Lean on Me

by Claudia Hall Christian

  “I want to know about the oranges,” Sergeant Dusty said.

  “Now that you mention it,” Joseph said. “I wouldn’t mind knowing that bit of information myself. You’ve always had them.”

  “You know why I carried the oranges,” Alex said.

  “Never asked,” Joseph said.

  Vince took Raz’s spot and Raz moved to do squat jumps onto a crate next to Alex.

  “I’m happy to talk about oranges,” Alex said. “This is my last set of this horrible torture. I can’t talk and writhe at the same time.”

  “Writhe? Horrible torture?” Trece went to White Boy’s side jogging. “I bet the Mooch likes the nice round butt you have from doing bench squat jumps! Sheez.”

  “Yes, thank you Trece for my butt,” Alex said. “It’s a treat with no trick.”

  “You’re welcome, Alex,” Trece said. “And Alex’s butt.”

  “While I suffer – I mean stretch – would you like to tell them about the oranges?” Alex asked. “You were there when it all started.”

  Joseph moved to do squat jumps on the seat.

  “Indeed I was,” Trece said. Unlike the rest of the team, Trece wasn’t breaking a sweat or breathing hard. “Let’s see… Set the way back time machine to when Alex had just finished her training and had just married a certain Englishman…”

  “In secret,” Zack said. He took Sergeant Dusty’s place jogging; Sergeant Dusty shifted to doing squat jumps next to Joseph. “No one knew. And when I say no one, I mean Alex, John and the priest knew.”

  “Max knew by the time Trece knew,” Alex said. “You didn’t know.”

  “That’s right,” Zack said. “I didn’t know. Trece knew because he’d just made super secret black ops.”

  “And is related to every contractor in the Venice Beach and Santa Monica area,” Alex said. “We’d just bought our apartment and it needed some work.”

  “I feel so cheap,” Trece said.

  “Because you are,” White Boy said. Also unaffected by this workout, he nudged Trece.

  “That’s right, I am,” Trece laughed.

  “Oranges?” Joseph dropped down to stretch.

  “Yes sir, oranges,” Trece said. “Alex’s mother was pissed. I mean you’ve all seen how she gets?”

  The team members nodded their heads.

  “Multiply what you’ve seen by a thousand,” Alex said.

  “Like I said, she was really pissed off that…” Trece voice shifted into an imitation of Rebecca Hargreaves. “… After more than a year of no contact, that’s more than three hundred and sixty-five days, my own daughter cannot be bothered to come see her own mother.”

  “I went to see Max instead,” Alex moved to do assisted stretches with Raz.

  “Of course, she had no idea that Alex had got married.” Warming to his story, and relishing the team’s attention, Trece moved into storytelling mode. “I could go into what happened when she found out…”

  Trece’s face contorted into exaggerated shock and horror. The team laughed.

  “But some trauma is… private,” Trece’s voice rose as if he was weeping. He fanned his chest with his hand. Vince took his place jogging and Trece went to do squat jumps. Too heavy for the crate, Trece and White Boy made their own high bench on a set of cargo boxes.

  “Oranges, Trece, oranges,” Joseph dropped down next to Raz to stretch.

  “Oranges,” Trece cleared his throat. “Yes, oranges.”

  “After Special Forces training, most people take a month or more leave,” Alex said. “Jesse and I wanted to work with Charlie and Joseph. They were starting right away, so we only had a week off. Jesse went to see Maria. I was going to go see Mom, but you guys remember how thin you were after training? Imagine being me after training?”

  “She was a skeleton,” Trece said.

  “I wasn’t that thin,” Alex said. Trece and Joseph shared a look and Alex groaned. “Anyway, Mom would have lost it. So I went to see Max.”

  “Alex was off playing with her twin and marrying the Mooch while Mommy was worried,” Trece said. “Rebecca decided that Alex was going to get scurvy.”

  “Scurvy?” Vince burst out laughing.

  “Scurvy,” Alex said. “You know, you can lose your teeth.”

  “Alex was going to leave them, but her mom called on the way to the airport,” Trece said.

  “She insisted that I take the oranges so I wouldn’t get scurvy,” Alex said. “I didn’t have time to unload them.”

