Building the Nursery

by Amy DeMeritt

  We fly out over a grass area and Airman Sanchez does all of the hand signals we were trained to understand since it’s too loud to be able to hear verbal commands. I look up at my siblings and Keira and smile really big as I fall backwards out of the helicopter.

  Man, this is amazing! The landscape is pretty awesome from up here and I feel so free and excited as adrenaline pumps through me. Everyone is smiling as we drop down the ropes and cleanly land on the grass. Some military personnel who were waiting on ground level for us rush over and help us unhook from the ropes and we group together next to two large Hummers. That was such a rush. I can’t wait to do that again.

  We go back to the base and we’re given military issue black, white, and gray camouflage face paint. Sara, Jade, and Symone help us paint our faces to look like wolves, which was Symone’s idea. We don’t cover our entire face, but have enough detail around the eyes and on the forehead to know what we’re supposed to be.

  We run through the dance routine we came up with last night so Joey and Talia can feel comfortable enough performing with us and we change the entrance plan a little bit to be able to incorporate them.

  The look on Sara’s face is like a proud mother watching her child accomplish something wonderful. I can tell that she’s ecstatic to have all of her siblings doing such a big dance performance with her. Sara has always loved to dance and has always tried to include all of us in it. Talia pretty much stopped dancing with us years ago, but she looks like she’s having fun so far.

  The Black Hawks bring us across the base to a huge open area where a big stage has been set up with some bleachers to the side that’s full of uniform dressed military personnel from all of the different branches, and our families. There’s a huge crowd of thousands of people in camo pants and tee shirts in front of the stage. We can’t hear them above the blades of the chopper, but I can tell they’re cheering and they look excited.

  The other half of our group drops first and their helicopter quickly departs. Within moments, we take its place above the center of the crowd, where they’ve cleared a circle for us. Airman Sanchez gives us our signals that we’re clear to drop, so we smile and hop out of the helicopter backwards. We land, unhook from the ropes, and join the others to form a circle facing the crowds with our hands behind our backs and blank faces. Joey lands last in the center of us, and as the deafening sound of the helicopter blades departs, Joey releases a loud war cry.

  We immediately fall back towards Joey, doing backflips, cartwheels, or somersaults, making the crowds cheer loudly. The music I gave them comes on, and we start dancing to a piece of music I’ve been mashing together in an app on my phone. It includes hip-hop beats, electronica, native instrument sounds, and some robotic machine sounds. I’ve been planning on using it for a dance video for my channel, but this performance seemed like the perfect use for the song.

  As we push through the crowd, towards the stage, we incorporate hip-hop, lyrical, acrobatics, and Native American dancing. We run the last several feet up the stairs of the stage and the music changes to a song we’ve used for a couple choreography events this year. Talia and Joey were at two of the events, so they know the choreography pretty well.

  The energy from the audience is intense and floods my veins with excitement. I smile and slowly push forward out of the line with the rest of the group and work my way closer to Sara. I turn to face her and pretend to attack her. She smiles and understands my intentions without me speaking. We break our group into two and face off to dance battle.

  We face our groups, create a quick piece, and spin around to face each other, taunting each other with our wild acrobatic hip-hop fighting style dance.

  After a couple minutes of a pretty cool dance “fight”, we get back in line, do another choreographed dance, and then the music fades for Sara to talk to the audience.

  She introduces us by our squad name, Fierce, and then introduces each of us individually by name. They cheer for all of us, and when they quiet down, Sara explains we’re going to teach them our last dance we just performed. They burst into loud cheers again, and all of them start moving to spread out so they have room to dance.

  Sara leads the tutorial, teaching five step segments, slowly building up till we’ve gone through the entire dance. When the majority of soldiers can remember the dance, and can move with us, she calls for the music to be played again, and we do the full dance with most, if not all of the island’s military.

