by MJ Sparks
Chapter 1
For a while it seemed as if they were driving into the dark depths of an abyss. The road appeared to have no signs of life nor light as they continued into pitch blackness while Torian stared blankly out of the window of the bus she’d boarded from the airport. The day had been extremely long having left MEPS in Atlanta and flying to San Antonio by way of a layover in Chicago. When they handed her the tickets back at Hartsfield, she wore a face that perfectly illustrated the frustration she felt having to take an additional flight, seeing as how she was already nervous about flying for the first time anyway. Of course with no other choice she’d sucked it up, because there she was in San Antonio, Texas, despite her grievance with what she’d considered geographic illogic. She figured it to be at least after midnight as the exhausted brakes of the bus hollered and screeched as it slowed to a complete stop in front of a three story building. Despite being afflicted with sleepiness, she opened her tired eyes as wide as she could, attempting to take in as much as she could of her new surroundings as the bus’s remaining occupants were prompted to exit.
As she hit the ground, she and all the other girls, around eight of them, all different races, ethnicities, were instructed to file into a line. From their appearance they all looked to be teens like she was. They’d lined up under the awning of an aged tan building where the raptors were the home of several pigeons that incessantly squawked and dropped packages consistently on those who walked or stood below.
With slow and heavy feet, a man small in stature, paced back and forth down the line watching them all with a hungry set of eyes. His look in Torian’s opinion, was reminiscent of a lion or wolf circling its prey. As he went down the line, he, himself was completely silent, save for the taps on the bottom of his black boots that made an incredulous click-clack sound with each and every stride he took against the cement.
Torian studied him back. Her recruiter had warned her about Training Instructors (TI’s) and their M.O.’s. They yelled and screamed harshly in your face and would go as far as calling you everything but four letter words, but coming from where Tori had come from, that sounded like Disneyland. On an average day at home, her mama did all that and twice more. So bring it on she thought snug in the shelter of her own mind.
When he finally broke his silence, his voice boomed like he had a megaphone glued to his lips, “YOU MAGGOTS WILL MAKE IT IN MY AIR FORCE!”
A smug eye roll was all Torian managed to give as she prepared to listen to the show of him yelling at everyone. Starting from the right side of the line, he did just that, but it wasn’t just yelling, whenever possible he did his best to make a spectacle out of each girl. Spectacle number one had two huge suitcases at her side, making her an easy and obvious target. With very little space between his own face and hers he yelled, “You freakin’ dummy did you pack your whole life up to come to basic training.”
The nervous girl mumbled a response that wasn't audible to Torian, but the T.I.'s voice was loud and clear. "Pick up the suitcases", he yelled! With Torian's eyes straight ahead she couldn't see if the girl complied, but obviously she had because the command for her to put them down came shortly afterwards. And the sound of the bags hitting the ground played over and over again, as the T.I. told her to pick them up and put them down over and over again.
After tiring of humiliating spectacle number one, he moved down the line, but insisted that the game of pick up and put down continue. Torian coolly maintained indifference throughout it all, but out of her peripheral, she could see that the girl to her right was nowhere near the serene space she’d mentally placed herself in. She was literally shaking with fright.
The TI captured her attention again as he moved down the line and found his next victim smacking on a wad of bubblicious.
"Is that gum in your mouth", he shouted.
After feebly answering yes, her penance was to make him the biggest bubble that she possibly could. Satisfied with the big watermelon scented bubble sitting in front of her face, the T.I. moved on in search of his next victim, but not before popping back in front of the bubblegum face girl and threatening, “If that bubble pops, I’m sending you home!”
The other girls had it relatively easy and it seemed that theatrics were over, until he made it down to the girl, just to the right of Torian. Her purse and the shaky arm that it hung stood out like a sore thumb. Before speaking, he scanned her from top to bottom. And naturally the T.I.’s eyes directly on the girl, made her poor arm and purse rattle and shake even harder. His eyes rolling incredulously, he asked, “Why in the hell do you have that purse on your arm?”
The nervous girl struggled to say, “I—I- don’t know sir.”
He close to her face and shouted, “I know why! Because you are a freaking idiot! You!” he said, with a finger pointed at Torian, “Look at her and tell her she is a freaking idiot!”
