by Aisha Brooks
Immediately drawing sniper fire from the crest of one of the peaks of one of the hills around the village, Robert and his team had to fight their way through the village, drawing several local mujahidin out from hiding to harass them. One of the Islamic fighters threw a grenade, and one of the privates on the team threw it back, the shrapnel cutting through a small boy, killing him instantly.
“I was in the park the other day, taking a walk,” Robert tells the shrink, “and a baseball rolled to my feet…I froze, and it was just like I was back in Kandahar.”
“Did you have a flashback?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, Sgt. Steele, I think that it would be safe to diagnose you with post-traumatic stress disorder.”
“English, please, Doc,” Robert replies.
“PTSD is a disorder of the mind that is brought on by extreme stress. It is often characterized by bouts of extreme depression, flashbacks, and unwittingly focusing on the event that has caused the trauma. In your case, your experiences in war have triggered the episodes. There are treatments—”
“So what you are saying then, Doc, is that I am weak,” Robert interjects.
“No, not at all,” the doctor immediately answers. “It is quite common among men and women who have spent any amount of time in a combat zone. In a case such as yours, where you have spent extended amounts of time overseas fighting in combat, I would be surprised if you hadn’t exhibited at least some symptoms.”
“So, how do I treat it?” Robert asks.
“Well, there are medicines that you can take, but I think that some other treatment options will be beneficial, even without taking medicines.”
“Okay,” Robert asks, sitting up on the edge of the lounge. What do I do?
“Well, the most important thing is to try to normalize your life once more. Do things that you used to do. Go to the movies, eat dinner at a nice restaurant, take your wife out for a date, that kind of thing.”
“Okay.”
“You are married, right Sergeant?”
“No. I haven’t been in a committed relationship since high-school.”
“Well then, I would suggest finding a young lady to take out. After all, there are few things more comforting than a woman,” Dr. Williams says, showing Robert to the door. “Same time, next Tuesday, Sgt. Steele. And I want to hear about your attempts to find a woman then, too.”
“Yes, sir,” Robert answers in a clipped, military way. “See you then,” he continues in softer tones. As he walks out of the office, Robert thinks over how long it has been since he has been with a woman. It has been at least eight months. After all, he has been out of the Army for a grand total of maybe six weeks, and his last leave was six months before his discharge.
Finally, Robert decides that maybe the doctor has a point, and resolves to go home as soon as he has finished his afternoon run, and visit that website that he heard about on the television. What was it? Dateasoldier.com? No, that wasn’t it…maybe it was militarymen.net…no, that was for veterans. So what was it?
Just then, a bus stopped right beside Robert, with the image of a Marine staring at him. He turns to look, and he sees the advertisement: “Former Military? Looking for Your Soulmate? Try SoldierMatch.com, the premier dating website for former military service people!”
Smiling to himself, Robert takes off at a brisk jog, starting on his evening run.
Chapter 3: SoldierMatch.com
Kimberly Brown sits alone in her classroom in the suburbs of Green Bay, drinking a cup of Starbucks coffee and grading papers. The beautiful young woman is only in her first year out of college, and as such is only twenty three years old. Her brunette hair stretches nearly to her waist, but he keeps it in a tight bun to keep it out of her almond shaped, green eyes. Sitting lazily on the bridge of her thin, slightly curved nose is a pair of glasses, without which she cannot see clearly those objects that are in her direct line of sight.
The final bell of the school day rings, signifying the end of another long day at Jeremiah Rusk Middle School. Kimberly is a lifelong resident of Ruskerville, except her time in college when she attended Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia.
After four years, she graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences with Teacher Licensure. After graduation, she returned home to Ruskerville, where she took up this job as a history teacher in the local middle school, named for former governor of the state. Things have been rough for the tall, gorgeous young woman romantically since she started.
She initially tried to rekindle an old flame with her “high-school sweetheart,” Bailey. Unfortunately, however, Bailey decided to begin dating another woman only days after she had started talking to him again. Then, she had gone on a date with a tall mechanic that she met through a mutual friend, only to find that he was going through a divorce, and had two kids by his ex. Since that night, she has not been on a date with anyone, and is really starting to feel the keen sting of loneliness, deep in the pit of her stomach.
Because of these feelings of loneliness, Kim had finally decided to take drastic measures to fill the void in her heart. So, one night, she bought a bottle of Arbor Mist, and began searching for a dating website. Getting steadily tipsier, she had finally decided on two sites: a major, commercially successful website, and a niche website that matched former military personnel to those that desired the love of soldiers, soldiermatch.com.
Slightly buzzed from the large amount of alcohol that she had consumed, she filled out her profile on the website, promptly ignoring the site for the next three months. As she places the papers that she is grading in her briefcase, though, she decides to check it when she gets home.
