John Ringo: Manxome Foe

“You will, Mom,” Eric said, somberly. “Someday. Trust me. But right now it’s all classified and I really can’t talk about it.”

“Do you enjoy what you do?” Brooke asked, frowning.

“That’s… a good question,” Eric admitted. “There are parts of it I like a lot. And there are parts that scare me spitless. Sometimes they’re the same parts, but not usually.”

“He told me that the reason he got that medal was because he was one of only five survivors of his last mission,” Josh said.

“Oh thank you very much for saying that in public, Brother!” Eric snapped.

“What?” Mrs. Bergstresser said. “You’re joking !”

“We need to change the subject,” Mr. Bergstresser said. “Right now . And, Josh, when we get home we’re going to have a little talk .”

“When I was in boats the guys were real practical jokers,” Mr. Pierson said, smiling in fond remembrance. “Is it still that way? Or have they cut the heart and soul out of the whole service?”

“What, like stealing the XO’s door, sir?” Eric said, grinning. “No, sir, it’s pretty much the same. One time we got one of the sergeants going really bad over… Never mind.”

“Do all your conversations cut off like that?” Brooke asked.

“Yeah, pretty much,” Eric admitted ruefully. His eyes darkened for a moment. “Okay, yeah, we took a lot of casualties on the last mission. But I made it and I’ll make it the next time. I’ll be fine, Mom.”

“You must be very brave,” Brooke said. Eric couldn’t figure out if it was a good thing or bad her voice was so neutral.

“I just have a job to do,” Eric said, shrugging. “Somebody has to do it and I’m pretty good at it.”

“Do you still get into science fiction?” Mr. Pierson asked. “I recall you used to read quite a bit of it.”

Every day, Eric thought. In mission reports, after action reviews… “ Not so much anymore,” he replied. “I do a bit of reading on cruises.”

“Not much else for the Marines to do, I suppose,” Mr. Pierson said, nodding. “Did you get anywhere interesting?”

You wouldn’t believe, Eric thought again, trying not to snort. But the smile was evident.

“That interesting, huh?” Mr. Pierson said. “And you can’t talk about it. Sorry.”

“No, sir,” Eric said. “Look, the missions we do are classified. Where we go is classified. I can say that we get there in a submarine. But we don’t do many shore leaves, sir.”

“I understand,” Mr. Pierson said. “And I was the one trying to change the subject.”

“I’ve got a change of subject,” Brooke interjected. “What are we doing after dinner? I was wondering if we were going to the movies.”

It was a bit of a tradition in small southern towns. Go to church. Have dinner. Go to a movie. In many cases you’d see the same faces all day long.

“I’ve got to go to the Halverson’s this afternoon,” Mr. Pierson said. “But the rest of you can do whatever you’d like.”

“I could see a movie,” Josh said.

“You’ve got homework,” Mrs. Bergstresser said.

“So do Linda and Hector.” Mrs. Pierson looked at her younger two children. “Brooke, I don’t want you going to the movies alone…”

It was a set-up. He should have seen it coming. On the other hand… He could live. Hell, it wasn’t like fighting crabpus.

“I didn’t mean to set you up that way,” Brooke said as they got in the truck. “Mom had said we were probably going to the movies after dinner.”

“I didn’t think you did,” Eric replied, starting up. He couldn’t look at her, though. “What do you want to listen to?”

“What you were listening to before,” Brooke said. “It sounded sort of like Evanescence.”

“Similar,” Eric admitted, unbuttoning his collar. “I seriously don’t mind taking you to the movies. But I’ll admit I was looking forward to getting this damned uniform off.”

“You can take the time to change,” Brooke said, doubt in her voice. “But… It looks really good on you.”

“I’ll wear it,” Eric said, looking over at her finally. “If you want, I’ll be glad to.”

“Please,” Brooke said. “What do you want to see?”

“Let’s just find out what’s playing.”

There wasn’t anything either of them wanted to see playing for a couple of hours so they found a Starbucks in Beckley and sat and talked. Well, mostly Brooke talked. Eric couldn’t for the life of him recall what they talked about but they talked, a lot. They talked in the café then drove back to the movie theater but by almost unspoken agreement didn’t even go in. They just sat in the truck, listened to Eric’s playlists and talked some more. Brooke was hoping to go to medical school, or maybe vet’s school, she wasn’t sure. Eric admitted to a desire to be a career Marine but didn’t say much more than that about his future plans.

Finally, as the sky darkened the talk wound down.

“You haven’t been saying much,” Brooke admitted. “Usually I just sit there and listen as the guy I’m on a date with drones on about his latest interest. I do admit that I like your music taste, though.”

“There’s not much for me to talk about,” Eric admitted.

“Or not much you can talk about,” Brooke said. “But I can tell you’re thinking something.”

“I’m thinking that this was a really stupid thing to do,” Eric said, then grimaced. “ Maulk , did I actually say that? I’m sorry…”

“Fine, you don’t want to spend time with me… !” Brooke said angrily.

“It’s not that,” Eric said, grabbing her hand as she started to climb out of the truck.

“Let go of me!”

“Can I just please explain?” Eric asked. “Please.”

“Fine,” Brooke said. “Explain. If you can.”

“If I should,” Eric said, looking past her even if his eyes were pointed in her direction. “I’ve never had a better time with anyone in my life. I really like you. Probably too much, Brooke. But what Josh said was true. What I do is… It’s really dangerous. And I can’t even explain why. All I can say is that one of these days you’re probably going to hear that I’ve died. That’s all you’ll know, just like all my parents know about my medal is that I got it doing ‘classified actions.’ ”

He finally looked her in the eyes and felt like crying.

“I really like you, Brooke. But I hope you don’t feel anything near like what I feel. Because one of these days I’m probably going to just be gone .”

“ Nothing can be that dangerous,” Brooke said, looking as if she was going to start crying. “You’ll be okay.”

“Seven out of eight,” Eric said. “That’s how many guys died on the last mission among the Marines. Seven out of eight. One of the guys who debriefed us admitted that he couldn’t figure out how any group wouldn’t mutiny with those sort of casualties. We didn’t take them all in one shot; we got hammered over and over again. And we kept going back for more. There were a couple of points where it looked as if nobody was going to make it back to Ear—”

“Back to Earth,” Brooke said, her eyes widening. “You were going through the Looking Glasses? Were you going to Dreen planets? Is that why it was so—”

“Look, I didn’t say that, okay?” Eric said. “Please please don’t repeat that. But, yeah, I was off-planet. And I’m going back. And it’s probably going to be bad. My unit’s job is to… poke. To poke to find out what’s there. And it’s generally hard and bad and nasty. And, yeah, a lot of it is interesting as hell and a lot of it is terrifying. And there’s a good chance I won’t come back. I’m not going to lay that on you. I’d love to say that I want to be with you, always. But I can’t put that on anybody. Not with my chances of coming back. That’s why I said I think this afternoon was a very bad idea. Had a great time; probably was a bad idea.”