Buck Vs. the Bulldog Ants
Page 40
CHAPTER THIRTY TWO
John was the first to arrive. It’s a rock solid fact that since the time of the cavemen that women take longer to get ready than men. But lo, Marlene was only a minute behind.
He refilled the glasses and we headed to the classroom.
“Buck, do APPLE one more time.” I did. “Repetitive exercises are a must, even for humans. It is called practice makes perfect. Ok, now we’ll try a new word.” She held one of the small cards from the plastic box. It had a picture of an egg on it. I barked once. “He’s telling me with one bark that he knows what it is, isn’t that incredible?”
“Mmm, not really, it’s Buck you’re talking about here.” He is truly CEO material, I thought.
Without her saying another word, I tapped the E and the G shape twice.
John rose from his chair and said he’d be right back. He reappeared with a paper towel in hand, and had used a Sharpie to create his own word. He held it up and I saw the four shapes.
I tapped the B, then the U shape, then C, and the last was a K.
Marlene laughed, as did John. “You know what you just did Buck?” I looked at Cassie and she was grinning so wide that her eyes were shut.
“You typed your own name. You typed BUCK.”
“Well I’ll be damn,” I thought.
John let Cassie and me out of the house and told us to go play for a while, and we made the most of it by sitting on the asphalt and played patty cake.
“So are you ready for Stage Three?” John had returned to the bar stool next to Marlene’s.
“Which is?”
“That we sit and talk for a while.”
“Sure, looking forward to it.”
“I’m going to learn more about Marlene if it kills me, and I hope the wine helps. I’m going to offer a choice among three things that will require you to say more than just a yes or no. You ready?”
“Since you’re driving, I’ll have another.”
While John poured, he said, “Here’s the three options, you decide where to start. One, where have you lived that you enjoyed living there the most. Two, if you had a million dollars, what would you do with it, and Three, If you could live your life over again what would you change?”
“Oh, let’s see, I really did enjoy Germany. I hated Saudi Arabia. It would be West Virginia or Virginia, but not Texas. I have lived in all of them. Mmmm, I guess West Virginia. I’m kind of a mountain girl at heart. I love America, John. I wouldn’t trade any other place in the world for this country.”
“What was so bad about Saudi Arabia?”
She laughed and said, “It’s a flippin’ desert. We, I mean Robert and I, were stationed in the middle of that God forsaken place just before Desert Shield. They, I mean the Third Army, put us up in the Eskan Village just south of Riyadh. I was pregnant with Charles while in Germany, so they gave me the option of returning to the States or go to Arabia. They wanted me to set up a Westernized child care in the village for the Saudi children. John, the Saudis had constructed hundreds of dwelling units in an attempt to persuade the Bedouins, you know, the camel jockeys, to better their lives. They refused, preferring the sand to the bricks and mortar. So there were hundreds of empty units, high rises and villas. We were among the first to arrive, but later they filled up with Coalition forces when it looked like a confrontation with Hussein was inevitable. I hated it there John.”
“Had you been trained in child care work?”
Marlene laughed. “Of course not. We’re talking the US government here. I did the best I could.”
“Wasn’t it the American presence in Saudi territory the reason Bin Laden went berserk?”
“Yes, he went off the chain, as they say. Not only him, but the nationals there were not friendly to us at all, generally speaking. Some of them were friendly. I did make some friends, the parents, among the Saudis. But it was touch and go. If we wanted to go to a pub or go shopping it was dangerous, especially after dark. They don’t like Americans, especially American women who have blonde hair. I wore a head scarf when I went out. I’m sure you know the Asians do not treat men and women equally.”
John topped off both of their glasses. “And then Desert Storm hit. How was Robert killed, unless you’d rather not talk about that?”
“It was a land mine. We had just started using canines in the field but there were not enough to go around. Robert was blown to bits. There was no way for me to recognize him. He was in pieces. You’d think they’d have given him a dog since he was walking the point. I was still living in the Village when Robert shipped out to Iraq. When the two soldiers knocked on my door, I knew. Of course I was crushed. His death made it mandatory for me to ship out and return to the States.”
“Did it make you bitter that he wasn’t provided a dog?”
“I wouldn’t say bitter. We were soldiers. We knew it could happen. When he left for Iraq I knew I might not see him ever again.”
“So it was back to Virginia after that?”
“Yes, I was given leave for a while and I raised Charles in the civilian way. But during that time I received training to work for the K-9 Ops and I loved it. So that’s how I got involved with the canines and it’s what I still do.”
“This may be none of my business, but did Uncle provide you with a settlement after Robert’s death?”
“That’s a long story John. And yes, if I have any bitterness it is about that. And I don’t want to talk about it really.”
“Grab a light jacket, it’s on to Stage Four.”
“Latrine call first and foremost,” Marlene said laughing.