My strong suggestion to you, Sergeant is that you refrain from further comment about our relationship unless you can prove otherwise.” He immediately turned around and headed for the men's barracks.

  "You march yourself back here soldier or I'll have this copter carry your mangy carcass out of here. I didn't dismiss you."

  Without stopping, Ramon kept walking but said loud enough for everyone to hear, "We were not in a military formation. You were not giving any orders. You were not giving any instruction.” As he stepped up to the door and put his hand on the door knob, he turned and said clearly, "But you were breaking the law and bringing a reproach on the good names of two American soldiers. From that I do not need your permission to leave. You should thank me that I have not chosen to press charges against you.” He looked at the group of men that heard every word and finished, "And I have plenty of witnesses.” He turned the door handle and entered the barracks to the applause of three of the men who had already preceded him inside.

  "Why, you snotty-nosed......"

  "Stow it, Gary," came the order from Sgt. Bennett. "He's right, and he does have witnesses.” With that, he stepped over to the Sniper's Den for a much needed cup of coffee. Sgt. Givens stood in the middle of the compound as the men went off in different directions. After a minute or so to reflect on the recent happenings, he walked to his private quarters at the back of the Den.

  Taylor got the shower as hot as she could stand it. After a quick rinse, she put her hands against the shower wall and looked at the floor. The hot, relaxing stream of liquid against the back of her head helped her get the remainder of her grief out of her system, for now, at least.

  Danielle and Benita came in while she was regrouping her forces. The four ladies kept looking at Taylor as she showered. No, they were not those kinds of ladies. There focus was on the definition of her arms and her shoulders. "I can bench press 150, but, dear God, that girl's bound to be pushing 200," Benita said.

  "No, way," Rose countered.

  "I don't know, but if you ask me, she could probably tie ol' Givens up into a pretzel and walk away and let him squirm on the ground," commented Florida with a laugh.

  The three others joined her and were cracking other remarks when Taylor turned off the shower and reached for the towel. When she looked their way and saw them all smiling at her, she stopped drying herself and asked, "What?"

  Florida cracked, "Oh, us four lezzies enjoy seeing the naked body of our newest groupie. We shoulda had our camera rolling, huh, girls?"

  As they continued to laugh, Benita said, "That's not true. I started it by noticing the definition of your arms, shoulders and backs. I told 'em that you could probably bench press close to 200."

  Taylor continued drying off as she chuckled and said, "I popped off 225 one time before Ramon decided to be my big brother and took the bars away from me."

  "For real?"

  "Get outa here."

  As she began to dress she replied, "Got some weights? I'll show ya. Just don't tell my big brother."

  "He really your brother?"

  "Nah, just a very good friend."

  "How good is very good?” Rose asked with a sly giggle.

  Her question caused Taylor to stop, look at her and then smile. "Just to clarify things. This ol' girl has no plans at getting married... EVER. So, if any of you ladies have got hormones for Ramons, go for it. Ramon is a good man. You know he has to be to put up with me for six years. He deserves a good wife.”

  She finished lacing her boots and added, "But, mess with him the wrong way and I might have to come at you. He means a lot to me. I won't marry him or any man but he means a lot to me."

  Florida kept the red in Rose's face by saying, "There ya' go, girl. The door's open."

  "I'll introduce you to him at supper if you want," Taylor offered as they all got up to exit the barracks.

  Rose weaseled, "Well, if you ever get a chance. You know, some of the guys might monopolize your time now that you’ve faced down Sarge."

  "I can dig it," Taylor responded as they all left to go to the Den.

  Several of the guys were standing in the middle of the compound talking to Ramon. General guy laughter was heard and the typical quieting of male voices as females approached.

  "Winner and still....well current champion, Sgt. Taylor Sanders," one guy called out. He stuck out his hand to Taylor, "They call me Duke."

  "Hey, Duke."

  The next guy's hand went out, "They only do that because it's his last name. Mine's Sandusky. Call me Sandy if you'd like. Nobody else does."

  "That's because nobody else wants to talk to him. I'm Peterson."

  "I'm Mowzzer."

  Handshakes done, Taylor acknowledged, "It's a pleasure to meet you gentlemen."

  "Gentlemen?"

  "She only said that because she hasn't been around us for more than five minutes. Then, she'll call us what we really are."

  Danielle jumped in on the comedy routine, "Well, we have and we've got a few adjectives for you that we'd rather not use."

  "Because, we're ladies," Florida added in her haughtiest tone.

  Benita jumped in just as Mowzzer was opening his mouth to say something, "Don't go there."

  It was one of those moments where everybody kinda knew what was fixing to be said. A good shot of laughter ran through them all. After the laughter died down, Peterson asked the inevitable, "So you two....aren't together?"

  "Marriage and relationships are just not for me," Taylor admitted to everyone. "Bad experience with a bum of a father. He always hated it because I was a girl and not a boy. I don't want to take a chance on marrying one like him or becoming one like him. If God wants to get my attention to get married, He'll have to drop a bomb on me.” She thought about what she just said and added, "Well, I guess I could have said that a little differently, huh?"

  Duke answered, "Yeah, we know what you mean. But, just as a precaution, Sarge has put the law down that there will be no shows of physical affection while in training."