  “Plus, Alex was really freaked out about her first assignment,” Trece said. “She stuffed her backpack full of oranges and left.”

  “I flew in to Fort Carson,” Alex said. “I was on the ground less than ten minutes before we took off for the jungle. You know what it’s like to leave for a mission. Controlled chaos. I found Jesse and we got on the plane. I didn’t realize I had the oranges until after we landed.”

  “Oh,” Joseph sat up from stretching. “That’s what happened.”

  “That’s what happened,” Alex said.

  “What happened?” Trece asked.

  “We were a mile from target,” Joseph said. “Someone was looking for something…”

  “Bug spray,” Alex said.

  “DEET,” Joseph said. “We used everything we’d brought. Jax asked everyone to check and Alex said she thought she had some in her backpack. She peers in and looks surprised.”

  “I played it off because I was terrified these older, more experienced men would make fun of me,” Alex smiled at the memory. “But I was shocked. I had no idea they were there.”

  “Wasn’t your pack heavy?” Margaret asked on her way to the jogging station.

  “Compared to training?” Alex shook her head. “It was pretty light.”

  The team laughed.

  “Anyway, at location, the people were starving,” Alex said. “They were an indigenous tribe in the Sierra Madre de Chiapas. They had never recognized or participated in the government.”

  “It was kind of ‘We’ll ignore you if you ignore us,’” Joseph said.

  “Until the government discovered an oil reserve under the mountains,” Alex said. “The tribe fought back and the government cut off all trade. They blocked streams, slaughtered their sheep, and fouled their fields. The journalists were there to document their plight, but one of them was sent by the Mexican government to infiltrate. He got caught, so they snatched the journalists.”

  “Tried to take us,” Joseph said.

  “What?” Trece asked. “I haven’t heard any of this.”

  “It was our first assignment,” Joseph said. “Alex told Charlie that we shouldn’t just go in there, but he didn’t listen. He and a couple of guys went into the camp. The leader was bargaining for food with the Mexican government. The team added to his bargaining power.”

  “They didn’t bring me because I was a girl,” Alex smiled. “They also didn’t speak Yucatec. The leader spoke English; they were counting on him speaking English to them. They were captured.”

  “How did you get out of it?” Vince asked on his way to the jump squat station.

  “The man was a notorious womanizer,” Alex said. “That’s why Charlie didn’t want to send me. I dolled up, like I do every time now, and went in. I used the oranges to ease my passage through the camp. They worked like a charm.”

  “They worked so well that Charlie insisted on bringing them every trip,” Joseph said.

  “Where they work like a charm,” Alex said. “We don’t really think about it but oranges are like gold in most of the impoverished areas of the world. They’re great nutrition and hydration in a sealed, easy-to-carry package. Plus kids love oranges. Now everyone expects it. They’re better than a calling card.”

  “What happened with the tribe?” Margaret asked.

  Alex smiled.

  “I can’t tell if that’s a good smile or you have gas or you’re in pain,” Margaret said.

  The team members laughed.

  “We tra
ded the journalists for food,” Alex said. “The leader was ill, dysentery…”

  “We don’t talk about Dean very much,” Joseph said.

  “Dean was our other medic,” Alex said. “I think we don’t talk about him because he was so complicated.”

  “Complicated?” Raz asked.

  “Jesse was angelic – good through and through,” Joseph said. “But Dean… He was like a Hindu god or an angel out of the old testament.”

  “Kind,” Zack sat up from stretching. “Tough. He could kill someone and turn around and save someone else’s life. He was smart as hell. Quiet. A little eerie psychic. I was a little surprised he wasn’t the ghost from the Fey team.”

  “I think he went to his true home,” Alex shook her head at the tears forming in her eyes.

  “Anyway, he could look at someone and know what was wrong with them,” Joseph said. “We were a new team, so no one really knew each other’s strengths. And supernatural ability to know what’s wrong with someone isn’t really in someone’s file.”

  “We were watching the camp and he spotted the leader’s dysentery,” Alex said. “But, like Joseph said, we’d known each other less than a day. Charlie looked at Dean and took the ‘real soldiers’ like MJ’s dad into the camp.”