  When the song ends, we clap and cheer along with the military. They did great, and their enthusiasm and happiness are awesome. After a couple minutes, General Hunt joins us on stage, flanked by Airman Sanchez and Airman Cameron.

  He motions for silence and the cheering immediately stops, as if a stereo was just turned off. Its impressive. He thanks us for coming on such short notice and then his eyes meet mine with a challenging smile, before he gives Sara the same look.

  “Part of today’s event is a friendly challenge of strength, endurance, and teamwork between the branches. Teams from each branch will go through a special course we’re calling the ‘Mad Mudder Assault Race’. You proved you have the guts to jump out of a Black Hawk with only an hour’s training. Do you have the guts to go up against some of the toughest men and women in the United States military?”

  Sara and I look at each other with matching big grins and she looks back at General Hunt, and asks, “How many do we get to have on our team?”

  “Four.”

  Sara puckers her lips to the side and looks between all of us. The squad smiles, and as if they can read her mind, they step backwards, leaving us standing forward with Joey and Talia.

  “The family. Wonderful. The branch that wins is receiving a luau, curtesy of the USO. If you happen to beat each branch, the runner up will still receive the luau. What would you like if you win?”

  I smile and step forward some. I glance between Sara and the thousands of men and women of our military.

  “If we win, I’ll pay for all of the branches to have a luau. If you beat us, I’ll still pay for the luau and also give a thousand-dollar bonus to every service member on the island who’s not able to be with their families this holiday.” The entire audience cheers and claps loudly and General Hunt gives me an approving smile and nods once. “I agree to those terms. We’ll see you soon on the course.”

  We follow the general and airmen off the stage and meet our family and my wives at the bottom of the bleachers. I give each of my wives a hug and kiss, and then all of us follow Airman Sanchez and Airman Cameron to the giant obstacle course.

  “You should probably take your top layer shirts off.”

  We follow Airman Sanchez’s advice and unbutton our camo shirts, leaving us in black tee shirts. I hand my shirt to Sam and then I look at my hand with a little sadness, before I take my wedding rings off and also hand them to Sam so I don’t lose them in the mud. I rarely take my rings off and I hate having to do it each time.

  There’s mixed teams of men and women representing the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marines. We meet and shake hands with each of the teams we’re running against and then get in a line, facing a giant mud pit that’s at least ten yards long that we’ll have to crawl through because of a net over top of it. A tall buff Army man explains the rules and each of the parts of the course. A full team must complete the course to win, so not only do we have to be responsible for ourselves, but we have to make sure each member of our team can make it to the finish line.

  A gun shot goes off and all of us quickly jump into the mud and dive under the net. There’s only a few inches between the surface of the mud and the net, so we can barely get on our knees to properly crawl.

  As soon as we get out of the mud, we have to climb a wall made of round wooden poles. Our hands and boots are so slick that it’s hard to stay on the wall. Joey is next to me, just ahead of me, and makes the mistake of wiping his hand on his shirt, which causes him to slip off. I reach over in time to catch him around his ribs, pressing
him back against the wall so he can try to get a grip with his hands, but they’re too slippery. If his hands were bigger and he could actually wrap around the pole, he might be ok.

  “Hang on. Wrap your arms around the pole for a minute.”

  “Ok.”

  I quickly flip my legs up and hook my feet up on one bar, with my shins locked against another. I take a deep breath, lower my torso so I’m upside down, and I grab him under the shoulders. I take another deep breath, and do a full sit up, bearing his full weight and lifting him up so he can grab the rung above my feet. He grabs on tightly to the pole and I do the sit up once more till he’s up above the wall. We reach the top only a few moments after Talia and Sara. We’re not the first team to reach the top, but we’re not the last either.