She exits the school building, and drives down Jackson Street before turning left onto Morton Lane. All in all, her drive to her apartment takes less than five minutes. She goes inside, and locks the door behind her. Walking into the kitchen, she gets a bottle of wine out of her refrigerator before taking off her button down shirt and pants, and finally removing her bra, releasing her large breasts. This is her preferred attire when at home—complete nudity, save for her tight fitting panties. Sitting down to her computer, she pours herself a glass of wine, and logs on to soldiermatch.
She had decided to create the soldiermatch profile because of her great love for the military, and all who have served. Her father had been a fighter pilot in the Navy, and her brother is currently serving as a Marine at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Her grandfather had been a member of the First Recon Battalion, and was killed in action during the Korean War. All of this combined to make Kimberly very respectful of the military, and to be honest, she felt that the regimental lifestyle of the military is the only way she can live.
Sipping her wine, the nearly naked Kimberly reads through the connections that various military men (and one woman) have sent her in the last three months. “I am an airborne jump instructor at Ft. McCoy, and would like to talk to you,” one said. Another told Kimberly, “I am a National Guardsman in the 32nd Infantry Brigade, and I live in Madison, WI. I would like to start communicating with you about potentially meeting.” The woman told her that she was a recently discharged Army nurse, who was only interested in lesbian encounters. It is not that Kimberly dislikes lesbians and gays, she just wants a man.
Going back to the main screen of the website, she decides to pursue the profile entries of the newest members on the website.
The first one she opens immediately catches her eye. It is for a man of thirty four years, and is a recently discharged Special Forces operator. “I have had three general combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with countless special forces missions around the world. Three time purple heart medal recipient.”
She finds him very intriguing, and only a little disconcerted by the eleven year age difference between the two of them. He is a very handsome man, with piercing blue eyes, and dark brown hair, almost black. His profile picture shows him smiling slightly, wearing his fatigues, and his arm around an older, sh
ort woman, presumably his mother.
Kimberly stares at his photograph for several long minutes before she finally decides to send him a message. She takes another swig from her glass of chardonnay, before searching the site for the man’s name: Robert Steele. “Even his name is sexy…” Kimberly thinks to herself, feeling a slight quiver in the center of her womanhood, contained only by the silken fabric of her underwear.
Finally, after drooling over the five or six pictures in his profile, she sees that he is a new user on the website, only creating his profile that day. Realizing that if she did not snatch him up quickly another woman surely would, she begins to compose her message to him.
“Robert,” she types, “My name is Kimberly Brown, and I am a middle-school teacher near Green Bay, Wisconsin. I would really like to start talking to you…”
Chapter 4: The First Date
Rob can hardly believe how quickly that a woman had answered to his posting. He had finished creating his profile, and literally less than five minutes had gone by when he received a message from a pretty young woman from right there in Green Bay! Or, Ruskerville anyway, which was less than two miles outside the Green Bay city limits.
Before he responds to Kim’s message, he decides to visit her profile page first. Her profile picture clearly shows that she is a young, sexy beauty with large bosoms to accompany her curvaceous figure. Wearing a professional pant suit of green perfectly complements her eyes, which are also a bright green. The black rimmed glasses that she wore for the picture only serve to increase his lust for her.
“Now that is a real woman,” he says, admiring her figure. After seeing that Kim enjoys boat riding and fishing, he decides to contact her.
“Hello Kim,” he types. “First of all, I want to thank you for contacting me. I am new to this online dating thing, and it made me really pleased to know that I am attracting at least some interest. After looking over your profile, I can see that you live just outside of Green Bay, in Ruskerville. I live in Green Bay, and I am freshly home from deployment in Afghanistan. I am really just looking for a strong woman who can help me to work through the bad memories of war. If it is agreeable to you, I see that you enjoy fishing, boating, and the outdoors. Would you like to go fishing one day? My brother owns a boat that we can borrow, and I can take you out on the lake. Would that be okay? I hope this message finds you well, hoping to hear from you soon, Robert Steele.”
Rob reads over his message before sending it, wondering if he was over sharing. Oh, fuck it, he thinks to himself. The worst she can do is say no…and that happened all the time in high school…you can deal with it, Robbie, he says to himself. If you can’t take the occasional shot in the dark and get rejected, then you have no business being on a dating website.
Finally, Rob clicks the small, square “send” button on the bottom right of the message viewer, and he sits back to wait. He does not wait for very long before Kimberly responds.
“That would be great! :-) When do you want to go?
“Oh, I don’t know. Whenever you would like to. I am free most of the time, because I just got home about a week ago, and to be honest, I haven’t even started looking for a job yet.”