  “Dean must have been amazing,” Colin said.

  “Exactly right,” Joseph said. “Our next mission, we sent Dean, Alex, and Jesse, of course, to watch what was going on. After a few hours, they came back and told us everything about the group we were going into.”

  “And they were right?” Sergeant Dusty asked.

  “Dead on,” Joseph said. “We used them every mission after that.”

  “Anyway, the leader knew the General, so it wasn’t a big trick to work out the release of the captives and the team,” Alex said. “Jax refused to leave until he’d treated the children.”

  “Jax loved kids,” Joseph said. “He thought they bore the brunt of the trouble wrought by adults.”

  “He was right,” Margaret said. “So, what happened to the tribe?”

  “Anyway, Jax treated the children and pregnant women, like we did last week,” Alex said. “Dean worked on the leader. He was at least eighty and tough as nails. He’s not living now but he escorted his tribe through the rough times. They’re doing quite well now. His eldest son’s taken over the tribe. The UN’s worked with them and the Mexican government. The tribe’s done a little integrating and the government’s done a little flexing. The tribe realized the government might help them, which they have, and the government realized the tribe was effective at stopping the drug trade in the region.”

  “You remember the kid who collected all the UN documents last year?” Joseph asked. “What was his name?”

  “Efren,” Margaret said a little too quickly. The team laughed. “What? He’s really cute.”

  “He seemed pretty cute on Sunday,” MJ said. “All dressed up for dinner.”

  “I seem to remember you going to dinner on Sunday too,” Joseph said.

  “And checking in Monday morning,” Trece said.

  “Consenting adults, sir,” Margaret said.

  “Yes, but we want the details,” Trece said.

  “Don’t be such a girl,” Margaret laughed.

  “Sir,” White Boy said. “Don’t be such a girl, sir.”

  The team members laughed. Blushing, Margaret cleared her throat.

  “Why did you bring up Efren, sir?” Margaret asked to get the heat off her.

  “He’s from that tribe,” Alex said. “He’s one of the sons of the leader. He was just a kid when we met him. I was surprised to see him again.”

  “You have to adapt to survive,” Margaret said.

  “I think that’s true for all of us,” Alex said.

  “Sir?” Cliff said over the intercom. Cliff was flying co-pilot on some of the trip to gain hours flying the Hercules C-130.

  “Yes?” Joseph asked.

  “Sorry, Lieutenant Colonel Hargreaves?” Cliff asked.

  “Yes?” Alex looked up at the speaker.

  “Your mother,” Cliff said. “I’m patching her through because she said it was urgent. But sir, she doesn’t seem to realize you’re in the air.”

  “My being in the air is a little different from her flying first-class on a Lear jet.” Sitting on the floor, Alex indicated to the spartan Hercules C-130 around her.

  “Sir?” Cliff asked.

  “Patch her through,” Alex said. “Mom?”

  “Alexandra?” Rebecca’s worried voice came over the intercom. “You sound funny.”

  “I’m in the air, Mom,” Alex said.

  Trece stood to act out Rebecca’s voice. Alex shook her head at him but there was no stopping him.

  “That’s what that young man told me,” Rebecca said. “You know they are polite, but irritated. How can they be irritated and polite at the same time?”

  Trece stood with his hand on his hip.

  “They are polite because they don’t want to piss me off,” Alex said.

  “Alexandra! Do not use that foul language,” Rebecca said.

  “Fuck Mom, I’m working,” Alex asked. “What do you want me to say?”

  Rebecca’s chuckle sounded like a clap over the loud speaker. Trece put his fingertips over his mouth.

  “Is this an emergency language intervention?” Alex asked.

  “No, honey,” Rebecca said. “I wanted to tell you before you heard it from the awful-media.”

  To Rebecca, “awful-media” was one word that described everything from CNN to the National Geographic.

  “What’s going on?” Alex’s hand naturally went to her heart.

  “Your father has had a little… incident,” Rebecca said.

  “Which one? The General or Ben?”