  The next obstacle requires us to swing on a thick rope from the platform we’re on, to a platform about ten yards away. If we fall, we’ll land in a big muddy pit and have to climb a ladder to get back up here and try again. Talia goes first and gets across without a problem. Sara goes next and then I send Joey. He doesn’t weigh enough to get his body to swing that far and there’s not enough space to get the momentum needed by running and jumping. He ends up falling, but quickly gets out and climbs back up. I have him climb onto the rope and then push him, as if he’s on a swing. He flies through the air, and Sara reaches out and catches him, pulling him up onto the platform.

  We then have to climb down a rope net, walk across a narrow ladder laying over a mud pit, jump over a trench of fire, and leap over a few giant logs. All of which, we finish without any issues. The next one makes Talia hesitate. We have to get back in a giant mud pit and crawl under a net that will give us a small electrical shock if we touch it. It’s just as low to the surface as the net from the first pit, so its guaranteed we’ll be shocked. We tentatively check out how bad the charge is and Talia recoils and looks at me with fear in her eyes.

  “Sara, you got Joey?” She nods and Joey and Sara dive under the net. “Ok, baby sister, you’re going to have to deal with your loser big sister riding your back till we get across.”

  Talia gives me a shy smile and we dive in under the net. She gets as low as she can, but the space is so tight, that I have to stay pressed against the electrical net as we crawl through the mud to the other side. The constant electrical current makes it hard to get my body to move and it almost makes me scream out a few times, but we push through. When we get to the end, I hold the net up with my body and Talia crawls out. I collapse in the mud with my body twitching, but two sets of hands drag me out. I gasp for air as my face comes out of the water and I spasm and jerk a few times. Sara pulls me up to a sitting position and looks in my eyes, wiping water and mud off of my face. She looks really worried.

  “I’m ok. Just give me a few seconds.”

  I take a few deep breaths, and stand up feeling a little shaky. We’re the first team out of the pit, but the others are close behind.

  Our next task is to climb another wall. This one is flat wood boards with small rock climbing nuggets. This time, Joey doesn’t have the slipping problem because the nuggets are small enough for him to get his hands around.

  We get up the wall in no time and then have to walk across a rope bridge with one thick rope to walk on and two to hold with our hands. We get across the bridge without losing anyone into the mud pit below us, then we have to do a course of monkey bars. Talia falls halfway through the course and has to go back to the beginning.

  “Sara, stay there. Joey, get across.”

  I go back half of the distance I’ve already progressed, hook my legs on the bar, and when Talia reaches me, I take her hands, swing her, and upside-down Sara catches her, and Talia propels the rest of the distance to the platform, landing next to Joey. Sara and I quickly flip back and join them. It’s been a long time since we’ve done that, but we used to do that at the park all the time. Other parents hated it because it put ideas in their own kids’ heads.

  Our last obstacle is to climb up a muddy hill that we only have a thick rough rope to hold onto to attempt to gain some traction on the slick slope. Joey and Talia keep falling back down the hill. After the third time sliding down, both of them stand at the bottom panting for air and look completely drained. Sara and I slide down next to them.

  “Can you go any further?” Talia shakes her head. “I don’t have the strength left in my arms.”

  Joey also shakes his head. Sara and I look at each other and turn our backs to them, telling them to hop up.

  Joey climbs up on Sara’s back, and Talia hops up on mine. We grab the end of the ropes, wrapping them behind our backs like when we rappelled from the helicopter, and we slowly make our way up the hill.

  We make it to the top at the same time as two other teams and immediately shoot down the slick plastic sheeting on our backs like a slide. We take off running as fast as we can as soon as we hit the bottom. We have a two-hundred-yard sprint and we’re neck and neck with several people for half of the distance. Seeing the finish line, spurs us along faster and we break into an impossibly fast pace and fly over the finish line, at least three feet before the next team.

  A loud horn blows and the thousands of people watching along the sidelines of the course erupt in loud cheers and applause. We stop and wrap our arms around each other, laughing and panting for air.