  Just then, the doors to the Den opened and a cook shouted out, "OK. Burgers and dogs with all the fixin's."

  As they began entering the chow hall, Duke commented, "Sunday's are alwa
ys burgers and dogs. I wait all week for this feast."

  At the front of the serving line was Sgt. Bennett. He was just putting the third burger together. He handed it to another sergeant and said, "Take this to Gary, will you?” As he turned to watch him deliver the goods, he saw Taylor and Ramon. "Sgt. Lem," he called after him, "I want you to meet Sergeants Sanders and Rodriguez."

  The tall soldier spoke as he walked past, "I'll be right back to talk to you after I make this delivery."

  Sgt. Bennett came up to them as they started to form a line to the burgers. "Sgt. Lem is our munitions expert. You'll get to know him plenty in the next few weeks. He'll work with you and your weapon, how to take it apart and put it together and all that. He knows weapons inside and out. We currently have him experimenting with different loads in different shells. That's why you'll see some powder residue on his hands. As much as he handles gunpowder, it's hard for him to get it all off."

  "We'll look forward to it," Ramon answered for him and Taylor. They busied themselves fixing their plates and getting their drinks.

  When they were ready to sit down and eat, everyone motioned for them to sit at the center table of the Den. Everybody was eager to hear what they could tell them about Col. Henry Mucci and the formation of the 6th Ranger Battalion and about the battle of Cabanatuan.

  Sgt. Lem came back quickly and joined the group. Taylor and Ramon waited until everybody was ready before they started relating the things they knew. They had heard Tom tell the stories so many times that they could fill in the gaps that the other one left out. Of course, they couldn't help but bring up some of the practical jokes Tom was so famous for doing. It was a great evening.

  After chow, everyone started going their separate ways, some in small groups, some alone. Everyone went to what Winnie-the-Pooh would call their 'thinking spot' to try to get mentally prepared for the next day. Taylor and Ramon were no exception. They found a quiet spot on a couple of rocks about 50 yards away from the compound. There they went over the day's happenings. Taylor was a lot calmer now that she got a lot of her grieving out.

  "What's your take on the day, Ramon?" she asked.

  "I've got more questions than I do answers," he answered.

  "How so?"

  Ramon stared off into the canyon before he began to cite his observations, "For one thing, you never saw Sgt. Bennett and Sgt. Givens together except for that short time we were all at the helicopter. Sgt. Bennett sat over in the corner watching all of us like he might be taking mental notes. Which, if I was in his shoes, I would probably want to hear what people talked about when their hair was down, also. Might give you a clue as to what they were really like."

  "Could be," Taylor agreed. "I remember him saying that things weren't quite right or something like that. He said he really couldn't put his finger on it."

  "Yeah, but Sgt. Givens came in twice for a cup of coffee and except for a casual glance, they made no move to start a conversation with each other. That's unusual for two head honchos in a place not to sit down together and talk."

  "But, did you see the way he slapped our paperwork into Givens' chest? Maybe they don't see eye to eye and would just as soon not talk to each other if they didn't have to."

  "Good point, Taylor, but I think there's something more than that going on between them. Whatcha think about Sgt. Lem?"

  "He seemed like a jolly kind of fellow. He laughed a lot. Maybe he's high strung. Sgt. Bennett seems to think a lot of him."

  "I noticed his eyes. I learned that in Mexico City. They stayed dilated like he was on drugs, nervous, afraid or lying. But, then again, that's the first time I've been around him and maybe that's just the way that he is."

  "Hey, did you see the change that came over him when Sgt. Bennett left and told him to come and get his gun tomorrow afternoon. What was that look on his face all about."

  Ramon chuckled, "I heard the guys talking about it before you came out of the barracks. Sgt. Bennett has this WWII Colt 45 that was handed down from his grandfather and father to him. Of course, you know it's his pride and joy. He goes out and practices with it every Monday. Sgt. Lem makes cartridges for him, cleans it and makes sure it's in A-1 shape."

  Taylor answered with a chuckle, "If I was Sgt. Lem, and I was in charge of a prized possession like that, I'd be a little skittish, too."

  Ramon chuckled at his suspicious thoughts, "I guess you're right. But, just in case, I'll keep those things in my memory bank to see if anything else pans out.” He looked at his watch and said, "We've only got thirty minutes before they expect us to be in bed. Let's pray before we go, huh?"

  "Yeah, but let's don't hold hands like we normally do. That would be kind of suspicious to old eagle eye, now wouldn't it?"

  "Yeah, I guess you're right. You wanna start?"

  "May as well."

  As was their routine, when they prayed together, they poured their hearts out to the Lord. They prayed for Marci and Arthur as well as each other. They prayed for wisdom not only for themselves but also for those that God had put in authority over them. Taylor, especially, asked for grace to deal with Sgt. Givens. When their hearts were clear, they walked back to their barracks to prepare for the next day.

  **************

  Monique read Brian’s text message over and over again. “Monique, all is going according to my plan. The ruse worked better than I thought it would. Our trophy swallowed the story hook, line and sinker and has become a willing participant. In a couple of days, your name will be changed and your new life will begin. As always, Brian.”

  Chapter Fifteen