  “That’s not very funny,” Rebecca said. “Patrick collapsed on his morning run. The awful-media is making a stink out of I,t but the doctors think it might be some arrhythmia. They assure me it’s common for men his age.”

  “You’re saying that Dad had a heart-related event,” Alex said.

  “Actually, the doctors aren’t sure what happened,” Rebecca said. “They’ve ordered him to take a month’s leave.”

  “Alex that’s…” Sergeant Dusty started. Alex nodded and held up her hand for silence. He stopped speaking.

  “The awful-media is saying he had a heart attack,” Rebecca said. “Or died! You were so angry last year that we weren’t dead when the awful-media said we were dead that…”

  “Where is he going to take the month’s leave?” Alex asked.

  “John insisted that he stay at your house,” Rebecca said. “He can keep an eye on him. And you’re set up for injured people in your basement. Of course, Patrick refused but your John can be so persuasive.”

  “Dad’s staying at our house?” Alex asked. “And you?”

  “I’ll be there off and on,” Rebecca said. “But I can’t watch your father day and night. He’d kill me after an hour.”

  “And I can?” Alex asked.

  “Ben,” Rebecca said. “You remember Claire’s son Frederec?”

  “Yes, I remember Ben and Claire’s eldest son,” Alex said.

  “Frederec is launching his own men’s line in the US,” Rebecca said. “I guess it’s been around for a while, but it’s new to me. Anyway, their whole family is staying at your house…”

  “For a month,” Alex said.

  “How did you know?” Rebecca asked. “Claire’s mother is coming too. She’s coming to help with the babies. Have you met her?”

  “Noémi?” Alex asked. “Yes, I’ve met Noémi.”

  “I always forget that you know them so well,” Rebecca said. “Anyway, Ben said he’d keep an eye on Patrick. I’m sure they’ll play chess or whatever those boys do when they’re together.”

  “Take over the world?” Raz asked in a low voice.

  “The hospital is releasing your father in an hour,” Rebecca said. “I just wanted you to know
.”

  “Are you all right?” Alex asked.

  “Yes, yes dear,” Rebecca said. “Next time I see you, we’ll be housemates.”

  “Sounds fun,” Alex said.

  “Truly horrible, I know,” Rebecca laughed.

  “You remember Colin’s living with us now,” Alex said.

  “I knew we’d have fun,” Rebecca said.

  “You know he can hear you,” Alex said.

  “I always forget he’s one of your minions,” Rebecca chuckled. “Hi Colin honey. You doing all right?”

  “Sure Mom,” Colin said. The team looked at Colin who flushed bright red. Trece went over to caress his hair but Colin hit at him. Alex rolled her eyes.

  “Okay, I should be going… but Alex, what is that awful sound?”

  Alex looked around to see their new intern Sergeant Pete Beetle, doing his squat jumps on the seat. Even though he was in excellent shape, Pete hadn’t worked out with Trece and White Boy before. He was dripping with sweat, breathing hard, and barely able to finish. His canine partner easily fulfilled each station. The dog seemed to laugh at his efforts.

  “Our intern Pete is working out,” Alex said.

  “Where are you?”

  “I’m not sure,” Alex said. “Anyone know where we are?”

  “Over the continent of Asia, sir,” the pilot said.

  “Mongolia,” Cliff said.

  “Would you like the GPS coordinates, sir?” a female voice asked.

  “Who are those people?” As if scolding school children, Rebecca’s voice rose, “This is supposed to be a private conversation.”

  “Secure, mother, not private,” Alex said. “Thanks for calling and letting me know.”

  “Yes, well… love you dear,” Rebecca said. “See you at home. Bye-bye Colin; love you too.”

  “Bye Mom; love you,” Alex said. “Out.”

  The intercom clicked.

  “What the hell is going on?” Sergeant Dusty asked. “Captain Gordon, the Admiral, now the General…

  “Noémi and Ben,” Joseph said.

  “Add mysterious men moving in next door,” Raz said.

  “You know about them?” Alex asked.

  “Sami can see them from her condo,” Raz said.

  “What’s going on, Lieutenant Colonel?” Royce asked.

  Recognition flashed across Joseph’s face. Alex nodded to him.