  We’re pulled up onto a platform with General Hunt and he announces our victory and the runner up. He congratulates us on our incredible teamwork and endurance and comments on some highlights from the other teams. I motion to him that I want to ask him something, so he covers the microphone and leans in so I can whisper to him. He nods once and smiles.

  “Today’s victor has proposed a challenge to be able to award the holiday gift bonuses. Soldiers and Airmen, if you want your gift bonus, you have to attempt the course.”

  Everyone cheers and starts moving towards the starting line. I’m completely exhausted, but their enthusiasm gives me a burst of energy, and I release a small happy laugh. We climb down off of the platform and Airman Sanchez and Airman Cameron offer us towels and bottles of water, before leading us back to our waiting group.

  We’re completely covered in mud, so no one wants to give us hugs, but they’re all smiling and rave about how awesome we looked and how impressed they are with all of us. Joey and Talia get really excited when they realize that my wives and dad recorded the entire race.

  “Excuse me, Kayla?” I turn to face the two USO guys who had asked me to come here today. “We just want to talk to you about the promises you made to the troops today.”

  “Sure, what’s up?”

  “There’s nearly fifty thousand military personnel stationed on the islands. To be able to put on a luau for that many people will probably be over a million dollars. We need to know if you’ll actually be willing to cover that or if we’re going to have to race to do fundraising and damage control to cover it.”

  “Do I really seem like the kind of person who makes a promise without fully understanding the gravity of it? When were you planning on giving the luau?”

  “My apologies. We didn’t mean any offense. It’s not uncommon for big promises to be made to our military and then they fall through. Our plans are set for Thanksgiving.”

  “Ok, before we leave, we’ll talk numbers, agree on a budget, and we’ll make the arrangements for the funds. We also need to know how we can award the holiday bonuses.”

  “Ok, thank you. Our team will work on the numbers and plans and then we’ll be in touch so we can make this happen. We really appreciate all of you coming today and for what you’re doing for the troops. They may be stationed in paradise, but it’s still easy for them to become depressed or feel forgotten while they’re away from home and their families. All of you really helped lift their spirits. If you’re ready, we can have you brought back to the base to get cleaned up and changed and then we can bring you back to the house.”

  When we get back to the base, we shower off, trying to
get as much of the mud off as possible, but we’ll have to shower again at home with soap and shampoo.

  “Shit, Kayla.” I turn around as I’m about to put my shirt on, and Symone and Keira come over looking at my back. “What? What’s wrong?”

  “Your back looks like someone whipped the shit out of you. That electrical netting left a lot of burns on your back. Does it hurt?” Symone gently traces her fingertips over my back, sending shivers down my spine. “No, it doesn’t hurt at all. Is it really bad?”

  “I don’t know. You should have your mom look at it. It’s pretty red, but it may just look worse than it is.”

  “Sara, come here.”

  Keira lifts Sara’s shirt and looks at her back. She only has a couple small burn marks. Keira smiles and kisses Sara’s lips for a moment.

  “I’m sorry you got electrocuted so much for me.” I smile and give Talia a small hug. “It’s fine. Thanks for doing this with us today. I’ve always wanted to jump out of a helicopter and do one of those boot camp style courses. It was fun doing it with all of you. Did you have fun at all?”

  “Yeah, it was a lot of fun. Especially when we beat all of those badass military people.”

  “Any chance you’ll want to dance with us again?” Talia turns to look at Sara and shrugs a shoulder with a smile. “Maybe, but I’m not giving up science like Kayla did. I had fun, but I’m not in love with it like you guys are.”

  When we get back to the family, our parents pull my siblings and I into a tight family hug and kiss us on our foreheads. They tell us how proud they are of all of us, and Talia and Joey just glow with happiness.

  After they carry on for a few minutes about their favorite moments, Talia spins me around and rips my shirt up, asking our mom to look at my back and fix me. With Awenasa and Shannon at her side, they look at my burns and discuss what they should do for them. My mom lowers my shirt, so I turn to face them. She smiles and kisses my forehead.