Torian had more or less disconnected herself from the show, so when he pointed at her, she found herself, both stunned and tickled. She looked over at the girl as instructed and caught a glimpse of the girl picking up the suitcases and putting down the suitcases, the girl with the huge bubble protruding from her face and she could still feel the tension in the arm of the girl next to her gripping the hell of her purse, as if she’d robbed a bank and it was filled with unmarked funds. It was like a ‘Saturday Night Live’ skit was unfolding before her eyes. She was prepared for the yelling, she was even prepared to be a tad bit intimidated, but she was not prepared to have her funny bone stroked. It was one of the funniest things she’d ever witnessed.
As she struggled to keep her composure, the impatient TI reiterated, “I said-- Look at her and say you are an idiot!”
She turned her head and faced the cheek of the girl to her right and mumbled hesitantly, “You---are an idiot.” Soon as the words left her mouth, the urge to laugh came right afterwards. She was battling the hell out of her facial muscles and it was both painful and futile because she could literally feel the back of her lips sliding up against her teeth in protest. The involuntary dopey grin of course became her object of humiliation.
The T.I. took his attention off of the bag lady and honed in on Torian. “What are you grinning about stupid?"
Torian refused to answer because if anything was gonna escape her lips it wasn't gonna be words, it was gonna be straight up laughter.
The T.I.’s face frowned with confusion. “Are you too stupid to answer or something?”
Sobering as his question should have been; to Torian it was just more comedy and her grin not only remained, but widened.
“Wipe that stupid smirk off of your face, now!” And when her cheeks didn’t move, he hastily reiterated, “NOW!”
Tori really wanted to adhere, but she just couldn’t. She was just too tickled and her face couldn’t show anything else besides that. The T.I. snapped, "Alright, this is what we're gonna do, everyone else inside. Chuckles, you stay right here!”
The other girls did as he yelled and fled out of her view. Torian thought to herself, what the hell have I gotten myself into? Here she was not even a week out of high school, states away from home, on a military base with a strange man yelling obscenities at her.
“You know what Chuckles, I’m putting you back on that bus. Go home and laugh with your mama.”
His threat was definitely sobering to any and all humor she felt. Home and to mama was not where she wanted to be. Home was a single wide trailer in a single traffic light town, where the local cemetery laid to rest not only bodies, but the dreams and goals of anyone who remained there. And as far as her "dear mother" was concerned, the last words she’d shared with her weeks before leaving had been that she wasn't shit and was never going to be shit. So going back there was not an option.
The T.I. pulled her from her thoughts asking, “You got that stupid smile on your face! Do you think this is a joke? Huh?”
Torian stood silently, unsure if he wanted an answer. While she deliberated, he issued another: “Why are you here?!”
Torian finally spoke and answered, “Because freedom isn’t free and I want to serve my country!”
“Bullshit”, he yelled only centimeters from her face where his airborne saliva didn’t have to travel far to reach her skin. “What, did you read that off of a freaking t-shirt?” And more liquid flew from between his teeth and lips as he made the f sound.
While thoroughly disgusted by the assault of his bodily fluids, she reflected on his question and remembered that the truth was she actually did read it off a t-shirt; her recruiter’s shirt as he dropped her off at MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station) in Atlanta; that and three numbers 3 2 1 followed by the three letters T R S, she vividly recalled.
Again he yelled with phonetic and dramatic pauses in between his words, “WHY…ARE…YOU HERE!”
Torian thought for a second. That answer was simple. She’d signed up for the Air Force weeks before she even graduated high school after a visit from an Army recruiter. With him, was a boy Torian knew all of her life. His family like hers didn’t have anything and he himself was of course expected to walk that same path to nothingness, but there he stood proudly in his uniform looking like someone’s something. Torian questioned him about the Army and he recommended that she do the smart thing he should have done and go into the Air Force. So that was what she set her mind on.
Wiping streaming tears away from her once emotionless face, she finally answered “For a better life.”
And with those words, her journey into the Air Force began.
Author’s Note
Thanks for your time and purchase I hope that you’ve enjoyed. And now that you’ve met all of the girls and gone through Basic Training, skip ahead and find out what juicy drama awaits you in the full rerelease, available now.
