“Come on kids. Time for Bed.” David said as he made his way down the short hallway.
From inside the room at the end of the hall, he could hear the sounds of disappointment and video games. David Kapera leaned into the room which had once belonged to his wife when they were dating and peered at the two young boys with controllers in their hands.
“Danny, switch it off,” David said, his voice trying not to be stern. “It’s 9:20.”
Danny didn’t look up, but Darryl was quick to move as if he would put his controller away. Of course, he would wait for his older brother to plead his cause before committing to go to bed, but that was what four-year-olds do these days. Danny, in the few seconds that David had paused to reflect, had failed to even react to his father’s statement. David reached behind the old entertainment system and flicked off the power strip. Danny promptly threw his controller down.
“I didn’t get to save it! You always do this!” Danny yelled as he threw himself on the bottom bunk of his bunk bed.
“Then you should know better than to ignore me, Danny boy! You’d better be lucky I don’t wear your ass out. Who paid for that $300 Xbox controller you threw on the floor?”
Danny remained silently where he had lept. Darryl stood transfixed with his controller still in his hands. With a sigh, David let it go. He forced a smile and picked up his youngest son, placing him on the top bunk. Darryl crawled beneath his covers while he placed both controllers back on their charger. When he returned to the side of the bunk bed, both of his sons were under their covers.
“Dad, when can we move back to Fort Bragg?” Darryl asked.
“Here in a couple years. Dad’s got to finish his degree and get hired on as a contractor.” David replied, tucking the covers around his youngest.
“Why can’t you just go back into the Army?”
David gritted his teeth slightly at this. After taking a breath, he replied.
“The Army isn’t hiring veterans right now. They are only asking for high school and college students to join.”
“Can I join the Army?”
“I would rather you went to the Air Force.”
Danny thought about this for a moment.
“I’m going to join the Army and jump out of airplanes like you when I get old enough.”
Danny huffed underneath his covers, but David ignored it.
“Alright, Darryl. You boys get some sleep. Your Dad has to work twelve hours tonight so I won’t see you until around lunchtime.”
“Goodnight Dad.”
“Goodnight, Dan. Goodnight, Darryl.”
David switched off the light and made his way down the hallway, through the foyer, and into the kitchen. Gisele stood in front of the stove silently watching as the chicken tenders slowly browned. She had gained a lot of weight since the last time they had stayed here, but her curves were in all the right places. David sidled up and put his arms around her.
“Not now, David, my Mom and Dad are in the living room.” She said.
This was actually code for ‘I am upset about something that we can’t fix but I’m going to complain about it anyway.’ David, being shaken from his affectionate mood, prepared himself by grabbing his thermos and filling it with coffee from the pot.
“I can’t stand it here! My parents are driving me crazy. You still haven’t gotten a job at the Hyundai plant in Montgomery. We’ve got the water bill. We’ve got our half of the electric bill coming up in a couple weeks. We need groceries.” Gisele whispered.
“What do you want me to do? Take the job at that shitty plant in Clanton? I could always go back to the Army.”
“And do what? They aren’t looking for a burned out infantry specialist. Hell, they aren’t looking for anyone who has any prior service at all.”
“I could go Special Forces.”
“Special Forces? I don’t think the Special Forces are looking for a black Paul Blart.”
Again David gritted his teeth and held back his next statement. He had always felt that it was a mistake to leave the 82nd, but Gisele couldn’t stand him constantly being deployed. It didn’t help that his temper had kept him from getting promoted. Part of it was blamed on the PTSD from back to back deployments, but his therapy sessions had told him that he had always had anger issues.
“Look, David. I’m sorry. Mom got me worked up earlier, and it’s like we are always waiting for a bailout by Friday,” Gisele relented.
“I know. I have a few more semesters to go and then I can get a supervisory position with Guardspointe, Inc. After then I can apply for Boeing or Lockheed Martin or any one of the numerous contractor positions in the Fayetteville area. It’s just going to take some time.”
“I just wish the position in Minneapolis didn’t go away. We had such a great time there.”
David smiled. It was only for a couple years, but when the contract was not renewed, they had to live off of their savings until they were forced to move in with Gisele’s parents.
“Your suit and tie are on the ironing board. Your lunch will be ready in a couple minutes.”
“Thank you, Baby.”
Gisele leaned over to give him a kiss. She smelled of her fruity Bath and Body Works body wash. The kind that smells like all the rest, yet he had to help her pick out regardless. Maybe this weekend, he wondered, I could take an extra shift and treat everyone to a day trip. Break the funk for a bit. The boys definitely needed to get out of the house for a day. Even Sunday afternoon, when church let out.
James C Gilliam 