“I completely understand,” Kimberly typed back. “Well, I am a school teacher, so the weeks don’t usually work well for me, so if you wanted to go on a Saturday, that would probably be the best day for me.
“Okay, Saturday it is, then. Where do you want to meet?”
“Well, I usually go to the Starbucks on Rustons Road on Saturdays, so if you want, we can meet there.”
“That’s fine. What time?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Kimberly answers, “maybe about 9:30?”
“9:30 works great for me.”
“Great! I’ll see you then!”
“See you then,” he answers, closing up the chat portal open on the screen, blocking the website.
Thus, Robert has set up his first date since high-school.
Two days later, he goes to his brother’s house, and borrows his brother’s ¾ ton Chevrolet pickup, and the nineteen foot fishing boat that he was going to use on his date with Kimberly.
At exactly 9:25 a.m., he pulls up in front of the Starbucks on Rustons Road, and gets out of the vehicle. Walking around the front of the Chevrolet, he enters the Starbucks and orders a Grande Mocha Frappacino.
“Nice order,” comes a sultry female voice from behind him. Turning around to see who the speaker is, Rob immediately exclaims,
“Kimberly! It’s good to meet you!” God, she’s taller than I expected! he says to himself.
“Yeah, it’s great!” she answers. Shit! He’s even better looking in person! she thinks to herself.
They walk out the door of the Starbucks, each of them holding their coffee in hand. “That’s a nice truck,” Kim says, making conversation.
“Yeah,” Robert answers, “Timmy’s done well for himself.”
“Timmy?”
“Yeah, he’s my baby brother. He was smart, like you. He went to college and got a degree in Marine biology. He’s doing research for the University of Wisconsin on the different animals and plants that live in Lake Michigan.”
“What do you mean, ‘smart like me?’” Kim asks him.
“Well, you both went to college, got your degrees, and are working to help others understand the world better. Me? I joined the Army right out of high-school, and have spent the last 15 years in hell-holes all over the damn globe, getting shot at, and seeing friends die.”
Rob is starting to withdraw into himself, due to the frustrations that he has with himself for having to discharge before he could retire. Having earned a Medal of Honor, would have granted him a 30% raise in his pension if he had retired. Instead, he was just over a year into his fourth enlistment, and the damn doctors made him get out, because of a few flashbacks and nightmares. He doesn’t care what the shrink says, he feels weak, and there’s no escaping that feeling.
“Robert,” Kim says softly into the silence that has suddenly and unpredictably fallen between them. “If you want to talk about anything, I’ll listen. PTSD is a very serious thing.”
“How did you know that I’m diagnosed with PTSD?” Robert asked, suddenly defensive.
“My brother is a Marine…my dad was a fighter pilot, and my grandfather was killed in Korea. My dad’s uncle was in the same unit as my grandfather, and saw his brother-in-law get killed. I know what PTSD looks like.”
Chapter 5: Getting To Know Each Other
She knows what PTSD LOOKS like? Robert asks himself. What the hell does that mean?
“Look,” Kimberly says, with authority, “The way I see it, you have two choices…you can either let your past dictate to you in the present, or you can let it go, and we can spend the day catching fish for supper.”
“It’s not that simple,” Robert says. “I can’t control when I have a flashback.”
“Maybe not, but you can control how much it affects you. Have you seen a therapist?”
“Yes,” he answers, sheepishly. “I haven’t really wanted to share that with anyone, though.”
“Look, it’s nothing to be ashamed of, Rob,” she says. “Would you apologise for being a diabetic or a cancer patient? Of course not! In this situation, the right thing to do is to seek help, just like in those situations.”
“I suppose you could be right…”
“I am right,” Kimberly said, “Now, are you taking me fishing, or not?”
Robert, although taken aback by Kimberly’s direct nature, is glad that she neither thinks him weak and to be neither pitied, nor so strong that he shouldn’t feel the way he does. There is something refreshing in the young maiden’s directness, because she does not discount what he is dealing with the way so many Americans do, she does not think him incapable of facing the challenge.
“Yeah, let’s go fishing,” he says, as he turns down Lakefront Drive, heading for a boat ramp that is big enough to launch the massive 19 foot long vessel. As th
ey are working together to launch the boat, Kim really notices the tattoo on the inside of his right arm, and asks, “What are those on your arm?”
“Just some tattoos,” he answers without going into detail, and trying to hide them from her view.
“Let me see them,” she says.
“No, it’s okay. They’re just tattoos of some of the medals I received overseas.”
“Can I please see?” Kim asks, just the hint of begging cutting through her voice.
“Oh, I guess so,” he says, rolling up his right shirt sleeve, conceding to her.
“Oh wow…so you earned what…four Bronze Stars? Three for valor? ”