by A. American
I laughed and hugged the big man. “I was just having a little fun.”
“You scared the shit out of me,” Aric said.
I clapped him on the back and laughed. “I thought it might get a rise out of you.”
“Rise, hell. I nearly shit myself. This was your idea!”
Dalton was standing off to the side and I waved him over. “Where did the rings come from?” I asked when he approached.
He reached into his pocket and took out a gold eagle coin. “I made ‘em out of these. It wasn’t hard and didn’t take long. I just wanted the guys to have a ring.”
“We really appreciate it,” Fred said as she looked at the ring on Aric’s finger.
“Very much,” Mary added.
As we all talked, music suddenly erupted from the house. It was the Jimmy Hendrix “Purple Haze”. I looked up towards the house and saw Mike standing on the rear steps. “Are we going to have a reception or what?” He shouted across the yard.
“Looks like we should move to the house,” I said.
As the group started towards the house, Sarge came up beside me. “Real funny there wise-ass,” he said.
“Awe, come on. It was funny.”
“That’s the kind of shit I’d expect from that pecker-head up there on the porch.”
I patted his back. “Come on. It’s like I told Mel. Gives them a story to tell later.” I patted his chest and added, “You look really sharp too. It was a cool thing you did for them.”
“It wasn’t shit and I’m getting out of this burin’ suit as fast as I can.”
Everyone made it up to the porch where the cakes were waiting along with a selection of things to eat. The two jugs of blackberry wine were also set out. I looked around for the music and found Mike standing beside an old record player. It had amazing sound and he was thumbing through a stack of records. His suit jacket was gone, and he now looked like the Mike we all knew.
Mike turned his attention from the turntable and looked at the gathering crowd. “Alright. We ready to kick this party off?” He asked. There was a cheer from the crowd and he clapped his hands. “It’s not much, but I have a contribution for the reception. He reached down to a cooler sitting at his feet and opened it. It was full of beer bottles floating in water with blocks of ice. Reaching in, he grabbed one and tossed it to the old man. “Here.”
Sarge caught it and looked at it suspiciously, asking, “What the hell is this?”
“What’s it look like? It’s an ice-cold beer!”
“Where the hell did you get beer from?” I asked.
“I found a brewing kit and a lot of supplies in the garage of the house. I’ve been saving it. Figured this was a good time, so I brewed it all up. This is all there is, so you better enjoy it.”
Sarge still eyed the bottle with suspicion. Mike shook his head and took the bottle from him, twisted the top off and took a long swig.” Ahh, damn that’s good!”
Soon, beers were being passed around and everyone was enjoying a cold one. And it wasn’t bad! Not the best, but considering how long it’d been since we’d seen a beer, it was the best I’d ever had.”
Despite his reservations about Mike, Sarge couldn’t take it any longer and tried the beer. I watched as he took a long pull and swished it around in his mouth. Swallowing it, he started to nod. “Just when I think you can’t possibly be any more worthless, you go and do something like this.” Sarge saluted Mike with the bottle, “That’s a fine oat soda there, Mikey.”
Mike smiled and replied, “I told ya.” Then Sarge turned his bottle up, draining it.
The Hendrix record was taken off and Otis Redding put on. I grabbed a couple of beers from the cooler and went outside. I pulled a folding camp chair over and set it up where I could watch the merriment on the porch. It was quite the contrast to what I was used to seeing. Music blared from the turntable and people milled about with beers in their hands. Then there was the way they were all dressed. That thought made me look down at my own clothes. It’s been a long time since any of us dressed this way. And tomorrow it would all go back to normal. Our normal at any rate.
I drank my beers and watched the brides and grooms dance. I watched as Sarge danced with each of the girls. There were a lot of cat-calls. Lots of laughing and hooting and hollering. No doubt that this night no one was worried about anything. For tonight, we would be carefree. I drained the bottle in my hand and got up to go find my wife. She was in a dress today and I was out of uniform. I was going to get the most out of this situation that I could. Tomorrow would have to wait.
Prologue
Baker was leaning on the open doors of the big green transformer. “What do you think?” She asked.
“Well,” Terry replied. “One of two things is going to happen. One, the lights will come on. Or two, the doors will blow off this thing and it’ll burn like a damn torch.”
“Only one way to find out,” Scott replied. “I trust it. I megged it out and it looks good. I think it’s going to be fine.”
Terry stood up and closed the doors to the transformer. “Like I said, only one way to find out,” he said as he walked away from it.
Baker and Scott moved with him, and once they were at a comfortable distance, Terry waved to Eric. He was standing up the power pole where the wire from the transformer dropped underground. He had a long telescoping pole in his hands. At the top of the pole was a peg that came out at ninety-degrees from the head. This peg was in the eye ring of the fuse holder on the pole. Eric saw Terry wave and he braced himself. He gripped the pole, took a quick look up and quickly slammed the switch closed with an upward thrust of the pole.
The pad-mount transformer that supplied power to the armory began to hum as the lights on the outside of the building came to life. A cheer erupted from the assembled Guardsmen. Sheffield ran over and grabbed Terry in a hug, lifting him off the ground. “You did it! You actually did it!”